Back in the days, Newswatch had no serious contender in the Nigerian publishing house, when it pertained to hard news. A favorite news publication in Nigeria, its popularity penetrated into various class in the society. When one of its founding editors, Dele Giwa was murdered, there was a public outcry from this senseless tragedy. And from there, people assumed that Newswatch was gradually descending into a government's mouthpiece. Several of its high ranking editors jumped ship and started a new publication, called Tell Magazine. One of their slogans, "Others watch the News, we Tell it", was misconstrued by some to be an indirect aim at their former company, which compelled Ray Ekpu to inquire, how one could tell the news without watching it".

Tell gained popularity and was an achilles heel in the regime of IBB. So ferocious was their attack, that even after being proscribed by the regime at one point, they went underground, publishing incideniary articles about the government. While Newswatch was seen as a moderate, able to balance the news fairly, others condemned their news practise as a sell out to the IBB government. And Tell Magazine waxed stronger and stronger, that at one point its going rate was about 200 Naira.

But others have accused Tell magazine of sensationalism. Irrespective of that, it is still, (I'd like to think) flourishing in the Nigerian society. Others have made an appearance like the News magazine.

Man pickin left the shores of Nigeria a while back, and though Stanford usually get free copies of some Nigerian periodicals, I have been unable to drive down there to read them.


So, for those of you back home, which Nigerian newsmagazine is regarded as a favorite in Nigeria? Could it be Tell or Newswatch?