COVID-19 and the Nigerian press: 624 newspaper editions analysed

A self-initiated two-month content analysis of 12 national newspapers measuring how the pandemic lockdown changed PR content and newspaper volume.

Independent research (self-initiated)Media & public relations2020

624

newspaper editions analysed

national publications

33.3%

fall in average pages, April 2020

55.8%

CSR share of banks’ print content, April 2020

The question

Corporate activity slowed sharply during the COVID-19 lockdown. Public relations and the media normally depend on each other: media provide the platform, PR provides content that builds readership. We set out to measure how that relationship changed.

How we did it

We analysed 624 editions of 12 publications over March and April 2020: BusinessDay, Daily Independent, Daily Sun, Daily Trust, Leadership, New Telegraph, Nigerian Tribune, The Guardian, The Nation, The Punch, ThisDay and Vanguard. The study ran at a 95% confidence level with a 2% margin of error.

What we found

Cumulative average newspaper pages fell by 33.3% in April. Corporate engagement shifted towards CSR: in the banking sector, CSR-led content made up 55.8% of banks’ print content in April against 12.9% in March.

The study also showed that some tier-2 newspapers rely less on PR-driven content to sustain their page volume than tier-1 publications. Read the full article.