New Vision

The New Vision is a Ugandan English-language daily newspaper. It was established in its current form in 1986 by the Government of Uganda, which holds a majority of its stock. It is the flagship newspaper of the state-owned Vision Group, a multimedia conglomerate, and has the largest circulation among English-language newspapers in Uganda.

In the colonial era, its predecessor, the Uganda Argus, was founded in 1955 as a British colonial government publication.²

Following Uganda's independence in 1962, the government of President Milton Obote retained the Uganda Argus as its official paper. After the 1971 coup, the government of Idi Amin renamed the paper the Voice of Uganda. When Amin was overthrown in 1979, the succeeding government named it the Uganda Times. When the National Resistance Movement (NRM) came to power in 1986, the publication was rebranded as the New Vision. Throughout its history under various names, the newspaper has consistently been the official media organ of the government in power.³

It is published by the New Vision Printing & Publishing Company Limited, which trades on the Uganda Securities Exchange under the symbol NVL and operates as the Vision Group.⁴ The Government of Uganda is the majority shareholder, holding 53.3% of the company's shares.⁵

William Pike was managing director of New Vision 1986-2006, and was credited with maintaining a degree of editorial importance despite government ownership. He resigned in October 2006 amid reports of government pressure.⁶

In 2007 Robert Kabushenga, described as a Ugandan government spokesman ⁶ was appointed as CEO. He resigned in January 2021 with suggestions of government pressure.⁷ In May 2021, Don Wanyama was appointed as the new Managing Director and CEO of Vision Group.⁸

Barbara Kaija was Editor-in-Chief of the New Vision from 2010 until 2026; she will be succeeded by Sidney Miria Babanga in June 2026.¹

In the last quarter of 2019, the largest newspaper circulation in Uganda was Vision Group's Luganda-language daily Bukedde with circulation of 33,289 print copies. New Vision had a circulation of 23,636 copies, and the Daily Monitor had a circulation of 16,169 copies. ⁹

New Vision posted a loss of USh 856.9 million in the last 6 months of 2025, the third year of losses in a row. Chief Executive Don Wanyama attributed this to "media newspaper sales and advertising revenue spend across the different platforms that is still recovering coupled with the increase in prices of raw material inputs and other operational costs."¹⁰