NTC rebrands Ghanaian Times
The New Times Corporation yesterday relaunched its rebranded flagship newspaper, The Ghanaian Times, with a promise to deliver superior content and be more innovative.
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The relaunch of the paper, which coincided with the 60th anniversary of the company, is meant to reposition the country's second oldest newspaper powerhouse to be more competitive in a vibrant media landscape saturated by hundreds of radio and television stations as well as social media and the Internet.
Competitive environment
Relaunching the newspaper at a ceremony in Accra yesterday, the Deputy Minister of Information, a Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, applauded the company for still standing in spite of its challenges.
He said surviving after 60 years of operating in a competitive environment was no mean achievement.
"Brands go through various stages. You have shown that you are not among brands that hit their peak and die but you are reinventing yourself to meet the needs of today," he said
With social media and the digital space offering tough competition, leading to the collapse of newspapers in even advanced economies, the minister urged the company to take advantage of the digital media and be innovative to cut through the competition.
He said the relaunch also meant that the newspaper could not be doing the same old things and expect the same results. He added that it should rather be different from a form of journalism which was creeping into the Ghanaian media filled with opinions rather than facts.
Greater things
The Managing Director of the company, Ms Carol Annan, said the relaunch was the beginning of greater things to come for the paper which started as a mouthpiece of the Convention People’s Party (CPP) against colonial rule.
"In the life of a 60-year-old entity such as ours, there are certainly many changes that would take place such as in products, technology, readers' tastes and preferences, entrance of private media operators, effects of the Internet and social media and technological development," she said
Ms Annan said years of failure of the government to inject capital into it had affected its performance and, therefore, urged the government to pump capital into the company to make it more vibrant and competitive
"There are more changes to come to New Times Corporation beginning with the rebirth of our flagship paper, the Ghanaian Times. From our limited resources, we have come to this point on the back of the determination of our Board of Directors to challenge us to find creative ways to introduce innovative products. Management and staff rose to the challenge thrown to us.
"The speed with which the rest of the plans can be rolled out will be accelerated if the government supports us by ensuring prompt payment for services rendered and injecting capital to support the acquisition of modern equipment and logistics. This will enable us to expand into other related businesses to diversify our revenue stream," she stated
Stimulus package
Responding to the concerns, the Executive Chairman of the State Enterprises Commission, Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, said the government was designing a stimulus package for state-owned enterprises and urged such enterprises to submit a comprehensive proposal on their businesses to the commission to be submitted to the Ministry of Finance as input into the next budget cycle.
He commended the company for holding its grounds in spite of the tough time it was going through.
For his part, the Chairman of the National Media Commission, Nana Kwasi Gyan Appenteng, observed that a newspaper relaunch was an event to bring life into a newspaper and said he was optimistic that the new paper would be full of innovation.
New look
The new design has the newspaper's mast head changed but it maintains its Most Authoritative Newspaper tag line.
Its fonts have also changed, making it more appealing.
The first copy autographed by the President was bought by Mr Oppong-Nkrumah for GH¢5000
Company profile
The NTC, formerly known as The Guinea Press Limited, was established by the first President of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, in 1957 as the printing house for his political party – The Convention People’s Party (CPP).
After the overthrow of the late President in a military putsch in 1966, The Guinea Press was taken over as a state property by the National Liberation Council Decree (NLCD) 130 of 1968.
In 1971, the Press was transformed into The New Times Corporation by an Instrument of Incorporation – Act 363, 1971, which also repealed The National Newspapers (Guinea Press Limited – Interim Reconstitution Decree) which acquired it as state property. That Act was given further recognition by the provision of PNDC Law 42.