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In her bio on Linked-In, Susan Nsibirwa, the newly appointed managing director of Monitor Publications Limited describes herself as “an avid team player who believes in bringing out the best in everyone.”
When she embarks on this new journey in January 3, 2024, she will have to fully summon this belief in the hope that revives an institution currently buffeted by a myriad of challenges.
Nsibirwa was part of a cohort of young journalism graduates who joined Daily Monitor in 1992. Others in the group included Linda Nabusaayi, the former presidential press secretary and Laura Mulenga. Her beat was largely entertainment reporting.
Yet the Monitor she was part of as a young budding journalist, is markedly different to the one she will lead.
For starters, it has grown into a multi-media organization from a single newspaper organization. Yet like all other traditional media organizations in the country, Daily Monitor currently faces a series of challenges from falling circulation numbers to dwindling advertisers to the growing influence of social media platforms, which all have undercut its influence.
How she will navigate this storm and restore Monitor to a position of influence it once occupied will largely determine her legacy as managing director.
But how did she get there?
The media has been part and parcel of Nsibirwa’s professional life. She started out as an intern at the defunct Weekly Paper in the late 1980s which was managed by Wafula Oguttu. When Oguttu and senior staff members like Charles Onyango Obbo, Kevin Aliro, David Balikoowa and others left to found Daily Monitor, she joined them.
But she did not stay there for long having been bitten by the marketing bug. Between 2002 and 2005, she worked as Advertising/Brand Manager at MTN Uganda. She later became of Marketing at Microfinance Limited, a position she worked in for one year.
She was then tapped by DFCU Bank in 2006 to become its Head of Marketing. After three years in the bank, she left and founded Weaver Options, a marketing consultancy. She became managing partner.
Nine months later, Vision Group came calling. She was appointed Head of Marketing and Communications at the industrial area based media group a position she occupied from 2011 to 2019.
In 2019, she went back to being a marketing consultant at Urge Uganda.
Three years in 2022, she joined Ayiva Consulting Solutions as managing director. It is from here that Daily Monitor tapped her.
Nsibirwa has become the first female to lead a multi-media organisation in Uganda.
She also serves on several boards including being board chair of the African Media Centre for Excellence (ACME).
“My most important future contribution to others is my time, resources and experiences. Conceptualizing ideas and solutions brings out the best in me. I am Christian who believes that as a great African, I can influence transformation on our great continent and beyond. I am a Faith Driven Entrepreneur,” Nsibirwa writes in her bio.
She will need a lot of faith in her new role.