By Josephine Oguntoyinbo & Samuel Edu
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The Speaker, Ondo State House of Assembly, Olamide Oladiji has commended the Management and Staff of Owena Press Limited, publishers of The Hope titles for effectively managing information of the State.
Oladiji gave the commendation during his courtesy visit to the company in Akure.
The Speaker assured the Management of the 10th Assembly’s support in enhancing the capacity of the company for optimal performance.
“I want to appreciate you for doing a good job, to manage information is a task that cannot be quantified. You have been doing very well and let me assure you that we will always give you legislative backing for effective service delivery”, he said.
He appealed to the Management to continue to partner with the Assembly in terms of information dissemination, saying he believes so much in publicity in promoting the image of any parliament.
The Speaker who acknowledged that advert placement is very important in sustaining any media house, promised to try his best to support the company with what is within the purview of his office.
Earlier, the Chairman/Editor-in-Chief of the company, Sir Ademola Adetula who led the Speaker through the historical background of the paper solicited for patronage especially in terms of advertisement.
“When Olumilua became the governor, he changed the name from Owena News to The Hope Newspaper. The vision of the forefathers of this establishment is that it should be a community newspaper, that is why it is circulated within the geographical area of Ondo State.
“However, we still circulate in Osun and Ekiti States and even before now, we used to be in Lagos, Ibadan, Benin and Kwara but when the cost of running the company was becoming too difficult, we had to withdraw our coverage and today by the grace of God, we have reporters in all the 18 local governments of Ondo State with correspondents both in Ekiti and in Osun States.
“ I want to formally ask for your favour, we need support especially in terms of advert placement. The cost of production is extremely high at the moment as a result of the present economic realities in Nigeria.
“As it stands, the government pays only staff salary, we have to run around for the production cost and today, the production cost has gone astronomically high.
“When I got here in 2018, the cost of a ream of newsprint was N3500 but today, it is N9700 and we need 100 ream every month, that is almost N1 million aside from the cost of buying ink, diesel and several other materials for production.
“Ever since I got here, the government has not given us a dime for any capital project ,yet we are not discouraged because we cannot quantify what this newspaper is doing for the people and the government of Ondo State.
“We are pleading with you to use your good office to support us. I understand that you are a very successful businessman and we need the patronage of men of your calibre.”
