Jos – All stories from the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), usually anonymous, will henceforth carry bylines of the reporters, its Managing Director, Mr Bayo Onanuga, announced in Jos on Sunday.
“We have resolved that reports from our correspondents will carry their byline in line with modern trends,” Onanuga told the workers at an interactive session, during his familiarisation tour of the Jos zonal office.
Reports from the 40-year-old agency had always been anonymous, with bylines given to only features and foreign stories.
The policy had often been criticised by reporters, who often complained that subscribers either refuse to credit NAN, or even give the bylines of the stories to their reporters.
Onanuga, who announced that the new policy had commenced, told the workers that it would encourage staff to put in their best.
He urged the workers to brace up for modern challenges in the journalism profession, pointing out that such adjustment was crucial to remaining useful and relevant to the society.
The Managing Director charged the staff of the agency to scale up their performances to meet the demand of its 250 subscribers.
He also advised staff to step efforts toward generating internal revenue to meet pressing needs, in view of the dwindling resources coming from the government.
Onanuga noted that the agency was not performing optimally as compared to international news agencies like Reuters, AFP and AP, and urged the reporters to do more
“We are taking stringent measures to persuade reporters to work harder; we have agreed over the minimum number of stories that will be filed in a week and shall insist on that,” he said.
He declared that promotion would be determined by performance and not the number of years spent on a particular grade level.
In his remarks, Malam Lawal Ado, Editor-In-Chief of NAN, tasked the reporters to work hard and promised handsome rewards and favours for those that distinguished themselves.
He also promised to address issues militating against effective performance, and called for more patience from the workers.
Earlier, Mr Ephraim Sheyin, the Zonal Manager of the Jos zonal office of the agency, thanked the managing director for the visit, and called for more support to the staff toward optimum productivity. (NAN)