By Ephraim Modi D.S
No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper has commemorated the Second year of existence in the print media fraternity on Thursday 14th July amid the hardening economic bits and challenging environment.
The paper was launched on the 14th July 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic, where many were skeptical, it wasn’t going to make it any longer.
Speaking at the Anniversary celebrations, the Managing Director of No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspaper, Kiden Stela Mandela lamented how the paper got its way through to the market.
“The company was started in 2019 registered and started to publish stories on the website because we were not having enough capacity,” she narrated.
“We came on the hard copy on July 14th 2020 of which everybody was saying no, you shouldn’t come out this time (that) things are difficult because we came out during the pandemic -the corona period where everything was very difficult but we said if we did not come out, we will not make it,” she added.
The Boss of the Newspaper further narrated how they were able to operate from the start amidst the Pandemic and inflation in the country, but managed to sustain its operations.
“When we started, we had only 5 reporters, and one news editor, when we started moving until others joined us, others also left for better paying jobs. But now we have about 28 national staff,” she said.
No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper is an entity purely founded and run by young South Sudanese aiming for generations to be giving firsthand information to the public, well balanced stories as the rules always dictate.
“You can see from the experience of this paper that we can do better with time,” she further assured the public.
Dogga Morris former News Editor at the No. 1 Citizen Daily Newspaper who joined his former colleagues at the second anniversary celebrations asserted about consistency of the English Daily in the print industry.
“To stay in the media industry, you need to have big markets, you need to have good stories and to have good stories, and you need to have a designer and a good human resource team,” he said.
He commended the human resource team, reporters, designers and every staff who are duly contributing very hard for the success of the paper.
The current Assistant News Editor Philip Buda Ladu expressed during the opening remarks that his desires are not around financial aspect which keeps but he is committed to working towards the success of the paper that’s a dream of young South Sudanese.
“Went I joined No.1 Citizen Daily Newspaper in 2020, I did come with big heart for money but I wanted to be part of the brainchild initiative of the young youth conceived in 2019,” he said.
Buda added it was through his passion and dedication to the young vibrant team of like-minded youth entrepreneurs that he’s still at No.1 Citizens Daily newspaper and wants to contribute to the success of the idea.