DJOKOTOE

By KAIKO NAMUSA-
MEDIA consultant Edem Djokotoe has called on media institutions to invest in editorial operations to improve news coverage.
He has also urged journalists to sharpen their research and writing skills to ensure efficiency.
Mr Djokotoe said this during an on-going in-house training workshop for Times of Zambia Lusaka, Livingstone and Choma-based journalists.
He implored the public media to venture into new aspects of news coverage that would help sell the newspapers and broaden the readership base.
Mr Djokotoe said in order to attract advertisements from all corners of the country, media institutions should ensure that such areas were also covered.
He said it was important to have an editorial budget that would enable reporters to carry out different assignments in all parts of the country.
“It is important to cover geographical aspects of news, but for this to happen, the editorial coverage should have an investment.
“News is business and you have to spend money to make money,” he said.
He advised reporters not to submit news ideas when they knew well that they had not done any research on them.
Times Printpak Managing Director Godfrey Malama said there was need for media practitioners to undergo in-house training especially that they were the conveyors of news to the community.
“It is important that the people entrusted with the responsibility of channelling news are in touch with the changing trends in the news industry,” Mr Malama said.