By John Abayomi

Flash-forward: 20 July, 2064. Nigerians have elected a 35-year-old as president. The breaking news, published first on Vanguard, is read by millions on never-heard-of-formats and devices.

Ose Oboh, a young politician, reads the news bite on his android pen. He pauses, smiles and shares to his smartwatch, reaching his 500k partners — ‘followers’ is no longer a politically correct word. Dola Finayon, the suave, media entrepreneur, receives the news bite on her sunshades and shares with her bubbly community with just a tap on the fashion accessory.

Elsewhere, an augmented reality newsflash by Vanguard newscaster appears on the LED cinema screens, freezing for a moment ‘From Delta to King of Lagos’, a movie produced by Vanguard Films. The Nigeria’s youngest president story has also gone viral on social media platforms. But not Facebook, X or Instagram. These have long lost their lustre and are used only by the old and digital laggards. 

Meanwhile, in Vanguard newsroom, the editors and an army of robots are writing copies, fact-checking, designing pages, and sending to press in a seamless production process flow. The hard copy, a cat with nine lives, has refused to die. However, it has a shorter life circle. It is published thrice daily and read nationwide! Licensed agents with simple photocopier-like machines print the newspapers, while sales are recorded by artificial intelligence (AI) servers at the head office! 

Unsold? Please, don’t think about it. There won’t be any! Predictive AI are collating readers’ data real-time, and making the newspapers available at the nearest licensed agent, just like the ubiquitous POS operators.

Wow! What have I just read? 

When you are lucky to have lived and be a player at the epoch-making era of digital journalism in this part of the world — as I have had the privilege to be at Vanguard — you will dare to dream the next 40 years for our beloved company.

How it all started – My story

My entry into Vanguard about 20 years ago feels like yesterday. Back then, I was a young graduate who first wanted to be a filmmaker, with a backup plan in broadcasting. Thus, becoming a sub-editor was never on the cards. I have never met anyone who wanted to be a sub — at least in my generation. I had ‘slapped’ the streets of Lagos marketing film synopsis and scripts, leveraging on the quality contacts I had a few years prior as a Nigerian finalist (scriptwriting category) at the M-Net New Directions Film competition and workshop with veterans like Amaka Igwe, Tajudeen Adepetu, Paul Emema, the producer of ‘I need to Know’ series, who discovered Funke Akindele and other A-listers at that year’s competition. 

All I got were few writing gigs: a 13-episode ‘Paradise Park’ for veteran Femi Lasode of the Sango fame; a story and screenplay for ‘Africa’s Stolen Treasures’ that I believed was produced but not released. Another film was ‘Jungle Ropes’, written for the ageless boxer, Bash Ali, among other smaller writing gigs. So, when the opportunity came to join Vanguard as a sub-editor, I had to take it. I needed a source to continue to fund the film/television passion. It was 2005.

Vanguard’s Deputy Editor, Mr Kunle Adekoya’s voice bellowed on my then bird-size Motorola C200 phone one afternoon while at Mama Cass on Allen Avenue collecting part payment for a Christian film that I had written for a client.

‘H-e-l-lo, is this Abayomi?’

‘Yes sir. Good afternoon sir,’ I stammered.

‘I am Kunle Adekoya of Vanguard. Please, resume at the office this evening. You understand! Thank you.’

He hung up before I could voice my confusion! What! Just like that? So many questions. But they can wait. Quickly, I took a bus to Ikeja Under Bridge, bought a tie, connected Oshodi, down to Kirikiri and was ushered in as the newest sub on the desk. I was introduced to late Mr. Dayo Aminu, Mr. Peter Okhiria, Mr. Azu Akanwa (who later became the pioneer Online Editor, and should have written this piece if he were alive – God bless his soul); Dare Osho and Chris Iwarah, the late Corporate Communications Manager at Air Peace.

That was how my sub journey began; casting headlines, treating stories, cropping photos and trying to make meaning from captions written in ‘languages’ – If you know, you know.

The early days were hellish! You resumed work in the evenings and don’t leave the newsroom till the paper goes to bed at 11pm! I got home most times at midnight. I wanted to opt out as soon as I got in. 

But good reason prevailed: Stay back, make use of the free time (mornings), use your salary to pay for courses and develop yourself in broadcast and film. That was how I drew up a two-year plan and got down to work.

The Independent Television Producers Association (ITPAN) Training School, tucked in Dawodu Mabinuori Street, Gbagada, became my hallowed temple of knowledge with its resident abbots. I gobbled course after course: Film Production, Documentary Production, Video Editing, Directing, Production Management, and Presentation.

Not done, I headed to Radio Nigerian Training School, now National Broadcast Academy on the advice of Mr. Riume Effete, a former head of presentation for an 8-week intermediate certificate in Presentation. I was in class with Bukola Ajiboye, former Radio Nigeria network newscaster; Nesta Sani of Channels TV and later Silverbird, and Sulai Aledeh, now of Arise TV, among other star presenters. 

A recurring question in all these classes when colleagues found out I was a sub-editor at Vanguard was: ‘You miss road? What are you doing here?’ 

By mid-2007, I was convinced it was time to leave. I had acquired the needed skills and contacts to explore television and the excitement of film. But God, through Vanguard, had other plans! Vanguard online was born!

Vanguard’s online revolution 

There is no way a story on the success of Vanguard Online will be written without mentioning the role played by the former GM/Editor-in-Chief, Mr. Gbenga Adefaye and Digital Consultant, Mr. Femi Olubosi, and of course the Chairman, Mr. Sam Amuka — who approved the exploration into the new digital world full of uncertainties. The visioning, ideation, planning and execution of Vanguard Online was a masterclass worthy of study at journalism schools across Africa.

The GM ensured the team got off to a great start: setting targets, recruiting talents, providing work tools, communication devices and a mix of ‘moti-threattion’ to ensure success. Every member of the team had a laptop, blackberry and android phones, iPad with internet subscription on all; including fuel allowance. Unprecedented at the time, the goal was to conduct real-time, round-the-clock online operations. 

Thus began the Vanguard Online revolution that caught the publishing industry napping and Vanguard remained number 1 on Alexa, the website ranking tool (now rested) for a very long time.

When the industry realized that Vanguard was the clear leader in the market, it took action by imitating some of the paper’s disruptive changes in their own newsrooms. If the street slang, ‘No gree for anybody’ was around early 2010’s, it would have been apt because that was what we did. Vanguard Online introduced the mobile version and data-saving opera mini technology, at a time when data was priced out of the reach of most digital-savvy Nigerians. Our numbers and ranking soared.

I recall sending the GM a memo on 31st May 2012, informing him that Vanguard had retained the number 1 website position for a year. And it was number 3 in Africa. The newspaper was also the biggest publisher on Facebook and Twitter in Nigeria. Vanguard had 90,251 followers on Twitter and 281,698 fans on Facebook. (I know that these numbers, relatively small, will embarrass today’s influencers and online editors. But they were huge then).

Another trailblazing innovation was the Vanguard community hosted on Ning, where readers created accounts, shared photos and videos, long before the explosion of social networking sites, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others.

The success of the Disqus commenting tool was sui generis. We took a gamble by opening it up — moderating after comments were posted, unlike the practice by other news sites. That singular act made Vanguard the authentic news parliament for Nigerians — at home and the Diaspora — to express themselves freely. It wasn’t uncommon to see over 1,000 comments on a single story, providing new insights and context to stories not even considered by the editors. This is a rarity nowadays, as the social media have taken over comments.

Gratitude

I had mentioned I was on my way out of Vanguard when things took a good ‘digital’ turn. Vanguard Online not only saved my journalism career, it catapulted me into the future of the profession where there are many questions but few answers as to the direction to go.

In addition, I had a thrilling five years editing Vanguard Online with a great pacesetting team. Looking back is nostalgic; that our efforts from a few years ago are worthwhile to record at this historic 40th anniversary.

I thank the Chairman, Mr. Sam Amuka; Mr. Adefaye; the Editor, Eze Anaba; his deputy, Mr Adekoya, Mr. Jide Ajani and pioneer Online Editor, Mr. Azu Akanwa, for their roles in my employment, training, mentorship and growth. 

The Exodus

The gale of exit by the members of the Vanguard Online, who were sought after by the competition, became an albatross that impacted on growth and sustainability. First was the erstwhile consultant, Femi Olubosi; my humble self, moved to PUNCH; Biodun Alade became the Online Editor of Daily Trust; Femi Ajasa, pitched his tent with TheNewsGuru; Charles Mgbolu left for Silverbird TV before landing at BBC, further depleting the team.

Resurgence and growth

On my return as a consultant to the digital project, work on rebuilding and repositioning Vanguard Online has commenced with some milestones. We have redesigned the website, rebuilt the mobile app, expanded the video and content units, and built an audience data system to better use our data for growth, revamped the digital ads unit complete with new marketing kits; and grew its revenue streams. More importantly, because the ecosystem is rapidly changing, we have made learning, unlearning and relearning integral part of our growth process.

Fortunately, the Online Editor, Femi Ajasa, a former team member, is back leading the revival. We are also lucky to have had a stable tech support as the IT Manager, Sunday Oguomere and his deputy, Akintayo Eribake, who had contributed in no small measure to our success story, stayed back to maintain our web assets — with ongoing consolidation.

There is still much work to be done in our quest to better leverage our sizable talent pool, mobilise our vast journalistic experience, innovate content delivery and maximise our digital capabilities.

Now let’s join the Vaguardians of 2064

Vanguard @80th celebrations 

The preparation for Vanguard Media Limited 80th anniversary, otherwise called Oak anniversary, is in feverish mode. It is time to roll out the drums for the media behemoth with its subsidiaries. Media execs, male and female decked in smart suits and dresses, brainstorm in the well-furnished corporate office overlooking the Lagos Lagoon in the exclusive part of the Island. 

Why not celebrate! It’s going to be a mother of all steaze (or any trendy slang spoken by Gen ‘whatever’ in that age!). 

The execs take turns to present their successful performance reports across the media group: radio/television networks; Antony – it’s wave making social media platform; Vanguard News Agency – supplying bloggers and influencers content after the enforcement on copyright, ending decades-long copy and paste blogging; news streaming platform; games assets, and NFTs holdings. Meanwhile, the film company is still basking in the glory of its impressive showing at the cinemas, immersive/virtual screenings, multi-billion naira merch, and awards, among other businesses and subsidiaries.

I would have become a footnote long forgotten and, if by His grace, I’m still alive then, I’ll probably be too old to understand or fit into the eerie world of robotics, ‘Zetaverse’, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), Brain-computer Interfaces (BCIs); precision medicine, and quantum computing. 

To us, happy 40th anniversary.

To them, Happy Oak Anniversary. 

John Abayomi, a digital transformation expert, is founder and chief strategist @Virals.ng

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