Thomson Foundation helps launch new Nigerian daily newspaper

With just three weeks to go before launch, Thomson Foundation consultant CHARLES McGHEE arrived in Abuja to support the birth of a new daily newspaper

Thomson assignments are challenging at the best of times, but when they are carried out at short notice against seemingly impossible deadlines they become even more ‘interesting’ into the bargain.

“You’ve got three weeks,” said Thomson Foundation Head of Training, Tim Rogers, “to help redesign a weekly newspaper in Nigeria and convert it into a national daily. Oh, and by the way, can you leave next weekend?”

You’ve got to be joking, right? Well, no, actually. In the event, departure was delayed by a week and then by another couple of days because of a visa wrangle, but I arrived in Nigeria’s federal capital, Abuja, with effectively 16 days to complete the above assignment for The Peoples Daily (without an apostrophe) newspaper.

Deadlines are meat and drink to a daily newspaper professional, but many publishing ventures have foundered on timescales that proved too ambitious. And this looked like one of them. The Thomson Foundation’s client however – Peoples Media Ltd – was adamant that its deadline to switch to daily publication must be met. There was no alternative.

It was clear from the first day of my arrival that The Peoples Daily was some way short of its ambition to produce a 48-page newspaper, seven days per week.

Charles McGhee at work with The Peoples Daily team

The right technology, staffing and organisational structures were not yet in place, for a start. Nor had there been any moves to initiate a major cultural shift from the relatively relaxed style of a weekly paper to the more-focused, intense and constant demands of a daily. What was in place, however, was an enthusiastic and highly-motivated editor in Ahmed Shekarau and a team of journalists with enormous potential.

Friday and Saturday were the main production days for the weekly newspaper and this gave me one final opportunity to observe the newspaper’s production process at close quarters before its switch to daily publication. Working alongside the editor, I also started examining redesign options for The Peoples Daily.

Apart from the editorial challenges in providing a wider variety and better quality of content, this assessment revealed that the paper faced obstacles on several other fronts before it could switch successfully to daily publication. These included:

• Improving the internal computer network system
• Increasing the newspaper’s internet bandwith
• Streamlining and strengthening the page production process
• Improving picture content and reproduction quality

The Peoples Media Board approved immediate development proposals in all of these areas and, concurrently, work was started on a basic redesign. There was no time to do a thorough appraisal and provide options: it was simply a question of improving on what was there, using available typefaces and examining methods of improving picture quality.

The redesign was carried out on the ‘live’ paper, using actual content and pictures for the first daily edition which appeared on Monday, November 30th, right on deadline.

The publishers were persuaded against seven-day publication by technical and resource limitations. But the new Monday to Friday daily publication was well received both internally and externally, with considerable interest being expressed by new readers and potential new advertisers alike.

And the Thomson Foundation was delighted to have assisted at the birth of Nigeria’s newest daily newspaper.

• Charles McGhee is a former daily newspaper editor who now runs his own media consultancy.

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