The Internet Controls the Media, But the Nigerian Press Crawls Behind

When I look at the leading Nigerian newspapers and the Nigerian TV channels, I feel disappointed, because, they are still lagging behind by 10 years or more.

Every leading newspaper or television station in most countries in the modern world has gone ahead online. Nigerian newspapers and TV channels are even lagging behind South African newspapers and TV Channels.

More people are surfing the net and watching programmes online than reading newspapers and watching TV offline and the advert revenues from websites are more than the revenues from offline newspapers.
Oprah.com makes more money than all the Nigerian newspapers and TV channels combined.

The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) has a website that is 10 years behind time. It does not even function like a TV website.

The Guardian, This Day, Daily Sun, The Punch and other popular Nigerian newspapers must be 21st Century compliant in this Information Age or continue to grope in the darkness of the backwardness and underdevelopment of the last century.

The communication gap between Nigeria and South Africa is already shown in the monopoly of Mnet Cable TV service through MultiChoice in Nigeria and the NTA is still clueless on how to maximize the wide network to increase the mileage and patronage on TV and on the Internet.
Mnet is using MultiChoice to promote and market South African products and services in Nigeria and making millions of dollars annually.
Nigeria continues to claim to be the largest market in Africa, but her market is not the biggest economy in Africa.

The Nigerian government pays millions of dollars to the CNN and other Western media channels to play Nigerian adverts, because no Nigerian media can do so. And when there was a plane crash near Abuja in Nigeria, the CNN reported the breaking news before the NTA camera operators could get back to their TV station to transmit the broadcast. The CNN I-Report breaks news online 24/7.

Nigerian blogs are even ahead of Nigerian newspapers and TV channels.
Nigerian bloggers are podcasting and broadcasting news, features and music online. But the Radio Nigeria that recently came online seems to be confused about how to upgrade the website. Nigerian bloggers are showing video news and features online when no Nigerian newspaper or TV channel has been able to do so. A Nigerian blog is showing the coverage of the NYSE round the clock and breaks the news on the latest reports on stocks as billions of shares are being traded at the NYSE and other leading stock exchanges in the world. And Nigerian blogs are already collecting revenues from online video adverts when the NTA cannot have a real TV website.

The Internet media propels the economy as American companies have already spent over $18 billion on online adverts in 2007 and a recent survey shows that, the figure will increase to over $34 billion in 2012. So, any news media without an optimized website will lose the great opportunities and immense benefits of the dotcom boom.

The Internet propels the acceleration of the global economy as reports confirmed how broadband created over two million jobs within two years in California and this development cannot occur without the online media.

Information is power and the Internet provides the information faster and the sooner the target audience receives the information the better. Because, breaking news at the NYSE on the latest prices of oil can affect the Nigerian economy within minutes. And as at present no Nigerian news channel reports the latest news from the NYSE, except one Nigerian business success blog hosted by Blogger.

Nigeria as a major oil producer and exporter and one of the leading emerging markets in the world cannot afford to be left behind the rest of the developing economies such as Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines, India and even South Africa.

The Nigerian media will play a vital role in the applications of the Internet for the advancement of Nigeria in the global village.


By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima
The Publisher/CEO
King of Kings Books International
Nigerian Times International Media Network
The largest Nigerian media online