Nigerian websites, Sabinews and Zikoko hailed in new survey

co-founders of sabinews, Toni Kan and Peju Akande

Two years after it launched with a commitment to give the best of savvy information and entertainment to readers, sabinews.com has been identified as one of the most impactful online platforms in West Africa. The recognition came from a New York, United States of America based social impact firm, reboot.org.

Alongside, Sabinews.com, Reboot identified Zikoko as another significant platform which has adopted the people-centric strategy of America based news platforms like Buzzfield and Upworthy by emphasising that an emotional connection with readers is vital to sustaining interest in public interest journalism and sustaining democracy.

Reboot.org, which is dedicated to inclusive development and accountable governance, noted its recent report that sabinews.com has, within two years of its establishment, employed the power of differentiation to set itself apart and win the loyalty of audiences comparable to much bigger organisations.

While noting that most media platforms in West Africa bog themselves down with the temptation to “do everything”, the “new Reboot report on audience engagement for media development in West Africa” published on the organisation’s website, said that sabinews.com represents: “a powerful counter-example…which has realized the value of a niche orientation.”

It went ahead to describe sabinews as “a digital news and opinions platform known for its popular columnists, the site features a roster of social and political commentators whose analysis of current events run from bitingly critical to refreshingly entertaining.”

Reacting to the recognition, PJTK Ltd, publishers of sabinews.com, while thanking its columnists, contributors, advertisers and readers described the reboot.org report as “an amazing validation which will encourage us to work harder at attaining our original aim of running an online platform that eschews the salacious and scandalous for the ethical and professional even at the risk of swimming against the popular tide.”

The report identified acquisition, activation and action as three levels at which the media can connect with their audience and attract external funding for their organisations. It informed that the strategy had worked perfectly in a relationship between the radio station Nigeria Info and the budget advocacy group Niger Delta Citizens and Budget Platform. Reboot expressed the hope that the report would inspire new levels of interactions between media owners and investors.