Editor of Youth Digest and News Digest, Gidado Shuaib speaks on his publishing endeavours and the challenges involved.
What is working for you and what is not?
The fact that I have a network of Campus Journalists who are very responsive to developing relevant and newsworthy content for the platform has really helped News Digest grow. However, financial constraints have continued to be an issue. We are calling on the government and relevant stakeholders to support news outlets as much as they could. For instance, during COVID-19, journalists and medical practitioners were the only people available to work, but no form of support or remuneration was assigned or planned for journalists who were central to enlightenment during the pandemic.
What are the challenges you’re coping with?
Basically, it’s just funding because anything we need to do requires that we want to constantly retrain our staff on ethics of writing and Journalism as well as giving adequate welfare packages for their survival but we all know the situation of things in the country.
What have you had to learn?
I have learnt to be a team player and having to work with young people have helped me to make creative decisions that fit into the modern-day reality of things.
What kinds of investments have you had to make to sustain your operations?
We started Youths Digest magazine which is currently on sale on major newspaper stands. We also have the Musings of Young Minds book which is a collection of articles by campus journalists in Nigeria and it’s on major booksellers. We just try to be creative and see how we can raise funds to support our activities.
How financially rewarding has your platform been?
To be honest, it’s been fair. We get one-off adverts and patronages from select government institutions and private bodies.
What is your advice for aspiring website publishers?
Be consistent and make sure you share only factual, verifiable, qualitative news content.