Tom Gitaa, a Kenyan in the US, has built a name for himself in America after starting the longest-running African-owned newspaper in Minnesota.
He is the founder, president, and publisher of Mshale, a newspaper for and about African immigrants in Minnesota.
Born in Mombasa in 1969, Gitaa attended Sacred Heart Primary School in Mombasa before joining a Mombasa-based school for his secondary education.
While his dream was to join the University of Nairobi for his higher-level education, things went against his wish, and he found himself applying to join the University of Minnesota.
His wish to advance his studies in the United States was successful and ended up graduating with a business degree from Metropolitan State University in St. Paul.
So, how did he end up in the US?
Speaking on the Chams Media’s Daring Abroad program, Gitaa revealed he went to the US as an international student on a student visa.
Why you might win US DV Lottery and fail to move to America
“I came as an international student on a student F1 visa like many international students. Then I finished college with a bachelor’s in arts and business management, and then I started working in corporate America,” he says.
Gitaa had a chance to stick around the United States after graduation when he was unexpectedly granted a diversity visa, paving the way for permanent residence status and, ultimately, citizenship.
He worked in several retail companies before launching the Mshale newspaper, which publishes political, entertainment, and sports news.
His decision to venture into the news business came at a time when African immigrants had few means to access information about the latest happenings in their home countries.
“In the early ’90s we didn’t have broadband space. All of the African media that you see online nowadays were never online, so there was a gap in terms of information. So there used to be a joke that if you don’t see your country in the news or which means BBC and CNN that means everything is okay back home because they’ll only report when something bad was happening,” he recalls.
“I wanted to report on what other positive things and challenges, of course, that are happening back home that people are not getting, so that’s how I started Mshale,” he added.
The newspaper took some time to grow before it started relying on advertisements for revenue.
“It was a bit scary,” Gitaa said. “But surprisingly, we got more readers and more advertisers.”
At a time when print media is dying, Gitaa maintains there is still demand for newspapers, especially among old people.
The entrepreneur believes that to succeed in the media business, one needs to understand customers as well as the problem being solved.
