The Guardian Post maintains industry position, wins Best Print Media Award.

The leading print media organ consolidated its position in the sector, after clinching the prize of Cameroon’s Best English Language Newspaper.

The prize was received at the maiden edition of the Cameroon English Language Publishers Association, CENPA award, held in Yaounde.

The Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Ngah Christian Mbipgo, received the award on behalf of the media giant. 

The award night, held at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel, was chaired by the Secretary General at the Ministry of Communication, Prof Felix Zogo, who represented his boss, Minister Emmanuel Rene Sadi. 

It was also attended by the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, Minette Libom Li Likeng and the Minister Delegate to the Minister of External Relations in charge of Cooperation with the Commonwealth, Felix Mbayu. 

The CENPA award jury, headed by renowned Barrister-at-Law, Akere Muna, said The Guardian Post was “singled out for not only being the most regularly published, best edited, content-rich newspaper in the ECCAS sub region but also for its high professional ground, thereby starring as the pride of Anglo-Saxon journalism in Cameroon”.

Award source of encouragement 

Ngah Christian, who received the award on behalf of the media organ, described the feat as a source of encouragement for The Guardian Post to up its game in informing on a daily basis, its ever-growing readers.

He said the achievement is not only a victory for The Guardian Post, but that of its valued partners and readers, spread in all of Cameroon’s ten Regions and beyond.

Ngah urged his collaborators and staff not to rest on their laurels but continue to strive for excellence.

Nobody saw us coming 

The Guardian Post, it should be recalled, was created in 2001, under dire and cataclysmic circumstances, as a weekly newspaper. Buoyed by its outstanding style, design, middle-of-the-road editorial policy and objective approach to issues, the media organ took the print media landscape in country by storm. 

It has over the years trudged rough and tumultuous roads. Propelled by the Publisher’s determination, The Guardian Post has surmounted countless challenges and continued to march on. 

Twenty-three years down the lane, The Guardian Post is at the pinnacle of print media in Cameroon, with several records and towering achievements to its credit. 

The Guardian Post quickly moved from a weekly publication to a bi-weekly and later began publishing three times a week.     

In January 2016, having acquired its own printing press, The Guardian Post began publishing five times a week, becoming the first English language newspaper in the annals of print media landscape in the country to do so. 

In November 2019, The Guardian Post Magazine was launched. In early 2020, another printing press was bought to add to what it already had in order to upgrade quality.       

On Sunday February 7, 2021, the Sunday edition of The Guardian Post hit the newsstands. This was a major milestone in the print media in Cameroon. This edition has been receiving applause from across the board.

In January 2022, the Saturday edition of The Guardian Post, dedicated purely to sports, was launched. 

This thus made The Guardian Post the only newspaper in Cameroon and in the entire CEMAC Sub-region that publishes all seven days of the week-Monday to Sunday. 

Meanwhile, in March 2022, The Guardian Post, with its unflinching zeal to better serve its readers and advertisers, began printing in colour. 

Today, the newspaper, which was created in 2001, with a meagre capital of 150,000 FCFA and with a one-man staff, has a personnel strength of 52, who are regularly paid. 

For its twenty-three years of existence, workers of The Guardian Post have never gone beyond the 25^th of every month without having their salary!

Records in print media landscape

Apart from the aforementioned records, The Guardian Post is housed in its own building. 

Construction of the imposing structure at the Efoulan-Lac neighbourhood in Yaounde, began in February 2019 and by October the same year, the two-storey building; comprising a ground floor for the printing press and offices on the other floors, had been completed.

Other records include, among others: first English language newspaper in Cameroon to publish daily and first newspaper in Cameroon to publish seven times a week- Monday to Sunday. 

The Guardian Post is among the few print media houses in Cameroon that own and manage their own printing press. 

It is among the few newspapers in Cameroon that publishes a regular quarterly magazine-three or four times a year. The Guardian Post is equally the only newspaper in Cameroon that runs five editorials every week. 

A few years back, The Guardian Post created another record by opening a bureau in Washington DC, to cover the United States of America and other North and South American countries. 

It’s among or the only newspaper that survives on sales and boasts of a record over 12,000 direct subscribers of its electronic version.

With a slippery media landscape where libel is criminal, The Guardian Post, in its 22 years of existence, due to its professional and responsible journalism, meticulous, objective and balanced reporting, has never been dragged to court for libel or defamation. 

The newspaper is endowed with a cream of seasoned reporters and editors, who ensure that the news published is verifiable. 

Thorny road to success 

Nonetheless, the road covered by The Guardian Post in its 22 years of existence has been a thorny and rough one. Years back, it suffered unjustified suspensions by the National Communication Council, NCC. 

However, the suspensions by NCC only went a long way to embolden The Guardian Post to move on. It should be noted that after each suspension, the newspaper came back stronger, increasing its periodicity. 

Like every other newspaper, The Guardian Post has felt the pinch of the advent of social media and citizen journalism. 

Nonetheless, it is innovating to surmount this hurdle by opting to be more creative, going in for incisive and in-depth reporting, which readers can’t get from the social media.

To also boost income, The Guardian Post now has a very functional website-www.theguardianpostcameroon.com; from which readers worldwide can buy the electronic version of the newspaper. 

This story was first Published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3192 of Wednesday August 07, 2024