By Abiola Ayankunbi
I am constrained to write on a pressing concern in the Nigerian media landscape: the diminishing returns in the media market, particularly in the South Eastern and South Southern parts of the country. As I navigate the complexities of this issue, it is essential to understand the underlying factors and potential strategies for revitalization. To start with, the greatest overlook by the media managers is leaving the sources of their revenue in the hands of the third parties; this is their greatest undoing.
In the past few weeks, we, at AbingMO3 Marketing Management Consultancy embarked on the fact-finding mission in relation to the dwindling fortune of the print media in the South-Eastern and South-Southern parts of Nigeria. The investigated newspapers were The Punch, The Nation, The Sun, Vanguard, The Guardian, This Day, Nigerian Tribune, New Telegraph, Daily Trust, Business Day, Leadership, and Blueprint. The investigation was full of many discoveries.
The states in the South Eastern part of Nigeria are Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo while South Southern states are Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Edo, Cross River, Delta, and Rivers. In the history of Nigerian media, Rivers state is the third largest market for newspaper; the first and second being Lagos and Federal Capital Territory (Abuja) still maintain their positions. It is regrettable that Port Harcourt has lost its position in the schemes of things.
The media market in Nigeria, particularly the print media industry, is facing significant challenges that is aggressively contributing to its diminishing returns. Our findings revealed that the average total daily supply figure of all the investigated newspapers to the eleven states is 6,500 copies. Rivers state has the highest supply of 1,000 copies while Bayelsa state has the lowest average daily supply of 150 copies. Furthermore, the average daily total sale of all the newspapers is under 40%. This is worrisome and call for a great concern.
Long time ago, media managers observed the gap between production time and delivery time; this made them to cite printing presses in the region. The printing press “owned” by The Punch in Port Harcourt has been under maintenance for the past few months. Presently, The Nation press in Port Harcourt prints The Punch titles. The Sun cited its press in Aba, Abia state but it has become moribund for the past one year; The Nation, in Port Harcourt now prints The Sun. Vanguard has its press in Asaba, Delta state; it prints for The Guardian.
This Day has its press in Agbor, Delta state but has since became obsolete; it now engages in printing through third parties. As at now, it supplies paper to the two regions from Lagos State. The Nation has its printing press in Port Harcourt; it handles printing of The Punch, The Sun, and New Telegraph newspapers. Other newspapers under investigation, except Nigerian Tribune are being freighted by air from Lagos State. Nigerian Tribune, Daily Trust, Leadership, Blueprint, Business Day, and New Telegraph are the least visible newspapers in the two regions. Citing printing presses in the region is enabling prompt deliveries and early availability on the newsstands.
Available records show that the “national” print media firms own over thirty printing presses that are in different parts of the country. This figure is besides those that are owned by the state governments’ newspapers. Additionally, there are still commercial presses all over the country. Conservatively, the total number of printing presses in Nigeria is in excess of sixty. These printing presses are in very precarious stages as none prints up to 5% of its installation capacity. Specifically, high costs of newsprint, diesel, equipment, etc. exacerbated by a weakened naira, are eating into the profit margins of the media houses. Poor infrastructure, including unreliable power supply hinders the ability of media houses to operate efficiently.
It would be recalled that the death of print newspapers has been foretold since many years ago. Yet, it has not come to pass but the newspapers’ fortune is gradually dwindling at a faster rate. That it has not arrived speaks of a tenacious hunger among citizens for news. Presently, the print media in the regions is on life support. It is a statement of fact that there is severe competition to the readers’ attention and newspapers are beginning to be less relevant today to their communities than yesterday.
Checks by AbingMO3 indicated that newspapers circulation figure in the regions has declined because of poor contents & quality, down turn in the economy, diminishing reader income, lack of target market, biased news coverage, imposition of publishers’ opinions, competition from radio, television & internet, increasing loss of both women & young readers, passive response to environmental changes, wrong newspapers’ design, unrealistic cost projections, inadequate feasibility studies of technical requirement/market analysis/financial viability, poor selection of staff, initial defective training/lack of follow up training, low morale, and absence of appropriate marketing strategies.
Furtherance to the above, women and readers under 25 years, see little or nothing in today’s newspapers for them. Women and young people may not be reading newspapers but they are reading something and sometimes, they pay infinitely more. Survival of the “national” newspapers are determined and now at the mercy of the community or local newspapers that are common in these states and competing favourably. Although, there are local newspapers that are singing praises of the state governments but few of them is really holding the government accountable. The onus lies with the media practitioners for extinction of hard copies of newspapers to still be relevant. When news breaks, the interest should be what happens next. Newspapers need to get back to basics.
Most of the media firms do not have state correspondents and where they exist, they are operating as freelancers. Apart from this, they do not have offices of their own thereby making use of the facilities at the state government owned press centres inevitable. This has led to the qualities of the stories being churned out by different media firms. A critical examination of all the newspapers under investigation show that news items from any of the eleven states hardly grace the cover pages talk-less of being the lead stories. Instead of the reporters to report stories that have impact on the livelihood of the citizens of the regions, they are busy hobnobbing with the state governments thereby filing reports to their head offices based on press releases. Some of the news items from these states are sourced from social media. An instance was when a supposedly national newspaper led one of its editions with unverifiable news item: Milad summons Fubara. Till date, no retraction, apology nor sanction!
The media managers missed their ways when they failed to offer different newspaper to different markets not minding the system of simultaneous printing. Most of the newspapers are printing from three different locations and their front pages use to carry the same stories not minding the peculiarities of each of the target markets. Simultaneous printing should therefore provide opportunities for the media firms to be leading their front pages with the news items from the regions but the reverse is the case.
It is a statement of fact that with the influence and implication of internet on the print media, the printed figures ought to be higher than the present figures. There are readers waiting to buy the hard copies but they are not satisfied with the current contents. All government officials have provisions in their states’ budgets for the purchase of newspapers and periodicals. If truly the earn-marked amount is judiciously used, the copy sale figure will double instantly. This is just a low-hanging fruit.
To address these challenges, media houses can consider implementing subscription-based models to generate revenue from quality journalism. Exploring mergers and collaborations in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency is another option. Media managers should consider using innovative storytelling techniques and multimedia content in order to engage audiences and attract news readers. News items based on the regions’ peculiarities should be given utmost consideration, always. The country has the population that can encourage appreciable circulation figures; the emphasis should therefore be where are the buyers located and their preferences. This can however be done through the instrumentality of marketing and market research.
In conclusion, the diminishing returns in the media market in South Eastern and South Southern Nigeria are a call to action for industry stakeholders, policymakers, and investors. By understanding the challenges and opportunities in this market, everybody can work together to develop innovative solutions, support local content, and promote media sustainability. This is therefore the time to adapt, innovate, and invest in the industry’s future. Media practitioners should seize this opportunity to shape the future of media in the two regions and beyond.
… Dr. Ayankunbi is an expert in newspaper marketing.
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