18 Apr 2009 |
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[REVIEW]The Westerner: From Tabloid to Magazine By Reuben Abati The Westerner is the latest addition to the newsmagazine market in Nigeria. It is welcome. The publication is a rebranding, if not a complete transformation of a newspaper published under the same title by the same publishers between May 2005 and June 2008, and later revived around October 2008. In its present form, The Westerner is a 56-page all-gloss, all colour affair, produced by a team that is led by Dare Babarinsa, distinguished journalist and author, ex-National Concord, ex-Newswatch, one of the founders of Tell magazine, and now Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director of The Westerner magazine. When it first hit the news stands four years ago, under the direction of Akin Onigbinde, as Publisher/Managing Director, the publication was introduced to the market as an attempt to fill a perceived gap in the coverage and reporting of the South Western part of Nigeria. Its mission was to report the South West to Nigeria and Nigeria to the South West, in other words, the newspaper was meant to be essentially a Yoruba newspaper. Onigbinde was later succeeded by Bola Bolawole, former Editor and Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Punch. In its early years however, there were debates about whether The Westerner should remain focussed on South West issues or whether it should aspire to be a national newspaper in order to attract wider readership and broader advertisement patronage. Thus, from its beginnings, the newspaper suffered from a conflict of identity and ideology. Under Onigbinde, the newspaper was published weekly on Sundays, a Wednesday edition was later added, as a prelude to the planned publication of daily editions. When Bola Bolawole assumed leadership of the newspaper, the Wednesday edition was rested. In the later part of 2008, when Dare Babarinsa became the Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director of the newspaper, it became a Monday publication. By now, the publishers of The Westerner had begun the publication of another newspaper, The Nigerian Compass. It would therefore appear that the rebranding of The Westerner as a news magazine is a logical development, to retain it as a newspaper alongside The Compass, would have meant that the Western Publishing Company Limited, would be offering readers two newspaper from the same stable competing with each other, an option that is being tried rather intriguingly by one or two other newspaper publishing houses in Lagos. In its new shape and form, The Westerner is still being produced by most of the team that produced the earlier publication. Dele Fashomi, the editor of the magazine, for example, was a pioneer staff and former Deputy Editor of the old The Westerner. The old name has also been retained, but in many ways, the news magazine may have inherited the same conflict of identity and ideology that afflicted the newspaper. The idea of a regional publication targeting a specific audience and community is well-tested and is indeed the norm in Western, developed countries. Here in Nigeria, there have been a number of newspapers and magazines, particularly in the South-South, and at a time, in the South West which were devoted to the coverage of regional or community issues, from an ideological perspective, within the context of Nigerian national politics. By retaining the title, The Westerner, and given its antecedents, this publication may on the surface of it be classified into this regional or sectional mould. But a close examination of the content of the two editions of the magazine that have so far been published: namely the Preview edition dated March 2, 2009, and the maiden launch edition dated April 6, 2009, reveals an attempt by the Babarinsa-led team to strike a delicate balance between being Western in the Nigerian context, and being national and international. This is so even if both the Editor-in-Chief and the Editor do not quibble about their determination to produce not a regional magazine but a national magazine of international standard. In the maiden edition, Dare Babarinsa in a piece titled “Freedom and old wives’ tales” introduces The Westerner “as a new magazine that is going to define national discourse and set national agenda”. In his introductory piece, the editor, Dele Fashomi writes: “We reaffirm our commitment to the achievement of an egalitarian society based on justice and fair play among all ethnic nationalities, groups and interests in Nigeria, while abiding by the principles of forthrightness, responsibility and utmost credibility”. And in a press release published on page 17 of the maiden edition, Dejo Adebisi of the Corporate Affairs section of the publication tells us that the magazine will have editors, correspondents and reporters in “strategic locations and cities in the country, including Kaduna, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Jos, Abuja and all the state capitals of the South West. It also has functional state offices and sales representatives nationwide”. Why then the name, The Westerner? Why was a change of name not considered? And really, what is wrong in having a regional newspaper? And now the likely conflict referred to earlier can be illustrated as follows. In the preview edition, although there are sections devoted to national, international and lifestyle issues, most of the stories have a South West flavour, and this includes the choice of interview personalities, and subject matter. There are four stories on the front cover: “Buhari fights over N40m Lagos property”, Mimiko breaks 34-yr-old jinx in Ondo”, “Trouble for Mr Speaker” (the speaker in this case is Hon. Dimeji Bankole), and “Why I won’t act in immoral films - Olutayo”. There are major stories also on Otunba Subomi Balogun, and Dr. Erastus Akingbola and an interview with Alhaji Lateef Jakande, former Governor of Lagos State. A few non-Yoruba names and stories manage to feature in that preview edition including Jessica Ene in the Face of the Future column, Efiong Akpan in the Business section, Thompson Oliha and Obisia Nwakpa under Sports, Ini Edo-Ehiagwina in Whispers and Murtala Muhammed in the Past Perfect column. In the maiden edition, that is the April 6 edition, there is however, greater openness and balance perhaps in keeping with the nationalistic declarations of the Editor-in-Chief, the Editor and the Corporate Affairs Department earlier quoted. The cover story is on the Nigeria Police, an exclusive story titled “Every week, 40 of them are killed on duty: Nigeria’s most dangerous job”. The Nation section of the magazine covers issues of national interest, without any obvious attempt at a South West slant, and hence the reader is treated to stories on Plateau State, the Redeemed Church and the General Overseer’s purchase of a private jet, Imo state politics, and crisis at the University of Ibadan. The magazine opens up fully with stories of human and topical interest . However, it is not difficult to see that in both the preview and maiden editions, all the columnists in the magazine are South Westerners: Dare Babarinsa, Dele Fashomi, Wale Are Olaitan, Funmi De Princess, Ekeolere, the cartoonist, Dr Leye Popoola, and Mikail Mumuni. In the masthead of the preview edition, 51 members of staff are listed, only 8 are non-Yoruba. In the maiden edition, the staff list has increased to 54, out of whom only are 9 are non-Yoruba. It would be interesting in the weeks ahead to watch how The Westerner and its editors walk this obvious tightrope. But there is no doubt, all things considered that this is a quality news magazine, with a great potential to become a major hit with readers. The packaging is rich, the use of gloss paper makes the pages bright and friendly. Although the point size in some of the sections can be increased a little to ensure uniformity of character, the generous use of colour enhances the magazine’s overall aesthetics. The publication covers a broad range of interests: politics, business, entertainment, sports, relationships, education and the grassroots. Readers will find the “Face of the Future”, the Cartoons, the letters section, Books, Whispers, the special interviews, Style and Substance, and the Past Perfect columns especially inviting. The advert-editorial ratio in both the preview and the maiden editions points to a growing popularity of the magazine with advertisers, and this probably also in part explains why the new managers have chosen to retain the old name of the publication, it is easier to sell a known brand than to cultivate followership for a new and unknown brand. But there are three major challenges that the editors of The Westerner Magazine must contend with. The first is the rapidly shrinking market for news magazines. The Westerner is targeting the same market where Tell magazine, Newswatch and The News would be its main competitors. With a N300 cover price and such formidable competitors, who have also been re-branding in order to gain greater market share, The Westerner, as new entrant must strive to carve a niche for itself very early in the day, through special, ground-breaking stories and by making its presence felt through aggressive marketing and self-positioning. The magazine is also being placed on the stands at a time of global economic recession and widening poverty at home; economic recession places special pressure on the reader of magazines who must now weigh his or her choices carefully before parting with scarce income. Weekend newspapers also pose much greater threat to the magazine market than was the case a decade ago. Virtually every weekend newspaper is now packaged in a magazine format. Hence, every news magazine must necessarily be packaged differently, and more creatively to compel readership. The short of it is that readers have become more demanding, and if I may add, one area in which the editors of The Westerner can begin to respect that demand is to pay closer attention to proof-reading and copy editing, for there are copy editing errors in both the preview and maiden editions of the magazine. The second challenge is that the emergence and the growing influence of new media has changed the nature and character of information management. News analysis has suddenly become instantaneous. Consumers of news in the 21st century have much greater latitude in the age of convergence, with news analysis, entertainment and interviews streaming from virtually all possible sources. The publishers of The Westerner should explore the advantages of this new media. In addition to the print edition, they must seek to engage their readers robustly through the internet, blogsites and telephone delivery of news. More readers are getting their news online. If Nigeria manages to sort out its electricity supply problem, and with increased computer penetration in the society, many more readers will go online. And advert revenue will follow them. This is where the future of the newspapering business lies. That future is now, not tomorrow. The third challenge that The Westerner faces lies in the arena of politics. In the past five years or so, we have witnessed a sharp increase in the number of former and serving Governors who set up media organs with the declared purpose of creating employment, but with the subterranean purpose of using same to fight their own political battles, and to gain more influence within the Nigerian public space. Remarkably, the Nigerian media space is being taken over by this category of media owners with serious implications for the integrity of news and even of the profession as journalists find themselves dancing too zealously to the piper’s tune. Dare Babarinsa and his team must resist the temptation to travel in this direction. The true test of their faith will lie in how well they uphold their own declarations. Just to indicate how important this is, I draw attention to the centre spread of the pre-view edition of the magazine titled Gateway Extra, focussing on “Gateway Front Foundation: Rekindling hope, empowering Ogun people”. Gateway Front Foundation is an NGO chaired by (Chief) Mrs Olufunke Daniel, the wife of the Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, who incidentally is the publisher (or one of the promoters) of The Nigerian Compass and The Westerner. Again, in the centrespread of the April 6 edition, there is a story on the Ofada rice project titled “Ogun reaps more dividends of friendly business climate”. Although marked advertorial, the link with the publisher of the magazine is rather obvious. The editors of The Westerner are in order to focus on developments at the grassroots level, but they must ensure an even spread, and the centrespread of the magazine needs not be reserved only for issues related to the proprietor’s interest. In due course, The Westerner should be able to find an assured place on the news stand and in the hands of readers. The editors have all the opportunities that they require to fly with this dream, and to enrich the practice of journalism in Nigeria. More importantly, they have the talent and the experience to achieve their goals. They are welcome to the market.
Reuben Abati Lagos, Nigeria
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