Entries invited for N1m first prize media award

Nigerian Breweries Plc has announced plans for the 7th edition of its Golden Pen Awards which first prize winner will get N1million.
The company’s Corporate Affairs Adviser, Kufre Ekanem at a press briefing on Tuesday in Lagos said this year’s award would retain the same mechanisms used last year where journalists and media houses are expected to send in entries based on selected themes to encourage media focus on critical sectors of the Nigerian economy.
Education, Youth Empowerment and Talent Development according to Ekanem, have been chosen as the focus areas for this year’s award. Journalists and their media houses can send in reports covering this subject areas published between January 1 and December 31 2014.
Collation of entries for the award will commence Tuesday, July 28, 2015 and close on Friday, September 21, 2015.
All entries are to be sent to the independent coordinating agency, Mediacraft Associates via goldenpen2015@mediacraft.ng or at its corporate office, at 7 Okunola Aina Street, Mende, Maryland, Lagos.
 Mediacraft Associates will collate all entries submitted for assessment by a jury. The jury will analyse the reports and photographs for their Originality, News Value, Use of Resources, Credibility and factuality.
Other areas of interest would include Info-graphics, Lay out/Headline, Clarity and Social impact. Categories of the award and the prizes to be won to include: The Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Reporter of the Year (Special statuette + N1, 000, 000.00); first runner up for the Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Reporter of the Year (Special statuette + N300, 000.00) and second runner up for the Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Reporter of the Year (Special statuette + N200, 000.00).
 Others are: The Golden Pen Nigerian Breweries Report of the Year (Special statuette + N500, 000.00); The Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Photojournalist of the Year (Special statuette + N300, 000.00); first runner up for the Nigerian Breweries Photojournalist of the Year (Special statuette + N250, 000.00) and second runner up for the Nigerian Breweries Photojournalist of the Year (Special statuette + N200, 000.00).
Winners will be announced and awarded their prizes at the 7th Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Award ceremony in October 2015.
 The Nigerian Breweries Golden Pen Award was inaugurated in 2008 to celebrate Nigerian journalists and to promote professionalism and objective reportage of events in corporate Nigeria. It is also meant to reward journalists who abide by the ethics of the profession.

How I got a foreign correspondent offer

I am often asked how to get signed on as a freelance correspondent for international news organisations. In this article published in Stop Press Newsletter in 2004, I explained how I became the Nigerian correspondent for a News Agency in Kenya. The article is published below: Sometime last year, I got an email from the editor of a US based magazine containing the bulletin of All Africa News Agency in Nairobi Kenya. After reading through the particular story she wanted to draw my attention to, I read through the whole bulletin made up of news and features. What immediately struck me was that although the publication was supposed to be continental in coverage, it had nothing on West Africa. Based on what I had learnt about seeking opportunities for international reporting, I checked on past editions of the news service and confirmed that coverage of West Africa was rather shallow. My suspicion was that the agency had no correspondents in the region like East, Central and South Africa which stories dominated the bulletins. I immediately sent a mail to the editor of the news service whose address was included in the bulletin. I commended him for the good work he was doing, but noted the poor coverage of West Africa. It took almost a week to get a reply from him. He admitted the need for more reports from West Africa but said he was still searching for a freelance correspondent for the region. Because the service was largely charitable in nature being a funded project, he said their payment for stories was as low as 10 dollars per story and 50 dollars for features published in their weekly service. Since the stories did not require much financial cost, I agreed to write for the agency. More than for the money, I considered writing for the news agency as an opportunity for exposure of my writing since materials from the weekly bulletin are reused by other international agencies. Due to my other commitments, I managed to send twelve reports in about two months which earned me 120 dollars. This money came in very handy to pay for the registration at a conference I attended in Nairobi in September last year. I could have earned more if I had written more stories and features. Most of my stories were reused on various International Agencies like allafrica.com, Aman News etc. The Internet is no doubt a goldmine waiting to be tapped by interested journalists. FAST FOWARD 2015: Since 2004, I have been hired as a freelance correspondent by other foreign publications with higher pay as much as $250 per story.

FLASH BACK: THE UNTOLD (UNPAID MEDIA SALARY) STORY

Nigeria journalists have done well reporting the plight of workers. The pathetic story of the media, however , remains untold. Lekan Otufodunrin and Theophilus Abbah in this piece published in June 1999 provide a glimpse of the true state of the media. The sole Administrator of Daily Times Newspaper, Mr. Peter Enahoro, is not known to be a religious person. However, at a press conference last month on the pathetic situation of his company, he had to resort to a biblical verse. " Even the Bible talks about the labourer deserving his wages", he said while sympathizing with his staff who were been owed about nine months salary. In a no-hold bared briefing, the veteran journalist on whose intelligence and integrity the distressed workers of Daily Times depended for the revival and revitalization of the oldest newspaper in Nigeria, threw up his hand in brazen surrender to failure. His words " two and half years ago, when I returned to the Daily Times after an absence of thirty years, I was hailed as the man who had walked on water.... (who) had come to restore the Daily Times to its old glory. It has not happened". The situation in the company has become so bad that one of its editors at a recent worldnet programme organised by the African Independent Television (AIT) and the United States Information Service (USIS) at Alagbado, Lagos, introduced himself to the audience as an editor from the distressed Daily Times stable. It is not only Daily Times that is depressed. Concord Press, perhaps the highest paying media house in Nigeria before the June 12, 1993 presidential election, won by its late proprietor, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, is also distressed. Its staff were paid their November 1998 salaries in April 1999. Also at the Diet Newspaper, the story is that of sadness. Its proprietor, Chief James Ibori, now governor of Delta State, has apparently abandoned the organization. For several months now salaries have not been paid, while transport claims for reporters to cover their beats have been stopped. There are no off-cut or writing pads for reporters to write their stories.

At ThisDay Newspapers, the award winning newspaper, the situation is just a little better. Despite the huge volume of advertisements that the newspaper attracts, reporters are sometimes owed salaries for at least two months. It took a strike recently to get the management to pay salary arrears owed staff in April. The story is the same at African Independent Television (AIT) and RayPower.

It is difficult to establish the causes of distress in the media. However the greater part of it is attributed to greed and poor management. The story of one of the defunct media houses illustrates this. The publisher of the promising business newspaper was contesting the governorship of his home state, and the best source of fund was the newspaper's account. After owing his staff salaries for months, he decided to close the paper, saying he was using the money to fund his election campaign. The staff of the rested title have called in vain for justice to be done but all to no avail. At another media organization which was owing salaries for two months something dramatic happened. The publisher approved the payment of salaries one morning, and the pay-officer commenced the payment. After eleven employees had collected their salaries, the publisher sent an aide instructing the pay officer to stop the payment and give the money to the aide, who was detailed to change the "staff salaries" into dollars to enable the boss travel abroad!. At the Daily Times, a former Information Minister is being indicted for withdrawing huge amount of money from the newspaper account to sponsor his trips. This is the true story of media organizations which prefer to point out the speck in other people's eyes ignoring the log in theirs. In the spirit of dogs not eating dogs, journalists have been suffering in silence while shouting themselves hoarse over the inability of government to pay minimum wage. At the Sketch Newspaper for example, the average journalist salary is less than what is to be paid as minimum wage to civil servants. In one of the worst typical display of using and dumping journalists with the slightest regards to their right to decent living, the management of the Tribune Newspapers recently sacked more than half of its editorial staff. A few media organizations like The Punch, Vanguard, Tell and The Guardian deserve commendation for their attention to staff welfare but the general feelings among their workers is that they (media organisations) can do better considering the enormours profit accruing to them. The pathetic situation in the media deserves attention of all concerned as it has put journalists in a very difficult situation. We have graduate journalists who cannot pay their house rents or provide for their families because their salaries are unpaid. Some have to walk long distances to cover assignments and in due process be subjected to ridicule when they insist on "brown envelopes". The situation explains why very good hands are now searching for opening in other sectors where their lots could be bettered. No wonder standards keep falling. As the country begins in a democratic era where freedom from oppression, that journalists suffered under the 15-year military regime, is expected to thrive, let us pray to God to touch the industry and create positive change. Journalism is a noble profession. It is not a curse to be a journalist. Pray for Journalism in Nigeria so that it will be well with the profession.

Unpaid salaries: The Mobutu in media owners

As the Nigerian Union of Journalists continues its campaign for the payment of salaries of journalists owed for several months by various media houses, a renowned media scholar and columnist, Professor Olatunji Dare has written an interesting perspective on the matter. As part of his Tuesday Home and Abroad column in The Nation Newspaper of July 14 he wrote on what he subtitled Call it the Mobutu Principle. The piece is reproduced below: In Zaire, as the Democratic Republic of Congo was then known, word reached President Mobutu Sese Seko that enlisted soldiers who could not recall when they last received their salaries had mutinied. He summoned the mutineers from one military to his palace. “ I hear you are complaining that you have not been paid,” he said. The mutineers murmured in confirmation. Pointing at one of them, Mobutu asked,”What is that you are holding? “A rifle, Sir,” the subaltern replied. Mobutu pointed at another solider and put the same question to him. The same response: A rifle. “I have given you each an assault rifle and you are complaining about unpaid salaries,” Mobutu intoned with stunned incredulity. “What salary can be more assured than the rifle in your hand? The message was clear: Use what you have to get whatever you need. I will not be surprised if media people who have not been paid for months on end finally yielded to the temptation into which their employers had led them and used their columns and news holes and air time to fend for themselves, as indeed some of those selfsame employers had indeed urged them to do, I gather.

Vacancy: Writer/editor, freelancers

Quartz Africa, a business news outlet focused on African innovation, requires the service a writer/editor for a full-time employment in Lagos and freelancers in Nigeria. According an announcement on ijnet.org, journalists who have experience in business and economics reporting can apply for these positions. Suitable candidates must understand social media and have original ideas to tell the stories around Quartz's obsessions with the next billion people to come online and the innovation and disruption happening across the continent. For more information or to apply, contact Africa editor Yinka Adegoke at yinka@qz.com

Salary debts : NUJ gets three months pay for Thisday staff

Here is the update on the picketing of Thisday by the Lagos Council of the Nigerian Union of Journalists( NUJ) over non payment of staff salaries. " We succeeded in getting three months pay for Thisday staff on Wednesday evening while the remaining five months will be cleared by August . " The picketing exercise stands suspended. " Meanwhile, we are mobilising towards storming Daar Communications in a matter of days," Deji Elumoye, Lagos NUJ Chairman said in an email reply to my enquiry.

Breakdown of salaries owed by media houses

A number of media houses in Lagos are owing their staff salaries for many months. Here is a breakdown of the debt owed according to the Acting President of the State Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress Mr.Peter Adeyemi. Thisday Newspapers, nine months Africa Independent Television (AIT), 17 months Daily Independent, nine months Tell Magazine, eight months National Mirror and Newswatch Daily, seven months The News/PM News, nine months Daily Champion, 18 months Hallmark Newspapers, eight months Daily Times, six months

Global interest in Journalism

Vacancies : PRO, Associate Editor

Public Relations Officer 

Caleb University, Lagos has invited application for the post of a Public Relations officer for the institution.

According to a publication in The Punch on the of July 1, interested candidates should possess a Honors degree in Arts or Social Sciences preferably Mass Communication, Public Relations or English with at least three years experience.

Further inquiries  and copies of candidates applications and CV’s should be sent to Registrar, Caleb University, Imota, Lagos, P.M.B or visit www.CalebUniversity.edu.ng

Associate Editor for Pentecostal church.

A Lagos based pentecostal Church is seeking to employ an Associate Editor.

 Applicants should possess a minimum of BA degree (2^nd Class lower) in English language and a Diploma in Marketing.

A five year hands on experience in the publishing industry/print media in a similar position is required.

Applicants should call  07069692607 for scheduled appointments.

Multimedia training for 100 journalists

 

Dan, Obe (middle) with participants at a session in Lagos

One hundred Nigerian journalists are to be trained in multimedia journalism by The Journalism Clinic with the support of leading telecommunications services provider, Airtel Nigeria.

 The four-city-four-week multimedia journalism training/road show, which is billed to start in Lagos on 27 July, will according to the organizers expose select participating journalists to tools and techniques to make their content more compelling to the vast audiences who now, more than ever before, consume news and other content on digital platforms.

An international trainer and specialist in online, mobile and social media, Dan Mason, will be the lead facilitator of the hands-on workshop which also be be held in Ibadan (3-8 August); Abuja (10-17 August) and Port Harcourt (17-21 August). Interested journalists should contact Taiwo Obe at The Journalism Clinic: founder@thejournalismclinic.com 
According to the Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya, the initiative is a glowing testimony of the company’s commitment to creating empowerment platforms which will enrich the lives of all its critical stakeholders including the media.

Ogunsanya, MD Airtel

“The epic growth of smart phones and social media has turned news upside-down. To stay ahead, journalists need to create compelling stories which would not only be shared on social but also easily accessible on mobile devices. It is our delight to support journalists in Nigeria to perform optimally in this mobile age. Media audiences will also get better engaged while media owners should expect increased traffic to their platforms. It’s a win-win for everyone,” said Ogunsanya.

The Journalism Clinic’s Founder/Director Taiwo Obe said: “Participants, who will be drawn from print, electronic and online media, through nominations by editors and managers of news media platforms, will learn how to approach, plan and create multimedia stories that shout ‘share me!’ on social media.”

He added: “Mason, a Briton, nicknamed Otunba by appreciative journalists who have attended some of his workshops in Nigeria, is excited about this programme. He will treat topics including mobile video and audio, data and charts, infographics, maps, timelines, interactive images and more, underpinned by the power of social media.”

A trainee in a past Mason workshop, Mrs Ese Aluko, said of him: “He is simply amazing. If all tutors were like him, our country would indeed be a better place.”

Video: Writing for the web

My video interview on writing for the web at LittWorld Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, 2013

Photo: Guess who was caught on duty?

Media Addict, Social Media Freak, Online-Journalist and  Photojournalist, Bode Modupe on duty in Lagos recently.

Modupe on duty

Tweets from Women in Journalism conference

Speakers at the conference

The 2015 edition of the Women in Journalism conference was held in Lagos on Thursday, June 2. Reports from participants I spoke with indicate that it was a professionally enlightening event with lots of opportunities for networking.
Below are some of the tweets from the conference and links to reports, photos and videos.

@MyFCMB: If you have a passion for something, Go for it. #WiJ2015 Cc .@Wijnigeria
@radmusings: There is no editor that will ignore a good story. Don't box yourself into corners.Write what you are interested in-Funke Egbemode #WiJ2015
@radioolori: When you are passionate about something, go all out and do it. #WiJ2015 http://t.co/g17HwPwtQ4
@TWmagazineNG: An editor or producer should be 'Jack of all trades'- Ijeoma Nwogwugwu #wij2015 #twmagazine
@deartosin: Reporters/Editors should not be close to the persons they report about for objectivity sake.  @Wijnigeria #WIJ2015
@kiki_mordi: My business is to communicate facts
My instructions do not allow me to make any comments...
#WiJ2015
@ssussaine: It was a good moment to be associated with professionalism in the Nigerian media at its peak #wij2015 @Wijnigeria https://t.co/gzHBHDIblb
@Wijnigeria: wij 2015 Sen ANYAWU: http://t.co/UfORwnGsQu via @YouTube
For more details on the conference see : www.Wij2015.org

participants at the conference  Photo: wij2015.org

Ode to Max, publisher Sundiatapost.com

Max Amuchie

On July 7 Max Amuchie will launch his online newspaper, Sundiatapost.com in Abuja.
In this tribute, Adeniran  Adedokun, a lawyer, journalist and executive director, David & Destiny PR, Lagos writes that Amuchie " has brought his creativity, hard work and passion to bear on Sundiata Post, which is to my mind one of the neatest, well laid out news platforms for Nigeria today."


If anyone in Nigeria tells you that he is a practising journalist, you should respect the person. Now, let me clarify. There are wannabe journalists. Just like you have in all other professions, there are Nigerians who see journalism as a quick meal ticket, they are quacks without training or pedigree. Most of these are no better than street urchins, in appearance and conduct, worse, they are so dumb they do not even realise it. Languishing in the illusion of failed aspirations sheer flair for criminality, they come at you with out-of-this -world names of media organisations that they represent, just to be able to get into your pocket.
No, I don’t mean those ones, those are not journalists. They are criminals who exploit the vain and undiscerning. We do them a favour to even describe them as fake journalists, the nobility of the profession abhors that, they should just be called what they are touts, and fake ones at that.
I mean people who truly work for a media organisation, whether in the print or electronic medium. Those ones deserve your eternal respect.
The journalist is possibly the most endangered professional in today’s Nigeria. When I was growing up, the teacher had that cap. I heard it a lot of times that the reward of teachers awaited them in heaven, I guess we should hand it the journalist now.
Journalism is a hazardous endeavour anywhere in the world but much more so in Nigeria. The job is dangerous and thankless at the same time. It is poor paying or not paying at all, yet it puts a demand on the totality of the practitioner’s being. Journalism takes no excuses from people. Unpaid salaries is no explanation for not covering your beat. Salaries pile up for months, yet you must file reports daily, because society, which moves on without you, without any jot of understanding of what you pass through, has expectations from the medium that you work for. And the owner of that medium, not unaware of the state of your finances, having imposed it on you himself (sometimes through no fault of his) takes it out on you when you do not deliver. A journalist must learn to be a yeoman at his job.

Deji Elumoye, Lagos NUJ Chairman

In journalism bragging rights for an accomplishment is tentative. Don’t even dwell on it, at least for not more than 24 hours. This crown with which you were crowned yesterday was made and labelled for yesterday alone, so don’t come to work today with that “I have conquered the world” sense for you may just be in for a shocker. It once happened in my very presence that a journalist did a story that got him effusive commendation from his employers and a little slip the next day saw him out of the organisation. Here, you live each day on the tether, not sure what the next moment holds. One of my mentors once told me that he considered every day to be his last when he was editor of a newspaper. He cleared his table like he was not going to return the next day at the end of every work day. Such insecurity is the nature of journalism.
How do people move on with life that way, no salaries, no insurance, no allowances to help with a home, or get a car, or send your child to school these days when public schools have become a mockery of education? But the Nigerian journalist moves on, feeding you with information every day, no matter how indisposed he feels.
This is why I respect journalists. And I encourage you to, next time you see a gentleman of the press, accord them some honour for the sacrifices they make for fatherland in spite of all those misgivings you may have. Journalists are after all human.
Then when I see someone who hung on and kept at it, until he is able to leave and do something for himself, I am totally awed. Being a journalist for two decades is enough work but sticking to it and then going ahead to establish a platform where you no longer echo the voice of another is one reward beyond compare.
Anyone who achieves this is blessed by God in measures he cannot even imagine. You need single minded tenacity to start and stick to a career in journalism in Nigeria and then go ahead to be a publisher. You need creativity to keep your life together and be all that you can possibly be to everyone around you at the same. Such feats are made possible only by divine grace.
This is why I celebrate, my brother and friend, Max Amuchie as he unveils his online newspaper, Sundiata Post in Abuja on July 7. It is no surprise that Max finds the grace to establish one of the fastest growing online newspapers in Nigeria today really. The dedication and commitment with which he handles what he has to do for others is a virtue that the heavens would be unjust not to reward. But then unlike man, God is fairness personified and He has given Max the reward which over two decades of slaving it out for other people may not have brought him materially.
Max has brought his creativity, hard work and passion to bear on Sundiata Post, which is to my mind one of the neatest, well laid out news platforms for Nigeria today. It takes a lot of alertness to remain relevant as an online newspaper and give us the news as it breaks.
There sure is dignity in labour, just as there is reward. Max’s reward has come from the experiences of the years of meagre and unpaid salaries. He has sowed and invested in the work of others and now he has his harvest.
It is not like the struggle is over though. The road will be rough especially with the harsh business climate in Nigeria and the daily challenges that an entrepreneur faces. But if we agree that it takes a measure of grace to get this far in Nigeria, that grace is in abundant supply. I pray that my friend continues to find the grace to keep at it and make Sundiata Post a legacy that generations will talk about.

How to 'google' your journalism

Media Career Development Diary (54)
By Lekan Otufodunrin

How to 'google' your journalism

Tolu Ogunlesi, Pharmacist turned journalist, writer, poet and photographer once asked how my generation practiced journalism without google.

His question was informed by the new tools which Google and other technology companies now offer which makes it easier to research and distribute information globally.

My answer was we did with the facilities we had.  After all like the saying, what you don't know and probably what you don't have cannot harm you.

However with the rate at which technology is changing the way journalism is practiced worldwide, traditional journalists cannot continue to ignore new media tools.

One of the realities of remaining a contemporary journalist in a new media age is to master the use of various new tools developed by technology companies to enhance the practice of the profession.

Google recently unveiled its NewsLab as part of its continuing efforts to provide new work tools for both professional and citizen journalists.

With Google tools available at g.co/NewsLab journalists can do four main things better.

Research: Develop your story using Google's research tools

Report: Enhance your story using Google's visualization tools

Distribute: Circulate your story through Google's distribution tools

Optimization: Improve engagement using Google's analytic tools

The products include  

Google Search: Research with precision. Simple tools and tips to help you get better results, faster.

Google Maps: Show where stories happen by building interactive maps.

Google News: Reach a wider audience by joining our global news network.

Google play: Circulate stories on our global mobile newsstand.

You Tube: Own your channel to share your videos globally

Google Public Data Explorer: Access a world of data and create high-quality visuals.

Google Earth pro: See the entire world from wherever you are via satellite imagery, maps, terrain, 3D building and more.

Google Alert: Stay in the know on breaking stories that are important to you.

Google Consumer Surveys: Gather data from real people by creating your own web surveys.

Google Translate: Speak the language just about anywhere you go.

Google Permission: Learn proper usage and citations for Google products.

Blogger: Have a blog to share information and earn money.

To learn more about how to use specific products for journalists go to : NewsLab.withgoogle.com

Beyond having a gmail account for sending and receiving mails alone and doing general search on google, there is more we all have to learn about how to become a multi-media  journalist.

The time to 'Google' your journalism is now, tomorrow may be too late. 

Thanks for reading and sharing this edition with colleagues. I welcome your feedback on your experience using Google tools. If you have specific questions on media career development related issues , feel free to contact me.  Telephone: 08023000621, 08050498530: Email: info@mediacareerng.org : Twitter: @lotufodunrin: Skype: lekanskype: website : mediacareerng.org