As Nigeria's number 1 online media and news publishers Legit.ng clocks 7, we bring you some important timelines in our journey. We decided to list some of the key moves and decisions from the past that have a huge impact nowadays on us.
They are combined with the focus on content (editorial), technological (implementation of new technologies in digital space), and of course, business development decisions that made a difference.
To serve Nigerian readers with unique news content from verifiable sources has always been an amazing journey. And we promise to do more, as we lead the way on digital media and solution-based journalism.
1. February-April 2012 — First articles released on www.naij.com. Lagos office is being set up. Digital infrastructure is also being tested. The project goes fully operational in May. Of important note, the Facebook page was created on May 15.
2. August 24, 2013 — NAIJ.com’s Facebook page becomes the first in Nigeria to reach 1,000,000 likes (in news & media category).
3. May 7, 2014 — NAIJ.com releases mobile app for Android that soon becomes #1 in its category in Nigeria and is featured by Google (Play Market).
The app hits 500,000 installs in 10 months. All-time number of installs is now getting closer to 5M, with about a million of them coming as pre-installs on Infinix smartphones owing to a deal with Transsion Holdings in 2015.
4. June 2015 — NAIJ.com expands to Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, sets up an office with the primary aim of getting even more exclusive and original content.
5. June 17, 2015 — NAIJ.com partners with Opera Inc. and MTN, brings “one million days of free internet” for Nigerians. Integration to speed dial icon and tests for more than 10 African countries also started in the same period.
6. August 2015 — NAIJ.com launches a news section in Hausa language.
7. January 2016 — NAIJ.com ends cooperation with Chartbeat, switches to editorial solutions by .IO Technologies. Building a data-driven newsroom has been among the top priorities of the company. A more detailed story is available on Huffington Post.
8. February 11, 2016 — NAIJ.com successfully rolls out its first Facebook’s instant articles in Nigeria. Audience Network remains one of the key focuses till date, which is reflected in a NAIJ-Facebook success story.
9. March 16, 2016 — NAIJ.com becomes an early adopter of two new technologies on Facebook: streams a maiden live video and, two months later, a first 360 / VR video in Nigeria.
10. May 10, 2016 — NAIJ.com is included to internet.org initiative by Facebook along with 85+ other Nigerian sites and services. Airtel subscribers received “zero rate” access within the frames of Free Basics program.
11. June 6, 2016 — Bayo Olupohunda, the 2014 CNN African journalist of the year finalist and “Are You Not A Nigerian?” book author, becomes the new Editor-in-Chief of NAIJ.com.
12. October 10, 2016 — NAIJ.com offers Nigerian bloggers to get featured on its platform for free.
13. November 2016 — NAIJ.com records 62.5M visits (sessions) in one month (source: Google Analytics). The readers checked out 228.5M pages on web version of the site only, which became the most successful month for the project so far in terms of audience.
14. December 6, 2016 — NAIJ.com becomes an early adopter of Google’s accelerated mobile pages (AMPs). Optimisation of the site for search traffic coming from mobile devices becomes crucial.
15. March 9, 2017 — NAIJ.com starts local journalism project with an intent to connect the reporters representing all the 36 states and the FCT under its brand.
16. March 17, 2017 — NAIJ.com launches missing person initiative, makes its platform and multimillion audience on web and social media available for free in case of need. On a number of recorded and documented cases, these posts and spread of awareness helped to find people.
17. September 28, 2017 — NAIJ.com adopts world’s most powerful social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle in its daily practice. Acquired by Facebook in November 2016, CrowdTangle is a free platform, however, a publisher should be invited to it, cannot join at own will.
18. October 26, 2017 — NAIJ.com starts a test with an alternative domain name www.naija.ng. Earlier the same year, www.naija.ng domain was tested for optimised social media (FB) publishing.
19. November 3, 2017 — NAIJ.com adds one more mobile application to its family. NAIJ.com Hausa (for Android) was released.
20. January 10, 2018 — NAIJ.com’s content is included into Opera News mobile app, a pan-African content aggregator.
21. June 8, 2018 — NAIJ.com officially receives the status of Facebook’s media partner. Only few hundred of publishers worldwide have access to such a format of cooperation. It enables improved tech support and additional access to cabinets and expertise of world’s #1 social media.
22. September 18, 2018 — NAIJ.com TV YouTube channel reaches 100,000 subscribers, receives verification on the platform.
23. October 3, 2018 — NAIJ.com prepares to terminate agreement with Opera for placement in the speed dial (SD) section of their browser’s home screen.
23. October 4, 2018 — Facebook whitelists two NAIJ.com’s pages for AdBreaks(monetization in videos published on this social media platform). Genesis Media becomes first of their African partners to get access to such functionality.
NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng to serve its readers better with unique contents and factual information.
Source: UGC
24. October 17, 2018 — NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng. A new page in the history of Nigeria’s most visited online news media is now open.
It’s the end of the timeline for now. However, many wonderful updates are coming soon.
Up, Naija.
PAY ATTENTION: Download our mobile app to enjoy the latest news update
Meanwhile, you can read the letter of our editor-chief, Bayo Olupohunda, to our esteemed readers when NAIJ.com upgrades to Legit.ng.
NAIJ.com Upgrades to Legit.ng: Message from Goke Olaegbe – Managing Director / Legit TV
Source: Legit
