Before anyone begins to doubt my two degrees in English Literature, let me quickly say that the strange title, Many Things Begin For Change is not a typo. It is a borrowing from the novelist, Adaora Lily Ulasi, who wrote a book of the same title many moons ago.
It is fitting to begin this by referring to the past because a celebration of this nature compels us to cast a backward glance because a full appreciation of the past is often germane to a good understanding of where we are for a better anticipation of the future.
Thenetng was conceived as Nigeria’s first entertainment newspaper. What that meant was that Ayeni Adekunle Samuel, the precocious founder and publisher wanted to do, on a daily basis, what his former boss and mentor, Kunle Bakare did only once a week. He wanted to bring the Saturday-Sunday entertainment pages forward and make them a daily occurrence albeit online.
The print edition would come on five months after the site went live, first as a twice monthly publication before becoming a weekly.
His proposition did not just seem audacious, it seemed stupid and destined to fail. Who had ever heard of a daily newspaper dedicated to reporting the minutiae of the quotidian shenanigans of Nigeria’s burgeoning celebrity class of actors, musicians and ‘famous for being famous’ celebrities. (Think Bobrisky).
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Take that Ayeni!!!!
Thenetng wanted to tread in the footsteps of Lagos Weekend, Prime and Vintage People, Fame and Encomium, City People and Global Excellence, Hints and Hearts. It wanted to make reporting entertainment its mainstay; no politics, no economy, just entertainment.
As audacious and as stupid as the proposition sounded, the visionary Ayeni, who had cut his entertainment journalism teeth at National Encomium, The Punch and Thisday, was unto something.
He was birthing his magazine at an auspicious moment, at a critical juncture when the Nigerian entertainment industry was experiencing a sea change not just with a new sound and ethos but a change driven by big money from telecoms and FMCGs who seemed to have suddenly awoken to the potential inherent in the sector.
Before this ‘waking up’, the only Nigerian celebrity who had been a ‘brand ambassador’ was Chief Zebrudaya for Bagco Super Sack and Elephant Blue detergent and I use that term very loosely.
Suddenly, Nigerian celebrities active in the knowledge economy were beginning to attract the big bucks. It was as if the coming of a new generation of music, the heady cocktail of sounds that heralded the coming of the Don Jazzy–D’banj tag team as well as many others had suddenly turned them into pied pipers who instead of attracting hordes of rats attracted cash.
Nigerian celebrities were suddenly, not just celebrities in name, but by virtue of their bank balance and Thenetng was in prime position to report the ascendancy of this new tribe of the rich and famous.
And it is critical to point out a change in what celebrity meant. Before the coming of Thenetng, the Nigerian celebrity stratosphere was straddled by the rich and famous not necessarily actors, musicians and their ilk.
Prime and Vintage People dealt with the Awolowos, the Tejuoshos, the Kuforiji Olubis. Yes, there was mention of musicians like Ras Kimino, Oris Wiliki, actors like RMD and Barbara Soky but the core of those magazines was dedicated to celebrating the moneyed class.
By the time Thenetng was opening for business that stratosphere had a new corps of debutantes, if you will. Think 2baba, D’banj and Don Jazzy, Ali Baba, Genevieve, Omotola, Rita Dominic and many others who provided cannon fodder for the tabloids.
It was the beginning of an era and something that is often neglected is the role of the Internet and social media in promoting the ascendancy of these new princes and princesses of the elevated social strata.
Ayeni Adekunle Samuel and his merry band stepped into that niche and they did not just occupy it, they inhabited it, making it their own and building an institution in the process it. And it is that institution that we are celebrating at seven.
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And in those seven years, Thenetng has witnessed momentous moments as well as instants of transition. The exclusive interview with D’banj after the Mo’Hits implosion was a defining moment while the full jettisoning of the print edition for a complete migration online was a defining moment of transition.
In all, Thenetng has stayed true to its ideals with Ayeni and his people managing to maintain a delicate balancing act in reporting members of a tribe for whom he does business as founder of the Black House Media group.
As Thenetng celebrates seven, one wonders where it will be at 10 and what new incarnations and iterations would have preceded it but no matter what, the fact will remain that its coming marked a change in the Nigerian entertainment journalism ecosystem.
If you do not understand how, check out Osagie Alonge and Olori Supergal and find out in what smithy they were forged.