Blueprint is set for daily publication
According to her, “We are really prepared to go daily. We have some of the best hands. We purged some and we employed some. In terms of machines, everything is not in place, but we are aware that human capital is very important in any organization. We are really giving it preference. But, in all, […]
According to her, “We are really prepared to go daily. We have some of the best hands. We purged some and we employed some. In terms of machines, everything is not in place, but we are aware that human capital is very important in any organization. We are really giving it preference. But, in all, I can tell you that we are absolutely prepared to commence daily publication from 19th September this year. As you can see, we are barely five months old, but the paper has been waxing stronger. The reason is that we have done what is ethically allowed in the profession. We tried to be as professional as possible, we have broken new grounds by breaking news stories. You must be aware that our paper broke the story of the Boko Haram suicide bomber at the Police Headquarters in Abuja. This gave us an edge and everybody has been calling to say we did well. Now, when you say Blueprint, people no longer say they don’t know us.”
Hajiya Okino said the motivating factor in Blueprint, and which further propelled the newspaper for daily publication, is the dedication and commitment of project chairman. “If I may tell you, the dedication of the chairman is the moving force here. We all appreciate his zeal and commitment to this project, so we have also decided to give him the commitment he gave to the company by doing our best in the course of producing the newspaper.”
In terms of challenges being faced in running the newspaper, the executive editor observed that even though there have been challenges, because of the names which big publications have built for themselves over the years, Blueprint is prepared to prove it’s worth. “Trust, for instance, has been there for 14 years now. In the course of time, we are also going to prove our worth because we have the resources. What I mean, in terms of resources, is not money, but human capital. We have people who are big names in their own right, who have worked and proved themselves in other newspapers and are now with us. Again, we are going to try to do the right thing in areas of good news, good analyses, features, and when adverts start coming in, of course, they have been coming, people will key into our project.”
On whether the newspaper is bringing in some stars in the profession on board to actualize this dream, she said “everybody is a star, even the messenger is a star in his own right, because, at times, you can’t do some things without him. We are actually not the best in the industry, but we have all paid our dues, including the chairman of the company, who had been in public relations for a long time. He was even the publisher of The Market and now he is venturing into newspaper publishing. We also have an editor who is one of the best in the industry. He was the best graduating student of his set and as editor he has been very outstanding in the profession. He was once editor of Leadership. And here I am. I was a pioneer staff of Daily Trust, I rose to the position of Acting Managing Editor before I left Leadership newspaper. We also have other big names like AbdulRauf AbdulRahaman, Clement Oluwole and Amos Duniya. They are big names in their own right but big names are not enough. We are really motivated and we are ready to go.
The Executive Editor said, in the next five years, she wants to see the newspaper as popular as any of its age in the industry. “We want to be basically strong, first, in our region in the north, Abuja and other surrounding states. Now, we are in Lagos, Port Harcourt but we are not yet very strong there. But by the time we establish our footprints in our own states in the north, where we are known basically, it is only a question of time before we are known generally in the country,” she said.