Until and unless you get your journalism right and pursue it with single-minded focus, you will be wasting your time. If our profession is in trouble today, it’s because we the professionals have sacrificed on the altar of business poor ethics

Ezenwo Wike, who declared the conference opened, said that the country is in crisis because of poor governance, nepotism and marginalization.

He said: “At times like this, the country needs forthright leadership and consensus building to steer the ship of state from the wrong direction it is headed to safer grounds.”

The governor noted that the clamour for political restructuring, fiscal federalism, state police and guarantees for free and fair elections have never been so determined across the country.

Governor Wike regretted that despite the monumental achievements of his administration, the opposition in the state has continued to undermine development, with tacit support from the Federal Government and a politically inclined police.

The publisher of Thisday Newspaper and President, Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Mr Nduka Obiagbena, called on media managers to develop strong brands to overcome the challenge posed by social media.

In a ten-point communiqué at the end of the conference signed by Funke and the Secretary General of the Guild, Victoria Ibanga, noted that the media had been and still experience a crisis of recession which presupposes that government would need to do more to ensure an conducive environment that is conducive to encourage the sector to flourish.

The editors agreed that while retaining professional excellence, they would also need to explore other revenue yielding ventures or business prospects to ensure that life after their editorial assignments was not a nightmare.

The communiqué also decided that editors, in addition to their editorial functions, should concern themselves with the business side of the media to ensure that their establishments thrive and business after retirement would be knowledgebased and experience-enriched.

The conference enjoined Mass Communication departments and Journalism training institutions to include business courses in their curricular, so as to prepare future editors for business of the media industry.

The editors agreed that the NPAN and the media stakeholders should collaborate to ensure the setting up of newsprint production companies and resuscitation of the moribund Oku Iboku company in Akwa Ibom State, so as to address the crisis of high cost of imported newsprint.

On the welfare of retired journalists, the communiqué appealed to both the federal and state governments to pay outstanding gratuities and pensions of retired editors and other classes of retirees to make life meaningful.

The Guild also regretted the encroachment of its land in Guzape, Abuja and appreciates the promise by the FCT Minister to redress the situation.