Punch Newspapers makes new management appointments

LAGOS, Nigeria – The management of PUNCH Nigeria Limited has made new appointments in the leadership in the quest to take the newspaper to greater height.

The company also named a new chairman for its Editorial Board and deputies for the print newspaper titles. All the appointments take effect from Monday, April 4, 2022.

Ademola Oni, the Editor of The PUNCH, was promoted Head of the newspaper’s Content Division, while Adedayo Oketola, the Editor, Weekend Titles (Saturday PUNCH and Sunday PUNCH), was appointed Editor, The PUNCH.

Oni, whose three-year tenure as Editor, The PUNCH, would have ended in July, will oversee the operations of PUNCH’s print and online platforms in his current role.

Oketola, also a former Business Editor of The PUNCH, is by this promotion expected to leverage his leadership and media skills to sustain and enhance PUNCH’s leadership of the nation’s newspaper market.

Abiodun Sonowo, a senior member of the newspaper’s Editorial Board and one of its finest analysts, was announced as the Chairman of the Editorial Board. The company also renewed the tenure of the Deputy Editor, The PUNCH,  Niyi Odebode, while the Deputy Editor, Weekend Titles, Olusola Fabiyi, was appointed Editor, Weekend Titles.

Akinpelu Dada, a former Business Editor of The PUNCH, was appointed Deputy Editor, Weekend Titles. Oni, who holds a Master’s degree in Communication Arts from the University of Ibadan, joined the company in 2003, and was later deployed in Ogun State as the state correspondent in 2007.

A former Editor of Sunday PUNCH, he also served as the editor of the newspaper’s flagship online platform, Punchng.com.

Under his leadership, The PUNCH won several awards, including the Newspaper and Editor of The Year awards, while the newspaper also consolidated its leadership position in the news publishing market in Nigeria.

Oketola, a former News Editor of The PUNCH and News and Politics Editor of Saturday PUNCH, had a successful stint as Weekend Titles editor, with his team winning prestigious industry awards.

He joined the newspaper in 2008 as a correspondent on the Business Desk and had a distinguished career as a reporter. He won the Telecoms Reporter of the Year Award at the Nigeria Media Merit Awards (2012), the Conoil Prize for Energy Correspondent of the Year at the NMMA (2014) and Mobil Producing Award for Energy Reporting at the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (2014)

He also won back-to-back the Energy Reporter of the Year at the continental Zimeo Award for Excellence in Media in 2015 in South Africa and 2016 in Kenya. He was the first runner-up in the infrastructure reporting category at the 2016 CNN MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year Award.