@ SIXTEEN A Northern newspaper in the heart of Lagos
wealthy citizens. We had in the office a fixed phone line, the Intercellular model, which we bought as a last resort after waiting almost eternally on queue for the Nigerian Telecomm (NITEL) to give us a telephone line.
Back in the office, the drive for revenue generation was a top priority. And all staff were involved one way or the other. Canvassing for advert was no tea party, especially for a new publication. Advertisers would tell you to your face that they were not ready to waste their money on a fringe newspaper. Some surprisingly thought ours was a sister publication of the old NEW NIGERIAN which they knew so well, even if the latter was then experiencing the rough weather. Advert agencies in Lagos were however quick to spot a good product. I led the team in making sales pitches and we made early breakthrough at Prima Garnet, Pulsar, CentreSpread, SO&U, Tie and TaijoWonukabe, among others.
Copy sales were even a bigger headache as we had to wait for the daily editions to arrive from Abuja, usually aboard the Chanchangi Airline, which is now moribund. Sometimes the copies would arrive in the afternoon thereby making it impossible to reach the wider market through the ubiquitous street vendors. We resorted to aggressive drive for subscription based on careful segmentation of our market using some parameters. This mitigated my headache and yielded positive results. Of course, the World Wide Web and new media had not become major threats to newspapers as they are today.
Notwithstanding the various challenges, and indeed the risk-taking which is part and parcel of every business, the Daily Trust has today been entrenched in the heart of Lagos as it makes in-roads into other parts of Southern Nigeria. This, I must attribute to the vision of the promoters and the dedication of our team members. Having won the coveted awards, Newspaper of the Year and Editor of the Year for 2016, it is indeed gratifying that the Daily Trust experiment has become a model of a modest success.