Browsing by Author "Suleiman, Bolakale Yusuf"

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    Editors’ perspectives on the effects of the decline in printed Newspaper readership in Nigeria.
    (Media and Communication Currents, 2021) Aliagan, Isiaka Zubair; Suleiman, Bolakale Yusuf; Babatunde, Abdulsalam Kamaldin
    The printed newspaper readership had been on a progressive decline across the globe, particularly in the developed media world, where embattled newspapers had engaged in creative destruction approaches to reposition themselves. The phenomenon does not leave out printed newspapers in the developing market, including Nigeria where newspapers had witnessed depleting readership since the 1980s. Anchored on Schumpeter’s Creative Destruction Theory, this study examined the depth of Nigeria’s printed newspaper’s readership challenge and analyzed the creative approaches they employed to overcome their plummeting fortunes. In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 editors in nine mainstream newspapers. To analyse the data, an inductive thematic approach was used. Findings revealed that Nigerian newspapers were threatened by the migration of news readers online for news and taking defensive strategies imperative to survive. Innovations by the newspapers include regionalization of their operation to minimise loss, reduction in newspaper colour pages, cut in print run, and outsourcing of newspaper circulation. Other creative measures were scaling down editorial staff, with six newspapers undertaking job cuts, six newspapers shutting down unproductive bureaus; five newspapers relying on freelance or stringers; introduction of barter payment to procure operation vehicles, and suspension of staff recruitment, among others. The newspapers in the study are still to initiate a transformational innovation to recreate themselves into a hybrid digitized platform. The study recommended that newspaper managers should be aware of the overall impact on editorial content, which is what gives newspaper journalism its core value, as they continue to look for innovative ways to reverse the bad fortunes of the printed newspaper caused by the disruptive technologies that are depriving it of its old readership and revenue base.