At the time we were composing yesterday’s editorial in response to a mischievous reference to us by the spokesperson of the former President, an international agency had rated the DAILY GUIDE as the second most read newspaper in the country.
By its survey, GeoPoll suggested that we come second to the Daily Graphic in terms of readership. The survey report was just auspicious putting paid, as it were, to the unproductive effort of the opposition NDC in their consistent bid to demean us with uncomplimentary remarks.
We neither know the rating agency nor dealt with it in respect of the survey it conducted on newspaper readership which is meant to serve as references to advertising companies across the continent. This notwithstanding, we have learnt that it picks samples at random from across the country for its report using acceptable methodology.
GeoPoll’s rating of our newspaper as number two in the past year, only suggests our consistent maintenance of the enviable ranking over the past years; knowledge of which position is not in doubt.
We have maintained it, time without number, that ours is a business entity modeled along time-tested modules with our faithful readers supporting us.
We are humbled by the rating of our efforts and wish at this point to express gratitude to the good people of Ghana whose patronage of our product countrywide and abroad has propelled us to the envious position of the Number Two newspaper in Ghana. We could not have been here without their support and, above all, the spiritual cover of the Omnipotent and Omniscient Creator, God.
We promise our readers continuous improvement in our product and assure them of the DAILY GUIDE’s trademark attribute of unbiased reportage since after all, we are in business to serve the interests of our country Ghana.
Our support for the democratic development of the country is as unwavering as it is blemish-less. We have been consistent with this principle which is why Ghanaians have kept faith with us. Their confidence in us has accounted for our survival even as we weathered the choppy waters of bad governance of the past years.
It has been an arduous journey to this milestone- a trip with little or no state advertisements; a critical survival line for every media venture, especially, the newspaper industry. It is a reality not restricted to our shores but a global phenomenon.
We recall how in the past, business entities and corporate establishments dreaded advertising in the private media such as ours for fear of being labeled opposition friendly companies and therefore subtly lined up on the firing line for destruction.
Democracy, although still in a fledgling state has progressed from the era of vindictiveness when governments could apply arbitrary measures to destroy business entities such as private newspapers which upheld the tenets of free speech and press.
As bastions of democracy, the private media must be supported to sustain our freedoms and good governance. The private sector’s first point of call when they suffer fallouts of bad governance is the private media. Let them patronize us with advertisements so we can serve the interest of our country better.