Graphic hosts Guest Editors - Alhassan Andani takes turn Thursday

The Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL) will from Thursday, May 28, 2020, roll out the Guest Editors programme as part of elaborate plans to mark the company’s 70th anniversary.

First on the list is the President of the Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB) and Managing Director of Stanbic Bank, Mr Alhassan Andani, who will take his turn as Guest Editor of the Daily Graphic on Thursday.

The monthly event will also see a former Acting Editor of the Daily Graphic, Ms Elizabeth Ohene, the Quiz Mistress of the National Science and Mathematics Quiz (NSMQ), Dr Elsie Effah Kaufmann, and the Auditor-General, Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo take their turn as Guest Editors.

Many other high-profile personalities have also been penciled as Guest Editors for the 70th milestone celebration which will climax in October, this year.

Guest Editors

Throwing further light on the anniversary activities, the Editor of the Daily Graphic, Mr Kobby Asmah, said the idea of Guest Editors would provide a wealth of experience sharing with leaders of industry.

“The Guest Editor for any day will see to the production of the paper; chair conference and give directions as to how the next day's newspaper will be produced.

"We believe that this will encourage information and ideas sharing because our engagement with Guest Editors will give us fresh perspectives into the business of newspaper production," the editor said.

He explained that the initial plan was to bring on board a team of editors to assist the Guest Editor to produce the paper but it was changed because of the social distancing directive occasioned by the outbreak of COVID-19.

Touching on other initiatives, Mr Asmah said the GCGL was also rolling out a novelty programme dubbed “I will tell my story,” for more knowledge and experience sharing.

He explained that under that initiative, former managing directors of the GCGL, former editors, as well as workers who had a long spell with the company would reunite with the current workers and share experiences with them.

The editor said the "I will tell my story” initiative would particularly add colour to the celebration and give the newsroom a depth of knowledge and experience to feed on.

Focus

Mr Asmah said the focus of the Daily Graphic and the other brands of the company going forward was to generate unique content that would be disseminated in the most appropriate means to consumers.

That, he said, required that journalists of the company strictly adhere to the tenets of good journalism by ensuring that they stick to the verification principles of accuracy, truthfulness and balance in gathering and disseminating information.

"As journalists working for the GCGL, we need to dig deeper and unravel what hitherto is unknown, to make our stories compelling for the public. We need to do follow-ups and have new angles to stories, speak to multiple sources," he stressed.

Journalistic standards

Mr Asmah stressed that in an era of stiff competition, what would make the GCGL consolidate its dominance in the media industry was for journalists to be diligent and meticulous in their reportage.

“We want to be the first to break the news but we want to do that knowing that the news we are breaking is accurate and consistent with the normative values of journalism such as fairness, objectivity, accuracy and balance,” he said.

He observed further that the 70th anniversary celebration was a call for workers of the company to have a renewed mindset to protect the legacy bequeathed to them by their predecessors.

Digital platform

For his part, the Director of Sales and Marketing at GCGL, Mr Franklin Sowa, said the GCGL would, in the coming days, roll out a digital platform dubbed "Graphic Talks 360," to host prominent personalities and captains of industry who would share their knowledge and experience on key national issues ranging from politics, education, health, economy, socio-cultural to religious issues.

He said the initiative had been designed to move the conversation that had been lined up for the 70th anniversary from physical to virtual meetings in line with the social distancing requirement occasioned by COVID-19.

"The essence is that for every topical issue we choose, we will get a top-notch person on board the digital platform to speak objectively and professionally to the issues," he said.

Mr Sowa said the focus of the GCGL would be to consolidate the gains made following the migration into a multimedia organisation by leveraging the online and electronic versions of the newspapers.

He also said the marketing strategy for the company was now tilting more to partnerships that would result in improved service delivery.

"Seventy years and counting means that the things we are doing that are working will have to be improved; we will have to look out for opportunities and venture more into partnership to drive our business. We have a brand that is priceless and globally known so the strength of the brand we have is what we will use to attract the right partnerships," he said.

Human capital

The Director of Human Resource and Administration, Ms Peggy Addo, observed that the quality of human capital remained the magic wand for the GCGL for which reason investment in that area would be prioritised.

"Our vision is to be the employer of choice in the industry; and to this end, we have over the years crafted human-centred policies geared towards a holistic development of our human capital to maximise their full potential. We strive to treat employees fairly, managing them well and providing them with equal opportunities to contribute towards the company’s business goals," she stressed.

She noted that the systematic and consistent investment in the company's human capital had yielded impressive results over the years and made the GCGL the trailblazer in the media industry.

"One of the award winners at the maiden GJA awards was Ms Ajoa Yeboah-Afari, who was awarded the John Kugblenu Prize for Valour — the first and only GJA award of its kind. That same month Ms Yeboah-Afari was voted Africa Columnist of the Year by listeners of the BBC programme, Network Africa.

"The Journalist of the Year award has been won by a Graphic journalist nine times, with one journalist winning the award three times. Apart from the Journalist of the Year award, a large number of our journalists have won awards in several disciplines such as health reporting, feature writing, environment among others," she said.

Additionally, she said the company had also won awards in Marketing, Human Resource and Procurement at various levels and that indicated that it had an all-round staff quality.

Team spirit

She said as part of the 70th anniversary celebrations, one of the company’s goals was to rekindle team spirit, a sense of pride and loyalty among the workers whom she described as “our most important asset.”

“We have, therefore, placed the employees at the heart of the anniversary celebration. One of such activities is the themed dress code on the last Friday of every month at which prizes will be awarded to the most representative outfit for publication in our brands. This and many other events will increase employee loyalty and stimulate their growth as we move the business into the next decade,” she said.

Profile of guest Editors

Mr Alhassan Andani

Mr Alhassan Andani is the CEO of the Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB) and the Managing Director of Stanbic Bank.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ghana and a Master's degree in Banking and Finance from Fin Africa Institute in Milan.

Mr Andani is also an alumnus of the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme, and holds an International Management Certificate from INSEAD, Chartered Bank.

He began his career at the then SSB Bank Limited in 1984, and rose through the ranks to become the Regional Project Manager in the Upper Region in 1987.

He was also appointed by Gold Fields Limited as an independent non-executive director at its Board of Directors on August 1, 2016.

Ms Elizabeth Ohene

Ms Elizabeth Ohene is a former Editor of the Daily Graphic and a former Minister of State at the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports.

She enrolled at the University of Ghana in 1964 and graduated with a BA (Hons) English in 1967. She also attended the University of Indiana, Bloomington, Ind. U.S.A. where she obtained a Mass Communication Certificate.

Ms Ohene was a Press Fellow from January to June 1983 at Wolfswon College, University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

She is also part of the award-winning Focus on Africa team.

Dr Elsie Effah Kaufmann

Elsie Effah Kaufmann is a Ghanaian academic, biomedical engineer and quiz mistress for the National Science and Maths Quiz (NMSQ).

Dr Kaufmann obtained her International Baccalaureate Diploma from United World College of the Atlantic in Wales in 1988. She proceeded to the University of Pennsylvania for her Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE), a Master of Science in Engineering (MSE) and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering.

Dr Kaufmann was a Research Supervisor at the Department of Chemistry at Rutgers University in New Jersey, United States of America (USA), from May 1998 to June 2001; after being a Teaching Assistant at the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, United States of America.

She was also a Senior Lecturer and the first Head of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Ghana (2006-2012, 2014-2016).

Mr Domelevo

Mr Daniel Yaw Domelevo was sworn into office as the Auditor-General on January 2, 2017, at age 55.

Prior to his appointment, he held numerous high-level positions that include Senior Financial Management Specialist with the World Bank, responsible for the Public Financial Management (PFM) project in Zimbabwe and Malawi.

He has a proven track record serving in several senior staff roles for the Controller and Accountant General’s Department of the Ministry of Finance for 18 years.

He was also a Chief Accountant for the Ghana Film Industry Corporation (now TV3).

As a professional accountant, he has been a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (Ghana) since 1992.

He holds an Executive Master’s degree in Business Administration (Finance) from the Business School of the University of Ghana.