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Last week saw the launch of a new website by the Nigerian Compass newspaper. Though there’s no major difference in appearance between this new site and their older offering, the new one looks cleaner and less clustered.
The newspaper touts a 64 language translation as one of the unique selling points of what it calls it’s “repackaged” website.
It has become a tradition of sorts for most Nigerian newspapers to avoid identifying individuals involved in political scandals that are first exposed by Nigerian News sites by name, especially when such individuals are regarded as powerful. This might be due to a fear of libel lawsuits on the part of the newspapers. The sites (such as Saharareporters & Elendureports) are bolder in this regard probably because they are based outside Nigeria.
There are however exceptions to this ‘tradition’ and on Tuesday, 6th October, Azu Ishiekwene , The Punch columnist & Executive Editor, ended his column (read in full here) by calling out Tony Eluemunor (James Ibori’s media man) on a “curious silence” to his principal’s criminal convictions in the early 90s when he replied to Azu’s earlier article on Ibori’s links to allegations of criminal conduct. This conviction had been reported by Saharareporters a few months back.
Later on Tuesday, Saharareporters did a follow-up by publishing documents relating to the said convictions.
By Wednesday, 7th October, as if taking a cue, NEXT newspaper published the full details of Ibori’s conviction on it’s frontpage. The first mainstream Nigerian newspaper to do so.
Is this collaboration between print and online news outlets a sign of things to come?
(FYI: James Ibori is a Nigerian politician, former 2 term governor of Delta State and the major financier of the current President’s election campaign in 2007. He has been referred to as the President’s godfather)
I noticed this morning that The Punch Newspaper’s site had a new design. It looks like it was launched to coincide with the October 1 Independence Day.
The layout is cleaner and easier on the eyes. Though some of the links took forever to open this morning and when they did led to blank pages, but this had been fixed when I last checked at 2300hrs. The links opened up to a page with a paywall (and very short article intro) in the mode of scmp.com
The homepage also advertised blogs in what is a new feature. When I visited at 2345hrs, only the one titled “Blog on Blogs” was fully up and running. The others are called “Lagos Blog” and “Business Blog”.
In all, the revamp of punchng.com should drive more traffic to the site, including visits from this blogger.
It’s a welcome addition to the ongoing changes on the Nigerian media scene. A good departure from the days when newspaper sites were just online billboards for the stories already in the deadwood copies and only refreshed after a 24 hour cycle.
As the competition takes notice, they too will most likely up their game.
49 years ago today, Nigeria lowered the Union Jack and raised the Green & White flag at the Racecourse in Lagos. It signalled the end of formal rule by the British Empire.
The press have joined in the annual ritual of celebration and reflections, or “another sombre anniversary” as The Nation columnist, Olatunji Dare called it. Here are 6 of the best comments on offer.
Editorial: (BusinessDay) – Nigeria’s broken Government
Pat Utomi: (Guardian) – Why greatness eludes Nigeria
Ishaq Moddibo Kawu: (Daily Trust) – Nigeria: Between momentary pessimism and incurable optimism
Editorial: (Next) – A state of darkness
Ebere Onwudiwe & Okey Iheduru: (BusinessDay) – Nigeria at 49: Time to end this sucide mission
Matthew Hassan Kukah: (Guardian) – Preparing for Nigeria’s coming power elite
In the 3 years plus that I’ve read the Financial Times daily in some form, Tuesday 29th September was the first time I remember a story about Nigeria as the front page lead article in the paper.
The article by the FT’s Lagos correspondent, Tom Burgis reported that CNOOC, the Chinese state-owned oil company “is seeking to acquire 6billion barrels of oil, equivalent to one in six barrels of Nigeria’s proven reserves”.
In a follow-up piece on page 9, the story appears to have been based on a letter by Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, the president’s oil adviser, in which he asked CNOOC to make an improved offer swiftly “due to time constraint”.
The FT reports that “the urgency is well placed” as extensions to 16 leases held by Shell, Mobil & Total amongst others will expire before the end of 2009.
It appears this story is causing jitters in some western capitals where they fear a big push by China for the biggest prize in Africa’s oil game. French TV channel – France24 also featured this story on Tuesday evening’s Business Bulletin.
With the deal making still going back and forth, the lines between Abuja and Beijing, Paris, London & Washington will no doubt be buzzing over the coming weeks. But more importantly – will any of these deals improve the quality of life of the people in the oil producing communities and the rest of Nigeria?
Answering that question in the affirmative should be the priority of the Nigerian government.
The decision to get this blog underway comes in response to promptings to air strongly held views on the role of the Nigerian press in a changing media landscape.
Truth be told, things are not what they used to be in terms of the role of the press in informing & educating the public as well as holding public personalities to account. Some of the standards have slipped.
We’ll attempt to highlight the good and not so good of what’s happening in Nigeria and to Nigerians through the lense of the press.
We’ll also pay attention to representations of the country in the global media space.
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Nigeria News Review 