In 2024, Storyteller, Media Strategist and Product Management Enthusiast, Temitayo Akinyemi worked as a Media Advisor at the Media Development Investment Fund ( MDIF) ’s Nigeria Media Innovation Programme, (NAMIP), during which he worked with 26 newsrooms across Nigeria, organizing workshops and offering support to help them innovate and thrive.
In a recent LinkedIn post, Akinyemi shared what he learned from the different business models and attempts at media innovation in the Nigerian media ecosystem.
Below are his insightful findings and suggestions which should interest media owners and managers on how to align vision with strategy and product thinking to secure the future of journalism in Nigeria:
A recurring theme I observed is this: many newsrooms need to adopt a tech startup approach to their planning and operations.
“Here’s what I mean:
Newsrooms are often a product of love and passion that oftentimes do not grow out of the founder’s good intentions, even when they are not meeting any needs or solving any problems beyond meeting the quota for grant providers.
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Many newsrooms will benefit from a wider reach and more concrete impact if they are able to move from oga-led passion projects and think like tech startups.
Newsrooms should have Editor-in-Chief/CEOs whose key responsibilities—beyond fundraising—are to define the North Star, vision and mission, and ensure editorial excellence. However, that alone isn’t enough. To succeed, they also need growth managers and product managers who work daily to:
- Identify stakeholders and audiences.
- Build with stakeholders in mind.
- Take on operational responsibilities, allowing the EiC to focus on strategy.
Some might think they need to “get big” before embracing this structure. But what I’ve learned—especially from pivoting to product management thinking—is that newsrooms can start lean and agile. A newsroom product manager could double as a managing editor, and a growth manager could combine roles. The key is to maximize efficiency with the resources at hand.
When the EiC/CEO is the product thinker, growth lead, and agenda setter, newsrooms set themselves up for rapid pacing to nowhere in particular.
Why is this shift critical?
Many newsrooms suffer from misalignment between leadership’s vision and the on-ground execution. Some pivot endlessly to chase different funding cycles, producing no tangible products. When those grants dry up, the newsroom faces collapse.
To avoid this, newsrooms need:
- A clear North Star to guide the entire organization.
- Lean, agile practices to create products that are sustainable and generate income.
- Products that are developed and routinely tuned to meet customer needs.
- A hungry desire for growth led by a growth lead whose primary duty should be reaching growth targets.
In this market, we’re still at day one. But the industry will grow if journalists realize that doing important work alone won’t guarantee survival. Aligning vision with strategy and product thinking is how we secure the future of journalism.
In an interview with our correspondent, Noah Aderoju, in May 2024, Akinyemi, among other issues, spoke about digital metrics monitoring and media product thinking for publishers using his personal experience as a journalist, editor and newsroom product manager.
He urged journalists and newsrooms to see and produce news with a mindset beyond altruistic goals, and newsroom leaders to open themselves to learning and innovation.
‘More publishers, EICs, CEOs need to open themselves to learning’
