Have you been following the media news recently?

Then you have definitely heard that Opera News, the news media offshoot of sleeper startup giant Opera (yes, that same Opera) has begun to pop in the farthest corners of blogger and influencer twitter with a singular announcement.

Happy to announce that I have signed a creator partnership with @OperaNewsHub. I will be writing on politics, policy, governance and business. pic.twitter.com/9Ofz5U4Uzr

— David Hundeyin (@DavidHundeyin) October 29, 2019

David Hundeyin, journalist and blogger is one of the more legitimate journalists who have announced their decision to start a ‘partnership’ with Opera News. This phrase ‘partnership’ has been used by quite a number of the people who have announced joining the team. And Opera News hasn’t been exactly elitist, they have also hired twitter influencers like Aproko_Doctor and Healthertainer.

Opera News is just the newest head of a hydra that includes O-Pay, the ride hailing app that essentially tried to send GoKada into the ground and is spreading quickly into Northern and Eastern Nigeria with innovations like O-Trike (Keke Napeps, but in style). This feels like an attempt to disrupt the news industry, somewhat like what Pulse tried to do in 2015 (with varying results). Opera has already hired three of the big guns from the Pulse team that helped shape it into the company it is today so we’ll see how that plays out for them.

So far, however, it doesn’t seem like Opera News has any real models of profitability and sustainability it intends to leverage to get there. Its choices of journalists and influencers are so bizarre it feels like it is skimming the surface of a pond and dredging in whoever is caught in the net.

What is the goal of Opera News, what niches does it seek to address, what is its editorial goal?

Those are questions they will have to answer in the coming weeks.

Edwin Okolo

Edwin Okolo is an author and journalist who has worked with YNaija, TheNativemag and the Naked Convos.