Why do newspapers repeat stories online?

At 7:30pm on November 13 Kenya’s mainstream news websites formatted their stories in a manner that ranked them on hand-held devices as follows:

THE STAR

1. “I’ll drive youth to profitable farming – CS Linturi”
2. “Keep off footbridges! Sakaja tells street families, hawkers”
3. “Body found dumped in Machakos had missing parts – police”
4. “CS Owalo meets Luo elders for consultative meeting”
5. “Kenyan urban farming champion wins top BBC food award”
6. “Star survey: Win Sh15,000 gift voucher from Naivas”
7. “Nominate your Person of The Year – 2022”

Then, suddenly, under the title, “Latest,” the second story about Sakaja was reposted as eighth. The first story about Linturi was reposted as tenth. The fourth story about Owalo was reposted as 12^th. And the third story about a body dumped in Machakos was reposted as 16^th.

DAILY NATION

1. “Ruto’s new plot to lure Raila’s MPs”
2. “Gachagua to Haji: Free all those framed by Uhuru”

If you continued scrolling, you’d come to the title, “Latest,” and find both stories reposted there.

THE STANDARD

• “Sakaja bans hawking on Nairobi’s footbridges”
• “Mombasa residents thwart police attempts to evict woman from her home”

Scrolling down you would come to “Trending Now,” and find both stories re-posted.

But for The Standard, that wasn’t’ enough. Further scrolling would bring you to “Latest.” And you would find both posted for the third time!

So, what is the problem? If the news houses are doing this by design, they should rethink it.

First, online readers, particular on hand-held devices like the mobile phones, are not exactly a captive audience. You have less than five seconds to grab their attention. Do you want to waste those five seconds repeating stuff? They’ll move on.

Second, this is prime space. Why do you want to waste it with repetitions?

Do you want readers to go straight to “Latest?” For starters, everything above the fold is assumed, by default, to be “latest.” If a demarcation is required, why not do that clearly in the menu?

But if this repetition is unintended error, techies should figure it out. And fix it.