Media Trust CEO tasks staff on professionalism

The Chief Executive Officer/ Editor-in-Chief of Media Trust Limited, Malam Mannir Dan Ali, yesterday charged editorial staff of the organisation to be innovative in their news reportage, to enable the newspaper maintain its relevance in the nation’s competitive media industry.

He made the call in Abuja, at a conference organised for editorial staff of the organisation drawn from all states of the federation and the FCT.

He maintained that the days of Press Release journalism is gone, urging reporters to pursue real issues that affect lives in the society.

The Editor-in- Chief attributed the decline in newspaper sales to economic crunch in the country as well as lack of creativity and context in stories filed in by reporters.

He challenged reporters to get out of their comfort zones and get actively involved in reporting challenging issues that can get the organisation an edge over its competitors.

“You have just reduced yourselves to reproducing press releases. If no one confirms it, it hasn’t happened.

“You may have witnessed an accident but instead of digging into the matter and writing your report, you sit back and wait for the Police Public Relations Officer to issue a statement before you write your story. Another instance is that, your neighbour might have died of cholera and that is supposed to trigger you to do some checks. But instead you decide to wait until the commissioner calls a press conference to say there is a problem. That is why we are becoming irrelevant to the people,” he stated.