THE BOARD of Directors of The Punch Nigeria Limited, publishers of The Punch titles, has appointed Adeyeye Joseph as the newspaper group’s Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief.
Joseph, a former Editor of The PUNCH and Saturday PUNCH, was appointed following the retirement of Ademola Osinubi.
Osinubi has served in the capacity for 27 years and will officially retire on April 30. Adeyeye will assume office as MD/Editor-in-Chief on May 1.
The outgoing MD/Editor-in-Chief, who has been in the services of the company for 45 years during which he served as Editor of The PUNCH, Saturday PUNCH and Sunday PUNCH, will remain on the newspaper’s board of directors as a non-executive director.
“Under his stewardship, the company became Nigeria’s most-widely read brand, while its newspapers, reporters and editors won local and international journalism awards consecutively and repeatedly,” the company said in a statement on Friday.
The company added that Osinubi would also continue to serve as a trustee of the Punch Media Foundation.
Speaking at his last board meeting as the company’s Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Osinubi expressed delight to have served the company in the role.
“I am thankful to God for the unique privilege to have served the company in this role, and at a time it posted a tremendous growth trajectory in relevance, capacities and prosperity for all stakeholders.
“There can’t be a better choice than Joseph as my successor at this period in the life of our newspaper company.
“He is a highly ethical professional with a deep understanding and knowledge of print and digital journalism. He has shown a proven commitment to higher levels of relevance and all-round growth.”
The company added that Joseph, the new MD, has played key roles in the ideation and implementation of successful print and digital projects in the newspaper group’s publications and digital arms in the last ten years.
Joseph is an award-winning journalist who started his journalism career in THISDAY newspaper, where he worked in all of the newspaper’s titles, before leaving as a chief correspondent to join PUNCH in 2005.
Joseph expressed gratitude to God and the board for considering him for the position.
“I am grateful to God for this rare privilege. I’m also grateful to the board for the confidence reposed in me. I am honoured to succeed Mr Osinubi, whose track record of outstanding accomplishments is nonpareil in the industry.
“It is a time of great uncertainty for print and digital newspapers but as Sun Tzu wrote, ‘in the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity’. I intend to make my stewardship a period of relentless search for opportunities to grow our platforms, audience and revenue, and to create sustainable value for all our critical stakeholders.”
He added, “With the support of my colleagues within and outside our editorial units, I intend to sustain the culture of corporate excellence and the tradition of timely, courageous, pro-people journalism that has stood PUNCH in good stead in the last two decades.”
Joseph holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Obafemi Awolowo University and a master’s degree in Digital Journalism (distinction) from the Middlesex University, United Kingdom. He is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School Advanced Management Programme; the General Management Programme of Cranfield University, United Kingdom and the International Institute for Journalism, Germany’s newspaper management programme. He is a member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors and the Institute of Directors of Nigeria.
'Niyi worked with The ICIR as an Investigative Reporter and Fact-checker from 2020 till September 2022. You can shoot him an email via niyioyedeji1@gmail.com. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @niyi_oyedeji.