Market analysis of newspapers in Nigeria is not different from what is obtainable in some other countries where newspapers are just “locals” in their contents. They tend to give more considerations to the areas that give them highest patronages than those with little or no patronages.
Before I go further, there have been arguments on the exact strengths of each newspaper. It is not doubtful to observe that these newspapers are using nearly the same distribution centres to share their newspapers and if Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC) is strong, it will make the job of truly knowing the actual figures easier.
Furthermore, it may be difficult to truly define population of newspapers readers without consideration for the online rating. It would’ve been a little bit easier and compelling if the online readers pay to access the news. There was a time when one of the South West based newspapers attached premium to read it’s news; visitation to its website dropped regressively. Promptly, it lifted the embargo.
Heavy dose of South West contents dominate pages of The Punch, Nigerian Tribune, The Nation, etc. The Sun and The Authority give preference for the news items from the South Eastern states. For example, news items on IPOB, Ohaneze or Igbo generally appear on their cover pages on a daily basis. Vanguard reports Niger Delta areas more than any other newspapers especially This Day, Guardian and Daily Independent whose publishers are from the zone. Daily Trust, Leadership, Blueprint, Peoples Daily, etc are the champions of Northern region news items. Almost every market has one or two newspapers that dominate the area. Featuring of local or specific content remains the greatest influencer. Segregation of newspapers paginations into South West, South South, South East, North Central, North West and North East is no longer the norms in most newspapers; all have been lumped together under the caption: news across the states.
Recent events indicate that the newspapers are structurally, ideologically, religiously and ethnically divided. Daily Trust is bias when it comes to the interest of Northern people, especially the Muslims. Leadership tends towards the Christians in the Northern region. Not minding that Boko Haram insurgency has crippled the distribution network in the Northern region, the Northern based newspapers still have appreciable spread of their newspapers in the region than their Southern based counterparts. It may interest us to know that Daily Trust has a printing press in Maiduguri, Borno state, the epic centre of the insurgency.
Majority was taken aback when Daily Trust of December 19, 2019 countered December 11, 2019 Punch’s editorial. Daily Trust published an editorial titled: THAT PUNCH EDITORIAL. The Daily Trust said PUNCH went overboard in describing an elected government as a regime and to refuse to recognize the president by his statutory title. It characterized this as an attempt to delegitimise an elected president and the government he heads. This was seen as an attempt by a northern newspaper to defend one of its own.
Research conducted by AbingMO3 Marketing Management Consultancy in 2019 indicated that Yoruba people in the South East constitute 98% of the buyers of the Nigerian Tribune newspapers. Indigenes have never hidden their disdain for the newspapers based on their perceived injustice or maltreatment meted to the race during the avoidable civil war when Chief Jeremiah Oyeniyi Obafemi Awolowo, the late publisher was the minister in charge of finance. As at today, the paper is no longer in circulation in the entire South East and four states in the South South because both the copy and space sales are no longer sustaining. Regrettably, both the past and the present management are yet to take any decisive decision to change the narrative. The paper concentrates its energy on the low hanging fruits in Yoruba states, Abuja and few other states. Its online presence is however commendable.
South West is a zone of six states namely Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states. Lagos remains the centre of attraction to most of media firms, especially “Lagos/Ibadan” press. However, their copy and space performances are disappointing in view of the inherent abundant opportunities. The Punch is the market leader in the zone. The northern based newspapers are just operating as if they are participating in an Olympics game which is not to win but to participate.
It would be recalled that The Punch, The Guardian and National Concord newspapers were proscribed by the regimes of Generals Babangida and Abacha (late) between 1994 & 1995 based on the concerned newspapers’ stands on the annulment of the June 12 presidential election believed to have been won by Chief M. K. O Abiola, the late business mogul and publisher of the defunct Concord newspapers. Mr Nduka Obiagbena capitalised on this development to set up This Day newspaper in 1995; it promptly “snatched” The Guardians market. It is still able to maintain a substantial part of that market, till date.
On the contrary, Vanguard newspaper took over The Punch and Concord markets while the proscription lasted. The Punch has since reclaimed the market. Regrettably, Concord was unable to survive when the proscription order was lifted. Vanguard is now in firm control of the South South market because of its depth reportage of the happenings in the region. Although, its influence in the region is dwindling rapidly and other newspapers have not seized this opportunity to reclaim the market from it.
South East has five states; they are Imo, Abia, Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi states. The Sun is ahead of other publications in terms of copy and space sales thereby pushing the next paper to a distant second position. The copies being offered to the market are nothing to write home about vis a vis the population and business opportunities. The northern based newspapers are just not visible in the zone.
Daily Trust is the market leader in the northern states. It is enjoying the home advantage in terms of both copy and space sales. Daily Trust circulates in virtually all the states in the northern region. This is unlike Southern based newspapers that circulate in fewer states ostensibly due to security challenge. In fact, they are sending newspapers to the states in order to mark presence and not to sell! The exercise can be likened to Olympics where “participation is of essence rather than winning”. Preference for ‘ local content’ was taken too far when virtually all the newspapers except Daily Trust reported the death of Prophet T. B Joshua on their cover pages not minding that Daily Trust has a South West edition being printed in its Lagos press.
It can be deduced from the fore goings that newspapers are holding on firmly to the markets where they have comparative advantages. This is an indication that no newspaper is national in terms of news coverage and circulation. They have all succeeded in promoting their contents in and around the comparatively favoured regions but to the huge detriment of other regions. In as much as media managers cannot manufacture news items, some newspapers have not led their front pages with news items from other zones outside their catchment areas in the last three weeks.
Media managers should endear themselves into the readers’ minds by basing their contents on communal style of reporting. Their strenghts can therefore lie with readers’ belief in them, presentation of news items, their feasibilities in all the strategic locations and willingness of agents & vendors to carry & display the newspapers.
Conclusively, media job is an activity that requires grasping naked sword and coming to grips with reality in situation stripped of all the possibilities for excuse making.
Abiola Ayankunbi is MD/CEO at AbingMO3 Marketing Management Consultancy
0802 305 1315
abiolaayankunbi@yahoo.com
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