Sunday Ehigiator
Chairman and Publisher of Daily Times Nigeria, Fidelis Anosike, has said the newspaper’s transition into its second century will focus on using the media as a catalyst to reshape Nigeria’s global perception and project the achievements of Nigerians across various sectors. Anosike disclosed this during a media update on activities marking the centenary of Daily Times.
He explained that the anniversary was designed not only to celebrate the newspaper’s past but also to launch a new phase tagged “Daily Times 2.0.”
According to him, Folio Communications acquired Daily Times 22 years ago and had since been repositioning the organisation while reconnecting it with the wider media ecosystem.
Anosike said, “We started this journey a year ago because it was important to us to be able to give account to the media community what we’ve been doing since we acquired Daily Times, and then relink the Daily Times to the media, the greater media ecosystem.”
He explained that the centenary programme was designed to mark the end of the newspaper’s first century and prepare it for the next.
he stated, “Over the past 22 years that we acquired Daily Times, it was important for us to have an event or series of events that will culminate into Daily Times 2.0. Daily Times 2.0 is in the next century of Daily Times because what we are closing is closing Century One.”
Anosike said the newspaper, founded in 1926, had evolved from a traditional newspaper company into an organisation with interests spanning the capital market, media and nation-building, having operated more than 30 titles covering areas including education and health.
He said the company had chosen to leverage its archives and historical relevance to help address what he described as Nigeria’s poor global perception.
He said, “Nigeria is struggling with perception, and it’s the same thing or the same scenario when Daily Times was founded. So we felt that the first thing we need to do is to be able to figure out how we can become a catalyst to change the global perception of Nigeria.”
Anosike said the organisation’s flagship publication, “Nigeria,” was intended to document the country’s changemakers and enable Nigerians to tell their own story.
“What the book is meant to do is to be able to consolidate our story by ourselves and then use it as a tool or a catalyst to change the global perception,” he said.
He stressed that Nigeria must take ownership of its narrative, noting that Nigerians were often celebrated globally while the country itself remained poorly perceived.
“Nigerians must attack their global perception. We can’t sit down and do things, people love Nigerians, they don’t love Nigeria, and we’re not able to transition that love for Nigerians to love for the country,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria has the human and natural resources required to become a major global destination, but must do more to retain value from its resources and achievements.
“But we have the best engineers, we have the best cultural architects, we have the best everything. But we must be able to galvanise that,” he said.
He added that Daily Times would work with other media organisations to amplify Nigeria’s achievements, stressing: “We will work with all media ecosystem to begin to push our narrative.”
Anosike also maintained that the media remained central to national development.
“There is no development without media. That’s why it’s written into the constitution,” he said.
He disclosed that Folio spent about N1.2 billion to acquire Daily Times and had subsequently undertaken several initiatives to reposition the organisation.
Chairman of DTN @100, Bolaji Okusaga, said Folio had used the 22 years since acquiring Daily Times to address challenges facing the newspaper industry while developing new media franchises.
Okusaga said the company initially focused on the distribution challenge before moving fully into digital operations and other ventures.
According to Okusaga, Folio also re-engineered the Miss Nigeria franchise into a broader cycle of events supporting the beauty and fashion industry, while establishing the Creative Market as a Pan-African franchise for the creative economy.
He also cited the Folio-CNN partnership, which produced programmes including “Connecting Africa,” as part of the company’s strategy.
“What Folio is doing now with Daily Times taking it into Century Two is to totally digitise, then create new franchises,” Okusaga said.
He said the Times Heroes Awards was another franchise that would continue beyond the centenary celebrations.
Okusaga explained that Daily Times was no longer being positioned simply as a traditional newspaper.
“Folio is becoming larger than the media empire. We’re using Daily Times as a springboard because of its huge legacy, but it is also re-engineering Daily Times,” he said.
Meanwhile, Anosike announced that the second major centenary event would hold on November 3 at Harbour Point, where the organisation would unveil more details of its Century Two strategy.
He said the event would also examine how Nigeria could consolidate its development rather than continue to develop in a scattered manner.
He stated, “Development is logical. Development is not from everywhere. But if you look at what is happening in Nigeria today, it looks as if Nigeria is developing in a scattered manner. Now how do we consolidate?”
Anosike said the ultimate objective was to use Daily Times’ legacy and the wider media ecosystem to foster national development and improve Nigeria’s global image.
He said, “We believe that having been in Daily Times in the past quarter and has gotten massive support from everybody, our responsibility now is to act as a catalyst to change that global positive perception of Nigeria.”