Role of Elections in the Survival of Nigerian Newspapers - The Experience of Daily Trust and Punch Newspapers

Abstract This paper is aimed at showcasing how elections since 2003, have contributed much revenue to Daily Trust and Punch newspapers respectively that partly helped them withered the difficulty of survival in a country where newspaper death seems frequent. The study relies on Nichols McChesney’s (2009) strand of Marxian political economy theory as framework for explanation to the findings of the study. Relying on content analysis of accounting documents of both newspapers, qualitative and quantitative survey methods, data were gathered through the instruments of IDI schedule and a readership questionnaire. The paper found that circulation figures, hard copy sales, and most importantly, advertising revenue went up during the year preceding general elections and the general elections year since 2002. It was therefore concluded that electioneering may have contributed to the survival of Daily Trust and Punch newspapers respectively. Newspaper organisations should therefore, ensure that democracy is jealously guarded from Military takeover as it was in the past for there to be a conducive and profitable atmosphere to operate. Key Words: Survival, Collapse, Elections, Punch, Daily Trust, Political economy, Newspapers _______________ *Ibrahim Jimoh, Ph. D. , is with the Department of Mass Communication, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. JCMRJournal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 8, No. 2, October 2016, 177 – 200