NASU trains LAWAN members on sustainable revenue

The capacity building organised for journalists by Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and Associated Institutions (NASU) might have come and gone, but the gains from that two-day training will remain in minds of the participants for a long time.

The speakers in the event noted that the results of the intense two-day training, when fully actualised, would ginger participants into more brighter future.

With the era of digitisation of media practice, members of Labour Writers Association of Nigeria (LAWAN) were charged during the training to diversify into more areas that could offer them more sustainable revenues.

Reminding LAWAN members on the need to have other source of revenue, NASU General Secretary, Comrade Peters Adeyemi also advised journalists to convert their writings into tools that could create rooms for businesses knocked down by coronavirus pandemic to come back to life.

Adeyemi who was represented by the former President of NASU, Comrade (Barr) Ivor Takor, commended LAWAN for seeking more knowledge on how best to reestablish lost jobs through coronavirus pandemic for themselves and for the general public.

Speaking on the theme, ‘Empowering media practitioners for future challenges: Reflections on COVID-19,’ Adeyemi reminded journalists of the need to imbibe the culture of professionalism whereby they would be able to bailout people affected by the Covid-19.

“To survive amid the COVID-19 pandemic, conventional media must be able to maintain credibility and trust in the information presented and also integrate newspaper contents into electronic tablets.”

Likewise, the President of /Founder, Success Edge for Entrepreneurship Development (SEED), Godwin Oyefeso, urged journalists to save and plan for their future after retirement.

According to Oyefeso, eating all the seeds without savings would be likened to farmer that ate all his seeds without reserve for planting.

Taking participants through opportunities in the non-oil sector, where they could venture in after retirement, Oyefeso warned them against living flamboyant life at the detriment of diversifying into other ventures with the little income they are making presently.
 
Similarly, Director, International Press Centre (IPC), Lanre Arogundade, who spoke on the topic, ‘The Better Journalist You Can be in the Age of COVID-19 and Beyond,’ said since digital technology had become part of the new normal, journalists must use it judiciously to write better stories.
 
He urged journalists to think out of the box and of opportunities within the profession, where they could use their talents to generate more income