Former Governor Olusegun Osoba of Ogun State has declared that era of print newspaper circulation is gone not only in Nigeria but all over the world as digital journalism and e-vending have taken over the media world.

Osoba who was the Managing Director of defunct Daily Times and one of the early media practitioners in the country since 1964, noted that the newspapers platform like Financial Times and BusinessDay Nigeria, among others, that have embraced digital print journalism and e-vending of newspapers are better positioned to offer a quick information dissemination and can be easily accessed by anybody that pays online anywhere in the world.

The former governor, who spoke at the celebration of 160 years of journalism in Abeokuta, Nigeria put together by the League of Veteran Journalists in Ogun and Oyo States, said that the print media platform could only do well in the highly saturated and competitive media world if the owners could switch to modern trend and technologies offered by digital print journalism and e-marketing strategies.

He said, “I want to appeal to you all to imbibe modern day technologies in our profession as any journalist that does not know how to use the internet or is not vast with the use of modern technologies is not a journalist.

“My own admonition is that we must re-orientate ourselves, the first is the idea of circulating hardcopy newspapers in this country is gone. Hardcopy news is dead all over the world. In my days, Daily Times circulation in a day was an average of 250,000 copies. I doubt if the circulation of all the newspapers in this country is up to 250,000 copies in a day.

”The modern-day situation is that the publishers should start e-vending. E-vending is when you subscribe and the entire paper is accessed on the internet.”

Governor Dapo Abiodun who also graced the event said that the death penalty proposed by the Senate for hate speech at the National Assembly is uncalled for.

He urged the Senate to review the penalty as the media practitioners remain important to any society, saying:

“We have to give a win-win to the nation and the idea should not be to gag the media in any way or manner and the issue of death penalty is forbidden and uncalled for.”

Corroborating Osoba’s stance on digital print journalism and e-vending, Governor Abiodun explained that Nigerian media would thrive in digital print journalism, online publication and e-vending in order to compete favorably with their peers in the world, but caution must, however, be taken not to take advantage of it to turn Nigerian media to a yellow journalism.

”Things have gone from analog to digital, and everything has become digital. Today most people don’t really buy newspapers anymore, they prefer reading online and on social media.

“But, people have also taken advantage of that revolution, and it has just allowed some people to just write anything they like without verification”, he lamented.