According to a press statement by Ogbuefi Remmy Nweke, GOCOP’s publicity secretary,  this highly anticipated event promises to be a significant milestone in the literary and publishing landscape.

He quoted Ms Maureen Chigbo, GOCOP president, to have said that the event will feature a Fundraiser for the N2.3 billion GOCOP MEDIA CENTRE, a multi-purpose resource centre comprising a secretariat, a 21st Century library and event halls, among others.

Chigbo further said that “this landmark publication chronicled the transformative journey of Nigeria’s media landscape, highlighting the pivotal role of online publishing in shaping public discourse, enhancing transparency and fostering national development.

“It is a testament to the resilience and innovation of Nigerian media practitioners in the digital age,” she said.

The event, she said, will bring together distinguished personalities from government, media, private sector, academia and civil society to reflect on the challenges and opportunities in online publishing and its critical role in nation-building.

GOCOP which currently has 120 members was established to ensure that online publishers uphold the tenets of journalism in doing their jobs.

Its membership is a constellation of editors and senior journalists, whom, having distinguished themselves in their various stations in the print and electronic media, ventured into online publishing which is both the present and future of journalism globally.

The book aside tracing the historical trajectory of online journalism in Nigeria is also a veritable contribution towards enriching the discourse on civil liberties, press freedom and the role of the media in the sustenance of democracy, the statement added.

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They are expected to leverage different online platforms and technology to promote their products or services and more with their audiences.

Mr Olúmǐdé Ìyàndá, the publisher of the QEDNG, who made the call during his presentation at the capacity-building session of the 8th Annual General Meeting of GOCOP at Reverton Hotel, Lokoja, Kogi State, insisted that media managers should post their stories where their readers can easily read them.

Ìyàndá, who stated that many readers take interest in watching short video clicks instead of reading long texts, urged mediapreneurs to equally include videos and as part of their stories to generate more traffic.

Noting that leveraging on social media goes a long way to promote websites, he called on Publishers to know where their readers have gone to and accordingly plant their stories there.

‘’Internet penetration in Nigeria is about 45.5 per cent. Over 40 per cent of these users engage with news on Facebook, Tik Tok. Yet, 75 per cent of internet users do not go pass first page, so, it is important to use social media platforms to promote content and engage with users,’’ Mr. Ìyàndá said.

Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, Tiktok, among others, he said, were variable channels to reach readers.

Speaking further, he urged GOCOP members to now wear the garb of business decision-makers as Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) upon whose shoulders rest the success or otherwise and the fate of their workforce. He said the view the CEOs hold on their role would impact the way they related with their clients.

Iyanda explained that publishers as small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs) must learn how to adapt to changing consumer behaviours to beat the increasing competition in the digital space.

For instance, he harped the need for data to make appropriate decisions.

“Don’t decide what your audience needs. If your customers want tea, don’t give them coffee, prioritise  digital marketing and be active on all digital marketing platforms, ‘’ he advised theat the over 100 members of GOCOP present at this year’s conference.

Mr. Ìyàndá spoke on “Leveraging Digital Marketing: Strategies For Online Publishers,’’ as part of the general theme of this year’s GOCOP conference titled, Nigeria: Tackling Insecurity, Power Deficit, And Transitioning To Digital Economy.

He urged Publishers to know when to charge for stories and when not, explaining that placing fees for public relations or promotional stories for commercial interests did not breach journalism ethics.

He noted that journalism would not only be seen as a social or humanitarian service but also as a business where bills must be settled by the entrepreneur.

He warned Publishers to beware of other professionals who collect money from their clients to publish stories only to turn round to use subtle methods to slip the stories into the media.

Mr. Ìyàndá, who warned that media professionals should maintain the code of ethics in all they do, urged Publishers to strike the right balance between ethics and demands of business.

Every year, GOCOP embarks on business sessions at its annual conferences where members are brought up to date with latest tech in online publishing as well as focus on means of increasing and generating revenues in online publishing.

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Speaking at the pre-conference business session of the 2023 annual conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) held at the Abuja Continental Hotel, recently, Nweke said that by developing web analytical strategy, mediapreneurs under GOCOP will be propelling their websites for healthy growth.

According to Nweke, who dwelt on ‘How to GROW your website: The Fundamentals’ at the per-conference session of the 7th annual conference of GOCOP,  noted that such a growth strategy must include making out time to check the personal health of the strategists themselves, especially the chief executive officers.

This, he said, is imperative due to the level of stress and obvious distractions associated with managing a burgeoning media concern in this digital era.

Stressing that this is prerequisite to having a healthy website because health is wealth with profitable return on investment as the bottom-line.

“Above all, make out time to check your personal health, which is prerequisite to checking your website healthiness; health is wealth,” he declared.

In developing growth scheme for their businesses, Nweke who also is the lead consulting strategist at ITREALMS, advised the online mediapreneurs to come up with two approach tools, which comprise strategic and technical components.

The strategic component, he said, would afford them to organize their websites to reflect business goals by ensuring they are aligned.

“That way, you could know what to measure going forward,” he said.

On the technical component, Nweke pointed out that it would enable them to examine everything from site architecture and page loading speeds to the quality of the user experience; all the moving parts contributing to your goals while supporting your specific customer digital footprint on a given website.

Nweke cited an instance of using the Google PageSpeed Insight (PSI) to deepen web analytics and search engine optimisation (SEO), underscoring that any anticipated growth must have a ‘GROW’ model alignment.

Stages of a ‘GROW’ model, he said revolves around the goal, realty, obstacles cum options and way forward.

“The goal is the end point, where the Publisher wants to be and must be clearly stated, so that when achieved its noticeable,” he said.

On the reality, he said, is where the Publishers and or the websites are now, taking cognizance of what are the issues, the challenges, how far are they away from their goal?

“The obstacles stopping the Publishers/websites getting from where they are now to where they want to be, need to be properly identified as well as available options to find ways of dealing with them if they are to make progress and grow.

On the way forward, Nweke said it involves converting the options into actionable steps which will take the Publisher to anticipated goal built on commitment and willingness to advance further the growth.

In advancing the growth goal, publishers, he advised should do everything possible to make their websites more users, readers and search engine friendly.

He suggested in addition to establishing content authority, perfecting website technical SEO via multivariate testing in order to create a seamless mobile experience, by use of

Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) which is a popular, but free tool that analyzes the page speed of a website on mobile and desktop devices.

Further, Nweke canvassed for deployment of latest image compressor formats to improve website growth like the use of WebP created by Google since 2010 and AVIF developed by Alliance for Open Media, a non-profit organization since 2019 which translates to faster downloads and less data consumption.

WebP for instance, he said, makes online images less bulky by significantly reducing photo and graphic sizes, websites loading faster and giving users a better experience.

“WebP is estimated to reduce JPEG/PNG formats by 25-35% compression,” he asserted, reiterating that these are some of the things needed to be incorporated into the strategy for web analytics by online mediapreneurs, so as to grow their businesses.

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