By Lekan Otufodunrin
At an international newsroom Leadership in tough times training I am participating, the Editor-In-Chief of a top United States newspaper was asked how to assure staff of their future in the industry with the uncertainty and job losses, her response was unambiguous: RADICAL TRANSPARENCY!
“This is what I will recommend to any media executive to adopt now,” she declared.
“Staff deserves to know the path ahead of them. There is no point hiding the numbers from them. Hiding it from them is not a good strategy.
“In the absence of the facts, they are likely to start conjuring all kinds of false scenarios. They just need to know the truth and decide what they need to do with their career and lives before it’s too late,” she stated.
As I listened to her, I could not but reflect on the situation in the Nigeria media that is very precarious like in other climes, but there is not enough understanding of how bad it is by some journalists and the public.
When the Managing Director of The Punch, Mr Ademola Osinubi issued a surprise memo to staff of the company early this year in which he lamented the inability of the newspaper to overcome the challenges of COVID-19 on the industry, many were shocked to hear him say so.
His newspaper that was supposed to be the leading publication in the print industry in the country and doing better than its competitors, but as the MD bluntly puts it “All projections point at a bleak and uncertain future for the media industry and the economy.”
While other media executives may not have openly owned up like Mr Osinubi did, the truth is that they are in worse situations.
Even while all the indicators, including non-payment of salaries in some organisations are clear enough for all to see, some are still pretending that “it will be well” when the chances are very slim.
Unfortunately, some media staff have the false impression that their companies are doing better that their managers claim.
“We are making money. The problem is mismanagement,” a reporter once told me.
“How many copies do you think your paper is printing and selling?” I asked the reporter.
He responded claiming a high double digits thousands, adding that “we can see many adverts in the paper”
When I showed him the real unbelievable low circulation figures and sales of the newspaper nationwide per day, he initially argued that it cannot be true.
“You mean we sell this low?” he asked and wondered how much revenue could be earned from the low figure.
I know newspapers that circulate much lower than the paper we were discussing, yet some of their staff still brag about how well their publications are doing.
The situation is not really better in the broadcast industry. With so many private and public stations across the country, the competition is very stiff for the few available adverts and other commercials.
Some have cut down broadcast time to minimise cost of fuelling generators, sacked staff and it’s a matter of time before some will be forced to shut down.
I admit that mismanagement is part of the problems for some organisations, but the potentials for the continued existence of especially traditional media organisations that are not responding as well as they should to the digital disruption of the industry is very low.
Like a New York Times Digital report once noted, it may no longer really make economic sense to continue to print newspapers given the low revenue from regular copy sales and advertising.
Media managers have had to resort to all kinds of survival strategies, some of which they are not proud to let the public know of.
Instead of giving staff the false hope or the staff refusing to acknowledge how bad the situation is, all concerned must come to terms with grim reality.
Managers like the US E-I-C stated must be radically transparent and let every staff know what is likely to happen in the long run if their present situation persists.
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