Dayo Emmanuel, News Editor of National Wire writes on the founding and operations of the website owned by a group of journalists who used to work in a defunct newspaper and an IT professional.
After over three years in the defunct Daily Newswatch Newspaper, a team of five journalists came together in 2016 to register a media company to float a website.
Of course, more people were contacted among the staff of the newspaper. Some declined for reasons best known to them. Finally, the team of five met and it took several days to arrive at a name for the outfit and the website.
Daily View Media was accepted by the Corporate Affairs Commission among three other names submitted and the team agreed on https://nationalwire.com.ng/ as the Web address to publish National Wire as a news website.
The team also got an IT-savvy person to build the website; Ayobami Ayodele was consulted and work started. Friday Ekeoba serves as the Business Editor, Tayọ Olanipekun, Features Editor, Folake Sokoya, Crime Editor, Abiodun Omotosho, Photo Editor and Dayo Emmanuel is the News Editor.
Running a news website comes with its own challenges. Among the topmost challenges is fund. The team had to mobilize from private purses to fund the initial operations.
However, through hard work, division of labour, and commitment, the website has grown in impact and reach. Pursing stories that impact society and publishing promptly has been one of the major achievements of the organisation.
For instance, a story was published on the abandonment of a school project in Kano. The stakeholders in the state’s education sector had to mobilise to resume work promptly on the site after seeing the story which we refused to be persuaded to pull down. A follow-up story was published after work resumed on-site to complete the project.
Our Features Editor applied and got accreditation to cover the World Bank meeting held in Washington in 2019.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Photo Editor was manhandled by a group of soldiers as he was taking some photographs around Oshodi, Lagos. The story was published and after some hours, the army authority apologised and dropped him at his residence with a military vehicle as he was released during the curfew. The story generated a lot of responses and civil society groups including the Media Rights Agenda issued a statement.
A year later, Omotosho was invited for recognition in Abuja being one of the journalists that suffered harassment in the course of duty during the lockdown necessitated by the pandemic.
Among the success story is another education story written about some schools in a southwestern state. The state of the school was nothing to write home about despite a huge sum budgeted for education.
After the story that generated so much attention, the government responded and officials were sent to the school to investigate and take necessary action.
Another story we have published was a murder case in the Agbara area of Lagos State where a housewife murdered her husband in his sleep. National Wire was among the media organisations that stayed on the story until justice was achieved.
As part of the recognition the website has got, the Crime Editor, Folake Sokoya won the Crime Reporter of the year award at the Nigeria Media Night Out Award ceremony 2019 for series of crime reports published on the website.
In terms of revenue, the website has attracted some adverts which have proved that with more quality reports and social media engagement, the future is bright for the organisation.
One major factor working for the orgsanisation is teamwork. If it was a solo effort, chances are that the website may have stopped publishing.
Meanwhile, there have been challenges associated with disagreements on some roles, but with maturity and dialogue, a compromise was reached. Thanks to the intervention of senior colleagues including Mr. Lekan Otufodunrin and Lekan Osiade among others waded in and advised the parties involved and offered suggestions on way forward.
By and large, it has been a success story after five years of hard work and the future looks bright.
Tayo Olanipekun, Features Editor.
National Wire as an entity owes its survival to the cooperation of all of our crew and it suffices to say we have the best team.
The synergy includes how each staff comes up with stories they’re working on and their readiness to yield and accommodate the inputs of others to deliver stories with real impacts.
In the face of dwindling revenue of media companies in recent years, National Wire staff also feel duty-bound to ensure that whatever resources available to the company are channeled to its continued existence rather than individual needs.
However, we still look out for one another financially and even morally.
Friday Ekeoba, Business Editor
Ecclesiastes 9:10, Proverbs 22:29, Luke 9: 62 these three scriptures have personally been my watch/guide.
I know from the little I understand about life endeavors, everyone on a team will not have the conviction to drive home a dream conceived by someone else. But with the spirit of God, do not despise days of little beginning, any height can be attained in life.
The place of personal sacrifices should however not be ruled out. There are bound to be low times, especially when one is putting into the team more than others. But building a lasting organization is usually teamwork…that is, one may find his/her strength in others’ weaknesses to continue to build to achieve the big dream.
Put differently, our teamwork was built on the platform of delayed gratification. Everything, including time, goodwill (Money), etc had to be plowed into the business concern.
Above all, God’s grace and mercy have been sufficient for me. I believe it is also for others on the team. –