Saturday, August 15 marks exactly two years to the day when the General Telegraph was launched at the Holy Day Inn Hotel in Accra by then Minister of Information Mr Mahama Ayariga.
Two years are probably two short a journey in the complex world of newspapers to be celebrating, but for an industry where new publications typically tend to do a quick belly-up after only a few issues on the newsstands, we have remained fairly regular on the stands since we hit the local newspaper market. We believe this achievement no matter how modest, deserves an equally modest celebration. What are anniversaries there for anyway?
At the launch of the General Telegraph, we offered the reading public an alternative newspaper with an editorial content incorporating the established values of traditional journalism but designed to meet the demands and challenges of new media technologies which have dramatically changed the styles of presentation and dissemination of information.
We were making a courageous if also risky entry into the newspaper market at a time when newspapers worldwide were seeing a dip in profitability and there were local and international reports of a decline in the general readership of newspapers, newspapers closing, and journalists being laid off.
We were also launching the General Telegraph at a time when Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media had begun holding sway in the information and entertainment industry and many people were claiming that with the advent of social media and online journalisms newspapers were going to die.
We have observed how amid these changes in the media landscape, some newspapers are experimenting with new editorial methods of keeping readers interested.
For many newspapers, that has meant a drastic shrinking of text to an average of a few characters per story and the larger images. This, while being suitable for a new generation of readers who want a quick read on the go, is in our view, no substitute for professional journalism which must have depth and breadth of analysis to truly inform.
At our launch two year ago, we also pledged a commitment to journalism that places a high premium on tenacity, fairness and balance in the presentation of news and news commentary. Two years later, our esteemed readers are best placed to score us marks for performance and their criticisms and observations will doubtlessly be invaluable in aiding us to chart the path forward.
Short though the journey so far has been for the General Telegraph, we have had our exciting if also very challenges times. We have in the two years done some great investigative stories which have received raving reviews on electronic media and projected us as news a newspaper with great potential in print journalism in the country.
On this occasion we extend our sincere gratitude to our vendors, printers, advertisers and readers and urge you support our development and growth in years to come. We are particularly urging corporate institutions and businesses to advertise in the General Telegraph, as a way of helping to develop and expand Ghana’s print media industry.