Click and you shall find… TheCable is one!

Exactly one year ago, Cable Newspaper Ltd launched its web-based newspaper, TheCable, promising to practise online journalism in a professional way.

On the first anniversary, ‘Fisayo Soyombo, the editor, says the newspaper will continue to uphold its values of independence, impartiality, integrity, defence of public interest and respect for diversity as it moves to the next stage of its development.

Soyombo said: “We set out to deliver news with speed and simplicity. The feedback from readers is that we should continue to stay the course. We have a long way to go, but every step takes us closer to attaining our goals.

‘Thank you’

“We are grateful to readers who have been supporting us, sharing our stories with a wider audience and keeping the comments and suggestions coming in. The best ‘thank you’ is to deliver more value and this we shall do with more consistency in our second year.”

Online journalism used to be viewed as a terrain for blackmail, mudslinging, wild speculation, partisan propaganda and trolling, but TheCable promised to distinguish itself by delivering “knowledge-driven journalism in the pursuit of Nigeria’s progress” when it launched on April 29, 2014.

“The Nigerian political environment is particularly challenging. It is very difficult to survive as an independent and professional newspaper when everybody seems to have taken sides,” Soyombo said.

“TheCable was born at a difficult period when there was a serious contestation for political power, and the antagonists and protagonists used the social media to project their interests through calumny and blistering propaganda.

“At some stage, we were in difficult circumstances trying to decide what to use and what not to use. We decided to stay true to our values. Many readers now know what we stand for. Our CEO told us from the beginning that we are journalists, not publicists, propagandists or activists.”

Simon Kolawole, the founder and CEO of Cable Newspaper Limited, said he is very proud of the “young team” which has “performed beyond projections”.

‘Newspaper without the newsprint’

Kolawole said: “Our story will still be told with more excitement someday. Assembling a team was very difficult, because experienced journalists do not really want to work in an online newspaper, which is seen as a marginal field. The printed newspaper is still Nigeria’s mainstream media. We recruited a team of mostly budding journalists, some of them on their first jobs.”

He also spoke on the business aspect of online journalism, which he described as largely “underdeveloped” because of the anarchy in the cyber space.

The former THISDAY editor explained: “People often confuse us for bloggers and news aggregators, but we are a ‘newspaper without the newsprint’. Our audience is top-quality. We are more interested in the quality of site traffic rather than the quantity of it. We are a newspaper of class. Many advertisers are beginning to understand the difference, which is a good development for us.”

He said TheCable is set to break new grounds.

“We have enjoyed good advertising patronage, more than we projected in our business plan. We are also surprised to have hit the Alexa Top 150 most visited websites in Nigeria in 10 months. Our projection was actually to be in the Top 500 by our first anniversary. We have set new targets for the second year. Our vision remains to be the best and most respected online newspaper out of Africa within five years,” he said.

The Big stories

Since going live a year ago, TheCable has broken many big stories, notably reporting as far back as August 2014 that Yemi Osinbajo was going to be the vice-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) — four months before he was picked by Buhari.

The battle to be Buhari’s running mate became very fierce, with Rotimi Amaechi, governor of Rivers state, putting up a good bid for it, while Adams Oshiomhole, governor of Edo, and Kayode Fayemi, former governor of Ekiti, also got a good mention. But Osinbajo, hardly known in the Nigerian political space, still got the nod.

TheCable had also reported in April that Akinwunmi Ambode was going to be the next governor of Lagos state — at a time the party was yet to conduct its governorship primaries. It was one of the first exclusives to be published in the newspaper after it went live.

Ambode eventually overcame opposition from a myriad of opponents, including those thought to enjoy the backing of Babatunde Fashola, governor of Lagos, to pick the APC ticket. He went on to defeat Jimi Agbaje of the PDP in the April 14 governorship election. TheCable already tagged him “the next governor” a year earlier.

The June 21 governorship election in Ekiti state surprised many Nigerians. Not just that former governor Ayo Fayose defeated Fayemi in the “stomach infrastructure” game, but also because Fayemi accepted defeat and congratulated Fayose the following day. Many observers were baffled at the development.

But on June 23, TheCable reported that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was “gathering evidence” to go to the election petitions tribunal. Many readers did not believe the story until APC filed its case, going all the way to the supreme court before finally losing out.

While Murtala Nyako was still battling to retain his seat as governor of Adamawa state following an impeachment move, TheCable reported on July 5, 2014 that it could be concluded within 10 days. Although he declared a public holiday to stall the moves by the Adamawa legislators, it was a lost battle.

On July 15 — exactly 10 days after TheCable’s report — he was removed in controversial circumstances. He is still in court challenging the constitutionality of the impeachment.

In the heat of electoral campaign, TheCable was the only online newspaper that interviewed the two leading candidates, President Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, the two leading candidates in the contest.

In the interview, the president spoke extensively about the allegedly missing $20 billion and how he was sure the All Progressives Congress (APC) was grossly overrated. In the election, though, it turned out that APC was no so underrated. It’s candidate won.

Away from politics, TheCable broke the news of the divorce case of Chris Oyakhilome, leader of Christ Embassy church, and Anita, his wife. The celebrity pastor had been having a running battle with the wife, but unknown to most Nigerians, she had already filed for divorce in a London court.

The story was greeted with frenzy and Oyakhilome eventually had to make a broadcast to his church members to confirm the story, accusing his wife of trying to equate herself with the head of the church.

Meanwhile, Stephen Keshi resigned as Super Eagles’ coach after the World Cup in Brazil — although he later had a change of mind. In an exclusive interview with TheCable in Brazil after Nigeria’s second round ouster, Keshi gave his reasons for opting out, but it turned out that his contract had actually expired and he had not been offered a new one.

He is, by the way, back as the coach after several months of yo-yo which saw him fail to lead the Eagles to defend their African Cup of Nations title in Equatorial Guinea.