HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MAGAZINE IN NIGERIA

  HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MAGAZINE IN NIGERIA

The first publication in Nigeria to be referred to as a magazine was a government periodical, titled, ”The Nigerian gassette”, which was established in 1900.Being a government medium, it was devoted to analyzing and interpreting the policies and activities of the colonial regime. After the adoption of the Richard constitution in 1947, the British colonial government through her public relations department introduced regular press briefing and issued news release frequently. It also published magazines such as the “Nigerian Review” and the “children own paper” (Daramola: 2008).

In the 1960’s Daily Times marketed Drum and Spear magazine in Nigeria. But, by 1970s some Nigerians were already making in road into magazine publishing. One of them was Mr. Chris Okolie, who published NewBreed magazine. However, Nigerians could not be said to have develop a “magazine reading culture as at 1970s.

It was in the mid-1980s, when Newswatch was established by Messrs Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu, Yakubu Mohammed and Dan Agbese, that magazine started developing large readership in Nigeria. And this is because, the founders of Newswatch already had large readership, when they were columnist and editors in newspapers (Daily Times, national Concord, Sunday Concord and New Nigerian). The readership which they have earned overtime as newspapers editors, took interest in their magazine and this provided large audience for the magazine, and thus the “Magazine cultures”, become a part of the print media development in Nigeria.

Since the establishment of Newswatch, other magazines had emerged in the Nigerian publishing scene. Tell and The Newswatch Magazines are examples. They are general interest magazines like Newswatch.

However, some specialized magazines, concentrating on different   areas of interest are also being published in Nigeria. Examples are broad street Journal (a financial publication), Encomium and city people (soft sells), and Hints (woman magazine). But the good news is that the magazine culture is firmly rooted in Nigeria’s print media (Akinsuli: 2010).

Magazines are not daily publication; they are published weekly, monthly, bi monthly, or quarterly. Magazines are attractive and appealing because of their high production quality. They come in colourful and glossy paperbacks. Magazines are the gloss and the glitter of the print media. The frequency of magazine is determined by the organizational policy and the target audiences.

A magazine style of writing is called “articles” or features. They are interesting, anecdotal and helpful articles which are investigative, interpretative, analytical and correlatives. That is, it is a print medium that does more of news analysis than mere news reporting. News reporting is important to a magazine but focuses on the interpretation and coverage of past events with wider perspective. It is an ideal medium of instruction and information for the leisurely and critical readers.