Daily Trust
newspapers and turned their broadcast stations into poorly managed megaphones that excited no one. Again, the Trust newspaper with its rising profile easily filled in the emerging gap. And it was indeed lucky from the onset to be widely accepted as I remember in its earlier days how individuals literarily got addicted to the Trust to the extent that one could recall complains among friends of feelings of emptiness whenever they miss any of its editions.
Above all, the operators of the Trust maintained strict professional/ethical principles that insulated the paper from many of the irritating vices in the Nigerian media industry. This is further boosted by the management’s reliance on high quality professionals who are offered one of the highest packages obtainable in the industry. At a time when some publishers stay for months without paying staff salaries or behave rascally, Trust kept to its contract and paid its dues without delay. Perhaps, that is why it has continued to attract best journalism graduates in our Universities and Polytechnics which translated into credibility for the paper.
Sixteen years into its history, Daily Trust has become a major media institution to reckon with in the country and indeed a major on the continent. From a single weekly edition, it now produces daily editions, seven days a week; it has a Hausa edition; maintains an active online presence; publishes nationally at multiple printing points with correspondents deployed all over the land. Today, the company occupies its own properties in Abuja and elsewhere; offers numerous corporate social
responsibility services and its titles highly respected and seriously regarded in political, economic and social circles in the country and beyond.
I can testify that today the papers of Media Trust are highly rated for their credibility. The papers have gained considerable respect in serious circles and among advertisers for their truth, competence/quality, relevance and dynamism. Judged on journalistic parameters, the newspapers have strived to tell the truth, maintain the truth and ensure that their stories reflected reality in all cases. Not only that, the papers have worked hard to sustain appreciable professional competence and quality in production, language and reader friendliness that had really endeared the papers to most readers, who also could find real relevance in the papers as they sustain national spread in content and workforce. All of that are reflected in the papers’ diversity of coverage and company staff mix in sex, religion, ethnicity, age, professions, etc. Those are hallmarks of a real national paper in a multicultural setting like Nigeria.
Over the years, the paper has established a credible research and documentation base with a strong network of researchers, resource persons and independent contributors. Because of such a strong base, one can describe the Trust as a credible memory bank of the country’s democratic process as well as a good source on the history of major happenings like the Boko Haram, the economy, crime, etc.
Prof. Pate wrote from Faculty of Communication, Bayero University, Kano.