On 18 April, 2013, a couple of ‘impoverished’ cyber terrorists targeted Nigeria’s most prolific entertainment news website, locking its systems, encrypting its files and hijacking its identity. They simultaneously demanded a ransom from the owners of NET.
Despite what was a dire move to stop their pioneering media outfit from remaining in business, the owners and board of NET had an absurd initial reaction — they burst into laughter.
Ayeni Adekunle, CEO and Founder of BHM Group, the parent company of NET, recalls the incident.
‘We were exactly a week away from our 3rd year anniversary, and days from the inaugural edition of the Nigerian Entertainment Conference. So this was a strategic, malicious attack. Nevertheless, most of us lost all capacity to keep a straight face when we saw the ransom fee being asked for. It was $1,200. Who does that?’ he asks rhetorically, before laughing uproariously, again.
Undaunted, Ayeni and his firm immediately set up an interim destination, maintained a tight leash on their other domains and issued a statement explaining their reasons to the public.
‘We resolved never to bow to illegality or coercion. If we engaged with criminals on their terms, not only would we have set a wrong precedent for Nigeria’s relatively young creative industry at the time, but it would absolutely contradict everything we stand for.’
By the time the hackers offered to release the domain for a lesser $900, Thenetng was already back on air, being enjoyed by readers and advertisers.
‘In fact, the hack brought the broader theme of cyber terrorism to the Nigerian Entertainment Conference, and had the serendipity of added clicks, hits and business,’ Ayeni recalls.
He is clearly making an understatement because the facts show that in the last seven years, NET has published 36,000 stories, bagged six billion views, and has at least five million active users. And counting.
NET’s unique selling points
NET’s home is now on www.thenet.ng, a site also home to the world’s largest cache of news, informed opinion and analysis on the Nigerian entertainment industry. Over 80 stories are published daily, content which reaches at least three million users weekly via social media — Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, with over two million views for NET videos every month.
Its parent company
Industry watchers say NET’s unique selling point is being one of several companies in the PR, marketing and digital advertising-focused BHM Group.
‘If BHM is handling PR for a concert organized by a corporate brand, then who else is going to have the exclusives when drama occurs with the stars present, or even the crowd, if not NET? Who else is then able to upload with speed and accuracy these happenings, if not NET? Who else will then have first dibs on follow-ups to the story? It’s a no-brainer, really,’ an industry source says.
The strategy
Tobi Amoo, NET’s acting editor is very cautious and almost evasive, when asked to give an average of daily story counts.
‘These are not our yardsticks as such. NET is fixated more on content, access and portability, not necessarily on seeking numbers and comments. The popular journalism acronym is KISS—keep it short and simple, or sweet.
‘Well, we would rather ‘keep it short and shareable,’ because entertainment is not necessarily always sweet,’ he says.
NET continues to replicate these strategies, investing in other fast-growing platforms like citizen reporter-based Newsroom.ng, music sharing site Orin.ng, lifestyle platform Star.ng, the multimedia-focused NET TV and its in-built, e-commerce website NETShop.
NET has—and facilitates—access
NET is a trusted source, patronised by corporates, the public and even the entertainers it reports on. Often, before the ink on a foreign record deal signed by any Nigerian artiste has time to dry, its details are on NET. If a relationship packs up or is afoot, or a secret marriage is holding, NET will have the follow-up, while others are still running with the initial narrative.
Where most entertainers have a morbid fear of news websites, many flock to NET in times of crisis, when they feel they have a story to tell. For instance, Peter of P-Square opened up extensively to NET, while the controversy of the band’s breakup went viral, with fans across Africa and the Americas reacting. For his 40th birthday, the notoriously interview-phobic 2face Idibia sat down with none other than NET.
The website also merges this unrivalled access to entertainment circles with a knack for opening up access to niche markets.
NET has consistently gone beyond the periphery of Nollywood to report on the Yoruba movie and independent feature film sectors, bringing the stars, their achievements and scandals alike to greater limelight. It once sent a reporter on set to interview actress Mide Martins when her domestic woes made headlines online, and has bravely covered aspects of plagiarism in Nigeria’s music and film industry.
NET is an outstanding curator of the past
If the Internet never forgets, then NET is just as fastidious about curating the defining moments and events that shape and shake Nigeria’s creative industry.
Many instances abound; NET was the first to break rapper Da Grin’s death, and continues to return to the subject every year.
This year marked the 10th year after the passing of actor JT Tom West; while nobody seemed to remember, NET did, and ran an extensive feature.
NET has consistently returned to check on ailing music and film stars, even occasionally running campaigns to help source funds for healthcare.
On 19 March 2015, NET visited the Ikoyi Cemetery to report on late singer Zara Gretti, ahead of the one-year anniversary of her death. The outcome of such foresight was an exposé on the treatment of corpses in Nigeria’s cemeteries, when Gretti’s grave could not be found, then was miraculously identified about 72 hours later as a shoddily marked one, by cemetery officials.
READ MORE: 10 years after his death, everyone has forgotten about Nollywood actor JT Tom West
More importantly, NET focuses on the living, chronicling their works and words for posterity via extensive, one-off interviews, or books. The NET Book Series is an intentional documentation of the autobiographies of Nigeria’s creative legends such as 2face Idibia and DJ Jimmy Jatt, all of which are conveniently available on its e-commerce platform NETShop.
Yet a mover of the present, and shaper of the future…
From inception, NET has always scored a following with its top-notch columnists past and present, which include Chris Ihidero, Tosyn Bucknor, and Osagie Alonge. These voices continue to move the agenda for the arts, often saying what everyone else is thinking, in as brash a manner as everyone else would prefer.
Online, NET’s lounge hosts eminent socialites and artistes to a live Facebook chat virtually every week. Young superstars bursting the charts across Africa, local comedians, and viral social media personalities often grace NET’s couch.
In the middle of his baby-mama drama, Davido was on hand to answer questions in real-time, while NET unabashedly sat down with cross-dresser Bobrisky, just the latter was becoming cult status on Nigeria’s corner of Snapchat.
These chats result in NET bagging increased views and massive amounts of follow-up content such that entertainment and arts writers from other publications and dailies are known to tune in for story leads and material.
All these factors have coalesced into a winning formula that is clearly paying off. This year, from January to mid-April, NET has received 8,026,062 video views on Facebook alone, buoyed by its over 296,000 followers, with its 130,000-strong Instagram followers clocking up over 181,000 video views, a shade above the 172,731 cumulative views on NET’s YouTube channel for the same period.
The most recent acknowledgment of NET’s prowess on a global scale came from the world’s largest social networking site Facebook, in April 2016.
At its F8 conference in San Francisco, Facebook announced it would debut updates to its social plugins – with NET being the only entertainment portal in Nigeria that Facebook was willing to kick off with.
Ayeni says the event was more of a humbling experience, than a stepping stone: ‘To be in a room with some of the brightest minds in tech, and hear this announcement was a very early present to Nigerian Entertainment Today, as this is our 7th year of existence. It reminded me of my responsibilities to my craft, my team, my country and my continent. We hope to continue to make the most impact, for our growing audience and for every one person, who like me, cannot let 60 minutes pass by without clicking on NET.’