Babatunde Jose
Research conducted by AbingMO3 Marketing Management Consultancy revealed that in the history of Nigerian media industry, only two newspapers had attained leadership positions in terms of copy sales. Equally, the sterling qualities of Alhaji Babatunde Jose of old Daily Times and Chief Ajibola Ogunshola of The Punch made the attainment possible; both of them invested heavily in human capital developments and did comprehensive turn-around of the newspapers’ contents.
Ogunshola
These media houses that have took leadership positions in the past did so by narrowing their business focus and not broadening it. They focused on delivering superior reader value in line with one of three value disciplines thus: operational excellence, reader intimacy or newspaper leadership. They became champions in one of these disciplines while meeting industry standards in the other two.
Alhaji Babatunde Jose, Executive Chairman and Editorial Director made Daily Times powerful and influential. Power of press was enormous during his tenure. He turned his house at number 15, Corper road, Ikoyi into a training institute. He believed so much in the human capacity development. He brought in Mr. Willey, an Australian as journalists’ trainer. Mr Willey taught staff about newspapers production, casting headlines for stories, layout making, reporting stories, stories setting, rudiments of each section in the newspaper. Thereafter, he sent some staff members abroad for the acquisition of additional knowledge. Specifically, Mr. Henry Odukomaiya was the first to travel and was the first Editorial Training Manager.
Alhaji Jose was known for reading all the contents before publication. He was a committed administrator who ingested graduates from different backgrounds into the system. He groomed many columnists who drove traffic to the newspapers. Some of the columnists were Sam Amuka, Femi Kusa, Gbolabo Ogunsanwo, Dele Giwa, Alade Odunewu, Peter Enahoro, Areoye Oyebola, Segun Osoba, Herbert Unegbu, Dayo Daramola, Dap Dorman, Nelson Ottah, etc. He was an epitome of editorial leadership that has integrity and professional excellence. Baba Jose groomed many journalists into prominence and enviable positions in the society.
Under his watch, editorial direction took cognizance of national interest. Copies were all over the places and the readers patronized because the titles met their expectations. This later catapulted into the influx of the much needed advertising revenue. At a point, all obituaries adverts were cornered by Daily Times because of its widest circulation network. The newspaper was known for popular stories, politics and controversies. Interviews that were laced with probing and provocative questions that resulted into provocative reactions or responses graced the newspapers.
Findings revealed that Daily Times printed 950,000 copies per day for a very long period of time. Higher sales were recorded with lesser population and low literacy level that prevailed in the 70s. High circulation figure led to ballooned advertising rates. Agencies purchased the half page by columns of Gbolabo Ogunsawo, Sunday Times Editor, (1971-1975) for a longer period of time.
Equally, the success of The Punch wouldn’t have been achieved without the involvement of Chief Ajibola Ogunshola who ran the establishment as a profit making venture while his tenure as an executive chairman lasted. He worked hard to identify what readers needed then and in the immediate future. Anyone can say anything about Chief Ogunshola’s style of leadership but wouldn’t be about his mentorship, thoroughness and awareness of his environments. Involvement of Chief Ajibola Ogunshola who acted based on facts and figures and not on emotions contributed immensely to the self-sustenance of The Punch.
Firstly, he worked on the product (newspaper); he invested so much in the training of the journalists, who form the core of a media business and other support staff. He engaged professors who tutored the journalists on the use of English language at the end of which the house style document was arrived at. Examinations were thereafter conducted and whoever that failed at the second attempt was excused from the job.
In order to drive the copy sales, he ensured that the news presentations were superb and classified based on geographical location. He invested so much in marketing research. At a point, he set up a research and development department. He investigated modern market conditions and arrived at readers’ needs and trends. This led to the presentation of the news items in a precise manner aimed at class B and C thereby becoming a mass circulation newspaper. The newspaper received many awards thereafter. New ideas against the current ones were extracted in the marketplace where new and profitable opportunities were discovered. He obtained surveys and aggregated data indicated trends and helped to calculate the total market share before aiming at the favourable segmented markets.
Competitors were profiled and analysis made it easier to refine strategy and differentiated The Punch from other newspapers. Furthermore, weaknesses of competitors were known, ditto the untapped opportunities. Great idea was stumbled upon with an indication that The Punch was not the only newspaper that has that type of epiphany. Re-sounding breakthrough was achieved through co-creation efforts with management, staff, readers, advertisers, competitors, and suppliers.
There was an increase in sales with the existing customer base as well as acquisition of new ones. This was however made possible based on the early arrival of newspapers at newsstands. Business model was designed and applied thereby positioning The Punch in the right place at the right time and right price.
The Punch was positioned in a different way in the market for attracting different targeted segments of the market.
Specifically, a template to capture mission, tagline, readers’ market, etc was designed and adopted. Chief Ogunshola used curiosity to position efforts in an opportunistic way. Besides being a good listener, he believed so much in ideation and brainstorming and used to succumb to superior argument. He embarked on typical phases in carefully developing The Punch newspaper.
As a way to boost the advertising revenue, he identified the highest advertising companies and went after them. Team that comprised editorial and marketing personnel was set up and they visited many corporate organizations in order to convince them on why they should do business with The Punch.
Chief Ogunshola achieved marchap intelligent through painstaking intelligence gathering laced with diligent tracking and co-ordinated actions of editorial-marketing. Editors were made the chief marketing officers of their titles. One Sunday Editor was nearly sacked based on low circulation figure/sales of his title if not for intervention of the then Circulation Manager who confronted the executive chairman with facts and figures that, that is (was) the trend in the industry because fewer agents/vendors come out on Sundays and most offices do not open for businesses.
This made him to arrive at leading the newspaper with exclusive business news on Mondays. In no distant time, the much needed space sales was achieved. At a point, he gave a target of N1billion revenue per year to the advertisement department; this was achieved in the tenth month. Prior to this time, revenue from copy sales was enough for the payment of staff salaries.
Chief Ogunshola did a yeoman job concerning the packaging and branding. Crest or logo was changed severally in order to meet the expectations of the target audience.
The Punch gave all the news in less than an hour with little synopsis expected of any news item. Anyone can read The Punch in an hurry and still have an appreciable idea of what goes on around him i.e gist of all that is happening especially when there is no time to read all the details of historical analysis and background check of what brought the current story into existence. However, Sunday Punch bridged the gap with detailed and insightful analysis.
The Punch success is a direct result of knowing how to market a brand and having the right people representing the brand. It allowed the readers to drive the business. Any action that was not adding value to the reader was promptly eliminated. It stopped living in the past and waiting for the glory of print to return. It created new businesses by compacting the news items, zone by zone and tactical refusal of the journalists to be part of any beat associations so that there won’t be any form of compromise. The Punch NEVER printed up to 150,000 copies per day from its inception till date. There were instances where its Saturday edition circulated slightly above 120,000 copies per day.
Finally, leadership being a process of influence that seeks to achieve common goals must be beneficial for both the company and the employees. Leadership, innovation and creativity are some of the alternatives which the media fitm can heavily rely on in order to make an in-road.
Abiola Ayankunbi is MD/CEO at AbingMO3 Marketing Management Consultancy.
0802 305 1315
abiolaayankunbi@yahoo.com
