Sakibu Olokojobi, Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief FrontPage (frontpageng.com) highlights what is needed to succeed as an online publisher and other issues aspiring publishers should note.
What is working for you and what is not?
So many things, to the glory of God, I would say are working for me. Publishing an online newspaper is not a tea party. It comes with some serious demands and if one is not well built for the job, there is bound to be some major problems that would stand in one’s way. Let me quickly point out that for some peculiarities of the online type of newspapers. There is not much difference with the traditional newspapers in terms of content provision, editing, circulation, advert generation among other things.
Coming from one’s background as a trained journalist with a good number of years on the field and on the desk as a deputy editor of two national newspapers at different times in the past, one has the benefit of expertise and experience. So, I would say expertise and experience have worked for me. They make the job a lot easy and I would say, enjoyable.
Needless to say, having passion for the job is a major factor. If there is anything that makes it quite interesting and pleasurable, it is the passion for the job. I find myself doing what I enjoy doing, what I love doing. So, even if there is any pain, I hardly feel it. My attention is often focused on the pleasure and not the pressure.
Goodwill too. This comes as a result of good nature. One’s good relationship with colleagues and different people that one had come across over the years in the course of working has been helpful. Many people, incidentally, have been found in areas where they can be of help in one way or the other in making a success of the project. Some are in areas where they can provide information that can be processed into news stories; some are in a position to share stories from our website because they belong to different WhatsApp groups, thus giving us some reach; some are in places where one can be considered for advertisements.
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For example, the first major advertisement we got in FrontPage was through a junior colleague who had access to an advert somewhere. The last time we worked together was over ten years back. He had been reading our stories. From nowhere he gave me a call and asked if we had had so so adverts and I said no. He promised to help out and within a few days, we got it. It was our first major advert. We had and are still enjoying such kindness from different people and organisations because of the good relationship we have had over time.
Commitment, dedication, doggedness and creativity have also worked for us. But most importantly, is our trust in God and His faithfulness. God has made all the other factors mentioned earlier to be useful in achieving the amount of success we have recorded so far. We are not there yet, but we are not where we were when the project started. We have left ground zero long ago, and to God be the glory.
What are the challenges you are coping with?
The major challenge is finance. Keeping the online newspaper running requires adequate funding. It is a project that one needs to run without fail. We are mindful of the needs of our readers and advertisers that I choose to call our partners. We try to meet those needs. Of course, we can do better given the necessary funding. However, with the little resources at our disposal, we are coping with the situation and considering more avenues through which our finances can increase and grow the business more.
What have you had to learn?
Just as life is a learning process, so is online newspaper publishing. One cannot afford to be stagnant. One has had to learn so many things in the course of doing the job, especially with regards to the use of the computer and social media in general. A few technicalities peculiar to online publishing, one has had to learn too. Learning makes one be able to fit into online publishing well.
What kinds of investments have you had to make to sustain your operations?
Investment in equipment has been key. For you to be able to work effectively, there is a need to be well equipped. You need computer systems that can make your work easy. For example, we don’t rely on one network provider. We use four major networks for our internet service. Reason: We cannot determine when one network will be totally down and slow down our work. You can imagine working on a story as fast as you could and you can’t publish because the network has decided to fail.
That kind of experience has seen us moving from one network to the other, just to be able to publish and share out stories. Human resources are also an area one cannot but invest in. One cannot do everything by himself and alone. It is a chain of activities and there are different persons manning different points. There is also an investment in acquiring knowledge about the job. As I said earlier, life is a learning process and the same obviously applies to online newspaper publishing. There is also an investment in knowledge acquisition.
How financially rewarding has your platform been?
I must say that we are not close to what we expect in terms of financial gain. Of course, we hope for the better and are trying our best, but as it is, we are still struggling. When one considers what is coming into the amount being spent to sustain the venture, I would say we still have a long way to go. We are not unmindful of other possible ways of generating funds but achieving success is not automatic. It takes time and proper planning. We are very hopeful and trust God for his support.
What is your advice for aspiring website publishers?
There are different factors to be considered when one is thinking of making a success of a general interest online newspaper. The truth is: It is not the job for freshers. Anyone coming into it must have gathered adequate experience as a journalist. This is because at the initial stage, in particular, the publisher will have so many issues to contend with and he would have the experience to fall back on to wriggle him or herself out of challenges.
The determination to succeed is also a major factor. This has to be accompanied by a good level of discipline. No matter how determined one maybe, if he or she lacks the required discipline, he or she is not likely to achieve the desired goal.
The aspiring publisher should be ready to devote time, energy and resources to the project and should also maintain his focus. He has to be identified with a “cause” because that will determine the readers and possibly, advertisers.
There should be a niche. Considering that there are one thousand and one online newspaper in the country, you must be able to have something peculiar to your website that people will look forward to regularly. The aspiring online newspaper publisher should be creative and learn from the experiences of those that have been in the business before him. He should not isolate himself but be close to others to be able to share experiences and learn from them.
He or she should be ready to reinvest a reasonable amount of his gains into the business to keep it running.
Generally, I would recommend those things that I said have worked for me for anyone wishing to come into the business.
