Trust’s 20-year flight against the tide

Success they say is not by accident; it is hard work, perseverance, a learning curve, and sometimes passion-driven. With hard work, today’s sacrifice could become an investment for the future. This in my opinion, summarises the narrative of the Media Trust conglomerate-Daily Trust, Weekly Trust, and Sunday Trust, which transformed from a mere dream and […]

Success they say is not by accident; it is hard work, perseverance, a learning curve, and sometimes passion-driven. With hard work, today’s sacrifice could become an investment for the future. This in my opinion, summarises the narrative of the Media Trust conglomerate-Daily Trust, Weekly Trust, and Sunday Trust, which transformed from a mere dream and idea to a news medium of national reckoning and a respected voice in the crowded media market, able to withstand and transcend the onslaught of the social media wildfire.

 From my perspective as a pioneer Production Editor, those who made sacrifices included even ordinary staff like me and my colleagues. I recall how with pregnancy in 1999, I had to rush to hospital to be delivered of a baby immediately after production. I’d had to work for over 30 hours including overnight production and at the Nationhouse Printing Press owned by the late Shehu Musa Yar’adua before the paper could be rolled out. At another time the paper was being printed at Espee printing press, owned by one of the directors of the company, Malam Rabiu Garba, who teased me severally to ensure I did not give birth in his office. Ditto in 2002, when I gave birth to another child. But by far, the one that confounded my colleagues, was the baby I had in 2005 in Abuja, having been transferred to join the daily team as Deputy Editor in 2003. Unknown to my colleagues who were already complaining that I was taking my luck too far by not going on leave, I was in labour at the time I left the editorial board meeting to Maitama General Hospital, only for me to call them about an hour later to break the news of the birth of my son. Similar sacrifices were made by many of my colleagues, who during the Kaduna crisis of year 2000, braved all odds to come to the office to produce the paper.

 Twenty years after, the Trust brand, its impact and influence in the Nigerian media space, are testaments to qualities mentioned above in addition to adherence to ethical standards, professionalism and innovation in both the business and editorial sides of the newspaper.  Moreover, for a paper that sprouted from a region (North) considered not newspaper-friendly and without the capacity to nurture such to profitability, to have cruised to the highest altitude in only 20 years; the Trust people, its ambassadors (like me, for that is what all ex staff should be), friends and readers are justified in their celebration of this shining Northern star, now competing advantageously on news stands across the country.

I cannot tell the Trust story like its founders; however I’m happy to be a witness to history, the possibilities in dreams, and how they (dreams) can be nurtured to fruition and maturity. Starting from a small office in a business neighbourhood surrounded by shops, in Kaduna, the truth is that Trust was not given any chance of survival, but for a few decisive actions. Above and beyond, constant innovations, beautiful layout and conceptualisation of profitable ideas, the paper survived the initial shock and has prospered; a prosperity engendered by a crop of dedicated staff, determination not to fall into the traps of such failed projects in the industry and lessons learnt therefrom. The paper also seized the opportunity of a vacuum created by the non-existence of an independent newspaper at a time the Abacha junta reigned; and of course, the willpower to hold those in power to account. It was followed by recognition that here was a northern paper willing and professionally ready to tell truth to power, even to a so-called ‘brother’ at the top.  It soon followed that the vast majority of people, especially the political class, saw in Trust a paper for the ventilation of their views for or against the military regime at the time.

 Going by the dictum, that journalism should be on the side of the people and comfort the weak against the establishment, we always reminded ourselves of our corporate social responsibility, to do investigative and exclusive stories such that it could expose corruption, take communities out of the woods by drawing government’s attention to their negligence and of course educate and enlighten the people.

 Finally, there is a saying that if your survival does not depend on a business, there is the likelihood of treating the business with levity. For most of the management and pioneer staff of Trust, their (and our) survival depended on the success of the company. Bearing this in mind, we all worked hard first to earn a living and second to make profit, and finally to prove the point that with good management, the media can actually thrive in the North. Therefore, for the Trust family and its larger community, what started as a passion and business concern became a redeeming metaphor for the North’s capacity to own and manage a successful media outfit.

  I congratulate Trust for this milestone, and hope for more trail-blazing media ventures from the stable of Media Trust.

  Zainab Suleiman Okino is Editor-in-Chief of Blueprint Newspaper

Our regular columnist Sonala Olumhense return next week