As part of events to mark the 10th anniversary of The Sun Publishing Limited, SHOLA OSHUNKEYE, BEIFOH OSEWELE and TOPE ADEBOBOYE, spoke with Pastor Dimgba Igwe, founding Deputy Managing Director in the presence of Mr. Mike Awoyinfa, pioneer Managing Director, on the success story of the newspaper. We serve excerpts from that encounter: 

Sir, considering what you did at The Concord, did you have any fears when you were tilling the ground for The Sun?

I don’t think there was fear as such, because you know Weekend Concord was such a big, successful and, I dare say, monstrous brand. One of the biggest brands you could see. A lot of people that know us don’t even know us about The Sun; they know us about Weekend Concord or about Concord. So, because it was such a huge brand, when it died, it was also obvious that it was not the Weekend Concord that died, it was the Concord family that died. And there is something about brand equity. The brand equity was still there and strong. And you’ll notice also that when we were setting up Weekend Concord, it wasn’t as much as big money. Mike would tell you that the only money that Concord gave him to set up Weekend Concord was N800. Mike wanted N1,000 to buy foreign magazines. When Mike was called to start Weekend Concord, the natural thing was to ask, what do you need and all that.
And Mike now made a request, and he said he needed N1, 000 to buy foreign magazines. And they said, “Ah, there is no money in the system.” So they cut it to N800. You know that’s the typical shakara of a manager. You don’t just approve. You create the impression that money is just not there for the asking. She cut it to N800. So, by way of direct investment at that point, that was all. But you know, of course, that Weekend Concord was such a big brand, and so if there was any other investment the company made, it was by way of natural organic extension in the context of what the company was doing. So because the goodwill was there, when we started doing McDee, we were carried on by the force of that goodwill.
Everywhere we went, people were always talking about Mike’s column, Press Clips. Our headlines were the issues. Because of that, we always knew that the brand was still there. We then knew that it was just a question of time, having the resources to start a newspaper. In fact, that was why when we were about starting a newspaper, we insisted that, that brand value must be recognised. But the investors were saying no, we can give you 20, 30 per cent.” But we said “no” we must have 51 per cent.” That was why we didn’t succeed.
McDee was supposed to be an ideal. We were supposed to raise money so that we could have something on our own with our own seed money at the little scale and then go the whole hog to succeed. But when the publisher came with the pressure for us to go into this, a point came and we had to deal with the concept of, would you rather be a big fish in a small pond, or would you rather be a smaller fish in an ocean? So we saw what led to The Sun project as a big ocean, so we didn’t mind if we had a minimal equity base provided we were going for something big.
Prior to this stage, we learnt that the publisher had been talking to some people – Tunji Bello, Gbenga Adefaye, Victor Ifijeh – about starting a newspaper called The Republic.
There was a project we were doing, and he was supposed to sign a proposal that we were doing. He was a governor. And he knew we needed this thing badly. So, when he wanted to sign, he said, ‘Ah, Dimgba, this newspaper o.’ I told you, you people are refusing. So, he just held his biro. I was waiting for him to sign, but he refused to sign. So Mike said, “Is it newspaper? We would do.” He said, ‘Eh, you mean it?” He said, ‘then this thing is approved.’ So he now took us to the dining room, gave us a paper and said, “Oya, do organogram.” At that time, we were insisting on doing our own paper, which we were to call Mirror. We had registered the company to do a paper called Mirror. So, he gave us a paper to do organogram, and I was holding the sheet of paper and wondering, what’s this organogram thing? Then I wrote Mike, MD, Dimgba, deputy MD. I gave him the sheet of paper with those names. Then he said, what about the others”? I said “Yes, they can take a cue from there.”
He said he would talk to the other team members. So we had a meeting with some of those team members.
At first we were meeting at the Slok office in Apapa. Then subsequently, we started meeting at 43 Osolo Way at McDee office. It was when the paper was about to take off that we moved to The Sun office in Kirikiri.
What did you have against the New Republic?
There was one thing that stood out against New Republic. You know when you are choosing the name of a newspaper, you allow it to sink into you like music. You want to listen to the voice of the name on a television. Is this what you want to hear? You want to visualise it on a billboard. Is this what you want to see? Is it sharp? Does it have energy? Is it aggressive? Now, all these elements and these components, we were not seeing in the New Republic. Chief Ajayi did a newspaper called The Republic, which collapsed. Now if you were coming with something new, you must never be identified with failure. In fact, one of the things we’ve always guarded against all our lives, because we know we have this brand equity is, don’t be associated with failure, because once your brand starts failing, then you’re gone. And brand is capital; it was the only thing we had.
That was why we didn’t want that name. And you now need to look: is there a vacancy in the market? That was a market where you already had The Guardian dominant, ThisDay, dominant. So we had to ask ourselves, like Mike said, where is our core strength? And we had always done newspapers that are circulation driven which was the strategy of Weekend Concord.
The Sun then was like the whole of the old Concord was transported here. Was that part of the strategy?
I think what happened was, once we started planning The Sun, the first person we brought was Femi Adesina. Femi was then a part-time member of the Tribune editorial board when we asked him over. And, of course, when you want to start something, who do you ask over? Your people. So when Femi came, he became a bridge between us and the team members. If you remember, we were editors for a very long time. And when you are that long, a point came when there was a bit of disconnect between you and the reporters group. But Femi knows all these people one by one. Femi was the one we brought, and he became everything. He was our accountant. He was the one that always went to the bank. And when it comes to assembling editorial team, he was at the head of the team. He was the one bringing in people.
And naturally, who do you think he would bring? Those same guys he knew and worked with. And there were people that knew that, ah, our ogas are there o, and we have to go and join them. So before you knew it, the whole place was filled up by pro-Concord people. But in any case, in Nigerian journalism, This Day is Concord. Nation is Concord. And we are all Concord people.
How did you feel when the first copy rolled off the press?
Let’s give it to Kalu. He was the man that organised our first interview with Babangida. He took us right down to Minna where we sat down with IBB and drilled him. He was going for a meeting and said we must follow him. He said no how, we must break in. So he said, okay, come and greet this man. It was to greet him now, and Mike fished out a tape recorder. Governor Kure said no. But Babangida said, leave them. And then we started firing. Babangida then had embargoed granting interviews for a long time. So we were able to come out with an exclusive. And then, Kalu was just sitting by a corner with Kure, calming Kure down. He was saying, don’t mind these guys. That’s how these guys behave. I don’t know what’s wrong with them. But he was behind it all. So we got our scoop for two editions.
So the first edition was just wonderful. Everybody wanted a copy. People were even looking for what Babangida said.
And you know, to solidify the linkage, Femi was editing the paper, but it was my name that was put on the cover. Femi was doing the job, but our concern was the cover story. I was the editor for the first six months of the weekly edition. Then the name had to change. What it meant was that I had three titles – editor, deputy managing director and deputy editor-in-chief. But in fairness to him, I didn’t have to be editing stories or doing any of those things. He was doing all that. What we just wanted to happen was for the reader to be able to create immediate link between the Weekend Concord and the new publication. That was what that trick was able to do.
We also did a great interview with Dangote. The credit for Shola Oshunkeye had to do with Sunday Sun. When we started, the flagship was that Saturday. So we now needed to strengthen The Sunday Sun. It was doing well, but we needed to make it better. So Oshunkeye now started doing the magazine stuff which we called Spectator. You know Mike always comes up with these product ideas. Mike was the one that said he used to know of Spectator in Ghana, and he nagged me and worried me until I said, ok, run with it. It was the same way Mike came up with the Soccer Star. He was always talking about an all-soccer newspaper. Then we now did it and it went well. So the pullout Oshunkeye was doing made the Sunday Sun to overtake Saturday, and it remained so for a long time. And I presume it is still so even now. Because that pullout brought in a lot of readership, because the editor then, Louis Odion came from a hard news background, and there was a need to soften the paper, being a Sunday newspaper. That was where Oshunkeye came in and did his razzmatazz, and suddenly Sunday shot up and became the highest selling paper in the stable.
Then we fought a battle over column names – Bottomline and Broken Tongues. Oji Onoko was coordinating the editorial board until Amanze Obi joined us and set up a proper editorial board in the context of what it would be. So when he joined us, we had to fight a battle with our friend, Nduka Obaigbena, because Nduka said he owned Broken Tongues and he owned Bottomline of Louis. But the young men said no, we created it. Well, there was a debate, and it ended up in court. In the first ruling we lost, then we went on appeal. Why were we doing that? It was on principle. I personally, why I insisted that the case must be exhausted legally, was that a journalist should be made up of, not only his paper, but his creative product. It should be part of him. It’s part of his life. But now the law of patency may slightly be different. Mike Awoyinfa started Press Clips about 30 years ago. Now, I don’t want anybody to say, go and take it from Mike. If you take it, you’ve taken Mike, because Mike is Press Clips and Press Clips is Mike. So I felt a journalist should be entitled to any creative product that came out of his name. That was why the thing went into litigation.
And then, there was a lingering quarrel and bitterness which even led to newspaper columns and all that. But the lesson I took from this is there. I learnt something from Nduka. Nduka said to me and Mike at some point, the way you exit an organisation is more important than the way you enter. When you exit, exit well, so it will not cause a conflict.
So Amanze set up the editorial board and Louis did a good job producing the Sunday title, because after Saturday, we now went to Sunday, and after Sunday, we now went to the Daily.
Then you know Steve Nwosu became the editor of Saturday Sun, and for a long time, he made it the highest selling newspaper until what I told you concerning Oshunkeye. But above all things, he played a very fundamental role in dealing with the political aspect of the paper. You know he’s somebody that is very good in politics. So he generated a lot of political stories, especially because it was a time the publisher had a lot of political issues to deal with. So I can say that I and Steve did a lot of political battles together.
Then Neta Nwosu. It is important to give her credit because she set up the advert department, and she was the pioneer advert manager of the company. She did have quite a very good knowledge of the market communications community, which was helpful. Well, she used to call me the chief marketing officer, but fundamentally, she was my manager on the ground.
Then, of course, Onuoha Ukeh came in as assistant editor, and he’s a very hardworking person, very tireless, hardworking person. And as I said, Steve is a very tireless, well-connected political writer and editor, and he did very well with Saturday before he eventually took over from Femi as the editor of the Daily.
Of course, everybody knows that Femi was a great editor in his time. I mean, that was not in disputation. I think it was in the last year of Femi that The Sun won the Newspaper of the Year award. So the credit goes to Femi too.
I suppose one thing I must say that is historic – and I would like anyone to challenge me on this – The Sun is the fastest newspaper in the history of Nigeria to break even, and the fastest to make profit. The Sun was a weekly from January 18 to June 16 or thereabouts. And then, the company was receiving subsidy from the publisher, even though we were making some money. When we became a daily, we got subsidy from July, August. And from August, we didn’t need subsidy. So we had enough money. I remember my colleague said we should collect more money and keep in the bank. Mike would abuse me. But I was a figures man. And I would say, “What do we do with the money? We have enough to run and pay our salaries and the paper continued to do well. When you look at the 2004 account of The Sun, if you consider 2003 the first year of operation, which should be half-year, because it was June that we started, in 2004 we posted a profit of, I think N42 million. I’m not sure there was any publication that was that fast. We broke even in 2003, and profitability was in 2004. The business model was the Concord model which was the Pile Wide Strategy. It was not necessarily the Pile Big Model, but the Pile Wide Strategy. That was the get to everywhere, draw strength from everywhere circulation, etc.
You see, when I said they did a good job, not only did we sell, but they collected the money up to 90 something per cent. That in itself was not easy – to retrieve what you sold up to 90 something per cent.
And the Page 3 Girl; how did you come about it?
What kind of question is that? With Mike Awoyinfa? (General laughter)
I could tell you stories of Page 3 Girl, but that would be in my memoirs.
Do you think the printed word, the newspaper will die?
I don’t think so. It’s like what they say in leadership. Anybody can drive a vehicle, or drive a ship. But when there is a storm, who has the capability to drive, the strength and the force of leadership, management or otherwise will survive. The ability to respond to the challenge posed by the internet is for the management to deal with. And we are there in the board to keep supporting them.
On the global level, you must also understand that yes, the internet has eaten deep into the printed word. But, there is also the issue of the fact that, if you look at it historically, everybody thought that radio would wipe out the printed word. It didn’t. People thought television would do it, it didn’t. Now people feel Internet will do it, but it will not.
There would always be people that will read the printed word, because you can’t beat the ambience of a hard copy. It has its own ease, which you will not necessarily find on the digital media. You are going on the way, wherever you are going, the ease of opening a fresh paper in the morning with a cup of tea or coffee is unsurpassed. Internet will not give you that. We believe that there will always be a residue of people who will pick unto newspapering until rapture when Jesus will come and take over the world. And if it is possible, it would be printed in the newspaper that rapture has taken place. And so some of us going to heaven will have a copy of the newspaper to take along that, yes, that was our last story.

I’LL TAKE A PRINTED NEWSPAPER TO HEAVEN – DIMGBA IGWE