The Media Blog: When it comes to top-banner ads, Premium Times is the new LIB

We never seem to talk about folks like Premium Times and Sahara Reporters when we speak of online media revenue models. Maybe for good reason, seeing as grants are a major part of their model. Which is legitimate of course. The kind of important, dangerous journalism they do (and the extra-judicial journalism, for want of a better word, that makes SR volatile) need to be protected from commercial considerations, at least some.

Still, for sustainability, it IS important for media platforms to happen upon a consistent profitability model.

After all the New York Times does dangerous journalism, but still faces the burdens of revenues and profits. As does, say, Vice, for a younger generation of news consumers.

So we are very glad to see that, for ads, Premium Times, which is one of Nigeria’s top media platforms however you look at it, seems to have cracked the code. Clearly, its steadiness on Alexa is a huge part of this – because, cry as you wish, Nigerian advertisers still base buying decisions (for good) reason on Alexa’s top 200.

Premium Times AlexaOn the right side of the side, we have mostly seen ‘goodwill’ (read: unpaid) ads, but at its ‘near-top’ section, we see LIB-type hyper-activity.

Premium Times screenshot4 top ads, from top-paying corporates, all at once.

It’s the stuff of prayer points – that have been answered. We hope other news platforms (hint, hint, Ad Sales guys at the business side here!) are paying attention.

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

cool good eh love2 cute confused notgood numb disgusting fail