The Chairman and Publisher of Daily Times Nigeria, Fidelis Anosike, has unveiled plans for the newspaper’s second century, saying the organisation will use its media platforms and historic legacy to help reshape Nigeria’s global image and promote the achievements of Nigerians.
Anosike disclosed this during a media briefing on activities marking the centenary of Daily Times, founded in 1926.
He said the centenary celebrations were not only aimed at commemorating the newspaper’s first 100 years but also at launching a new phase of its development, tagged “Daily Times 2.0.”
According to him, Folio Communications acquired Daily Times 22 years ago and has since been repositioning the organisation while reconnecting it with the broader media ecosystem.
“We started this journey a year ago because it was important to us to be able to give account to the media community what we’ve been doing since we acquired Daily Times, and then relink the Daily Times to the media, the greater media ecosystem,” Anosike said.
He explained that the centenary programme was designed to mark the conclusion of the newspaper’s first century while laying the foundation for its next 100 years.
“Over the past 22 years that we acquired Daily Times, it was important for us to have an event or series of events that will culminate into Daily Times 2.0. Daily Times 2.0 is in the next century of Daily Times because what we are closing is closing Century One,” he said.
Using Media to Change Nigeria’s Global Perception
Anosike said Daily Times had evolved beyond its traditional newspaper operations into an organisation with interests spanning the capital market, media and nation-building.
He noted that the organisation had operated more than 30 titles over the years, covering sectors including education and health.
According to him, Daily Times intends to leverage its archives, history and media influence to contribute to correcting what he described as Nigeria’s negative global perception.
“Nigeria is struggling with perception, and it’s the same thing or the same scenario when Daily Times was founded. So we felt that the first thing we need to do is to be able to figure out how we can become a catalyst to change the global perception of Nigeria,” he said.
Anosike said the organisation’s flagship publication, “Nigeria,” would document the contributions of the country’s changemakers and provide a platform for Nigerians to tell their own stories.
“What the book is meant to do is to be able to consolidate our story by ourselves and then use it as a tool or a catalyst to change the global perception,” he explained.
He stressed the need for Nigerians to take greater ownership of the country’s narrative, arguing that while Nigerians were often admired internationally, the same positive perception had not been sufficiently transferred to Nigeria as a nation.
“Nigerians must attack their global perception. We can’t sit down and do things, people love Nigerians, they don’t love Nigeria, and we’re not able to transition that love for Nigerians to love for the country,” Anosike said.
‘Nigeria Has the Human Resources to Lead’
The Daily Times chairman said Nigeria possessed the human and natural resources required to become a major global destination but needed to do more to maximise and retain value from its resources and achievements.
“But we have the best engineers, we have the best cultural architects, we have the best everything. But we must be able to galvanise that,” he said.
He added that Daily Times would collaborate with other media organisations to promote the country’s achievements and strengthen the Nigerian narrative.
“We will work with all media ecosystem to begin to push our narrative,” he said.
Anosike also described the media as critical to national development.
“There is no development without media. That’s why it’s written into the constitution,” he said.
He disclosed that Folio Communications invested about N1.2 billion to acquire Daily Times and had subsequently embarked on several initiatives aimed at repositioning the organisation.
Folio Expands Beyond Traditional Newspaper Model
Chairman of DTN @100, Bolaji Okusaga, said Folio had used the 22 years since acquiring Daily Times to address challenges confronting the newspaper industry while developing new media and business franchises.
Okusaga said the organisation initially concentrated on solving distribution challenges before expanding into digital operations and other ventures.
He cited the transformation of the Miss Nigeria franchise into a broader series of events supporting the beauty and fashion industry, as well as the establishment of the Creative Market, a Pan-African franchise focused on the creative economy.
He also highlighted the partnership between Folio and CNN, which produced programmes including “Connecting Africa,” as part of the organisation’s expansion strategy.
“What Folio is doing now with Daily Times taking it into Century Two is to totally digitise, then create new franchises,” Okusaga said.
He added that the Times Heroes Awards would remain one of the franchises beyond the centenary celebrations.
Okusaga said Daily Times was no longer being positioned merely as a conventional newspaper.
“Folio is becoming larger than the media empire. We’re using Daily Times as a springboard because of its huge legacy, but it is also re-engineering Daily Times,” he said.
Century Two Strategy to Be Unveiled in November
Anosike announced that the second major centenary event would take place on November 3 at Harbour Point, where further details of the organisation’s Century Two strategy would be unveiled.
He said the event would also focus on how Nigeria could consolidate its development rather than continue to experience what he described as fragmented growth.
“Development is logical. Development is not from everywhere. But if you look at what is happening in Nigeria today, it looks as if Nigeria is developing in a scattered manner. Now how do we consolidate?” he asked.
Anosike said the ultimate objective was to deploy Daily Times’ historic legacy and the wider media ecosystem as catalysts for national development and a stronger global image for Nigeria.
“We believe that having been in Daily Times in the past quarter and has gotten massive support from everybody, our responsibility now is to act as a catalyst to change that global positive perception of Nigeria,” he said.
