How COVID-19 Tsunami sweeps away dozens of The Punch staff

.As Newspaper struggles to keep over N100m salary obligation
.The Sun, Vanguard may go same direction

As COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a heavy toll on the media industry in Nigeria, Punch Nigeria Limited, publishers of The Punch Daily and Weekend Titles, at the weekend sacked more than 80 workers of its employees.

Although, it was learnt that the decision by the Punch, was a hard but necessary one to take in order to reduce its financial burden which has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Earlier this month, Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper, Mr. Ademola Osinubi had hinted staff what was to come through a memo.

In the lengthy memo circulated to all staff and titled ‘THESE TRYING TIMES AND THE DAYS AHEAD” Osinubi said that the company will have no choice but to adjust all facets of its operations to reflect the realities of the times.

Till date, the Sports Newspaper published by the company has been rested until further notice.

It was gathered that the newspaper on a monthly basis spends over N100million to pay salaries of about a thousand workers spread across the country, which it had comfortably done until now.

But the six-week lockdown has dealt a serious blow on its revenue inflow, as businesses and companies who advertise daily in the newspapers were shut down, forcing the newspaper to reduce its pagination and print run.

It was, however, further gathered that the majority of the affected employees were old hands, most of whom have spent between 15 to 20 years in the organisation.

Although, both junior and senior staff across all departments of the newspaper were affected by the decision, while the lay off is expected to continue in the days ahead.
But it was learnt that the management offered the affected staff the opportunity to resign and offered one month salary in lieu of the notice.

With this development, LagosBusinessNews gathered that some senior managers will be affected as the company hopes to shed its salary load to about 60 per cent.

Punch is, however, not the only media organisation to have taken these drastic steps to stay afloat.

Vintage Press Limited, publishers of Nation Newspaper had a fortnight ago asked about 50 of its editorial staff to embark on three months leave.

To show empathy, the management said the affected staff will only receive 20 per cent of their salaries, while those retained will receive 50 per cent and other allowances.

Other newspapers including Guardian and Telegraph opted to slash staff salaries to meet up with April salaries, while they are currently in a fix on how to offset May salaries.

Meanwhile, indications are rife that The Sun and Vanguard newspapers may take the same path as Punch as workers in both newspapers are apprehensive and expecting the worst in the coming days.

Both newspapers are considering shedding load to be able to operate in these challenging times.

Generally, the media industry is going through what many had termed its toughest time yet.

Experts have suggested that the media, especially the print must begin to rethink its strategy to survive post-Covid-19.

Former Punch Editor and Commissioner for Information and Strategy under the Akinwunmi Ambode administration, Mr Steve Ayorinde in a chat with City People Publisher, Seye Kehinde on Friday on Instagram which focused on the way forward for the media post-lockdown, said though the print media in Nigeria was at its lowest ebb at the moment, it was not yet down and out.

He expressed optimism that the period was a time for stakeholders in the industry including the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE), National Union of Printing Publishing and Paper Product Workers (NUPPROW) to sit down and fashion out a workable business strategy going forward.

He said the strategy must not end at surviving after the pandemic but must be a 10-year workable plan for the new decade that will drive the media business in Nigeria.

According to him, despite the continuous rise of the digital media across the world, the print media has continued to soar in Asia, Europe, adding that media managers must look at what they are doing right and adopt best practices.

But more importantly, the former Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture in Lagos State said newspapers must do more than report yesterday’s news and channel more energy on getting content that will attract readers to continue to buy newspapers.