Biz journalism problems are the same around the world

Ibim Semenitari is the editor of the Broad Street Journal, a glossy business news magazine published in Nigeria. In an interview with the Nigeria Sun, the country’s self-proclaimed “King of the Tabloids,” she explains that the problems in business journalism in her country are eerily similar to what we face here in the States, and I’m sure other countries.

Semenitari states, “Getting the right kind of staff, because in business journalism, people tend to talk above the heads of the readers. It’s been a challenge finding the right kind of staff, who would understand business reporting, who has the language skills. The other thing is, getting the vendors to understand elevated discourse, which is why in Broad Street Journal, we look towards selling more through subscription, because the vendors are so used to banner headline, so, when they see a sedate headline, they say: ‘how do you want me to sell this’.

“They just don’t understand you cannot be screaming because you are talking to a different kind of audience. But the audience you are talking to hardly remember there is subscription! Those are the initial teething problems we are faced with.”

Read the interview here.