Tosin Ajibade, popularly known as Olorisupergal, celebrated her birthday and the 6th anniversary of her popular blog in February. She recently spoke to Bisola Bello about getting started, the challenges of online and offline publishing, some of her favourite people and what is next for the OSG brand.
We know Tosin Ajibade the publisher of Olorisupergal. Tell us what we don’t know about you
First of all I like to keep my private life out of the limelight, but in brief, I am the first child out of six children- five girls and one boy. I am from Ekiti State. I went to Lagos State Model College for my secondary school education. I went on to study accounting at the Lagos State University. I also did a course in media enterprising at the Pan Atlantic University. Before starting my own blog I worked at Acada Magazine.
From studying accounting to being a blogger, what prompted that decision?
I did not really decide; it just happened. I did not plan for it or anything. I was working at the time and a friend of mine introduced me to it. The thing is before I started blogging I used Facebook to promote events. My friend was just like instead of doing this on Facebook, why not create a blog. Surprisingly, I did not know what a blog was and he introduced me to it. At that point in my life, I was just trying to find myself. With Facebook, all I did was talk about events and all that but I knew I could not do that with a blog. I had to add something else, something I know is my core strength and that is really entertainment. I am very passionate about it so I started developing myself.
Has it been a smooth ride so far?
No it has not. It has been very challenging because firstly I am not even a trained journalist. So you tend to see journalists doing this job better than people that don’t know how to report or say something about a particular news story. But I actually think you can get it right as a novice. You just need to train yourself and be willing to learn.
How did you train yourself?
What I did was to learn online. I began to ask questions from people. I had few people that helped me out like Jide Ogunsanya. A friend of mine in the UK also sent me links on what to read, how to report, reporting style, how do you want your readers to see a particular story and so on. Are you making mockery or praising a person. Most of these things gave me an insight on what the job entails.
Do you ever see a very big story and still refrain from writing it because of your own sentiments?
Yes, I actually do. I have some of my favourites in the industry like Tiwa Savage. I tend to filter what I write about her. Not like I can kill for her or anything but she is just one person that I respect in the music industry. I believe when she came in, she stood her ground and did her thing very well. I admire that about her. There are several stories about her that I can’t bring myself to report. There was a time it was about her dating her manager and so on. Even after she got married and was pregnant, some people reported she dated Femi Otedola and that was why she became a Forte Oil ambassador. They also said Otedola gave her his yacht to use for her baby shower and some people said they won’t attend because she was dating the man. I actually did not report all those shenanigans, we only did the story on her baby shower and that was it. I don’t think one should rain on people’s parade. Another person is Toyin Aimakhu. I just don’t know how to write a bad story about her.
Have you ever gotten backlash over a story you wrote?
Yes, but that is the job. For example, we wrote a story about ladies linked to Iyanya and Emma Nyra was one of the ladies listed. After the story was published, Emma sent me a message saying that she trusted me and so on. She just blasted me. I had to tell her that a writer did the story not me. It was his story, it was not like he mentioned only her name, he also wrote Freda Francis’ name. Either ways I was not bothered about it. It’s just one of those things.
Is OSG ever going to have a print publication?
I don’t think OSG will ever have a print publication. I say this because the print market is not really the in-thing right now. Everybody have mobile phones that they source for their news. There are mobile apps that give you breaking news as it comes. So why would I buy newspaper for N300 or a magazine for N1000. Who is going to buy my own when it comes out? Also the cost of printing is very expensive. Most of these magazines don’t print in Nigeria. They print outside the country and ship to Nigeria. Then the distribution aspect is another challenge. Distribution in Lagos alone is hell. You may need to depend on subscribers but you have to pray the subscribers are faithful and will pay when the time is right. So if you are printing 10000 copies and you have like 500 people buying, that is a loss. So no one wants to go into an industry that you won’t profit from. Another thing is that in Nigeria we don’t have a reading culture. How many people do you see that buy newspapers and actually keep them? Only few people do that. What youth do is to pay N50 to read a paper on the stand and that is all.
What about OSG TV?
We are actually doing something about that. We first launched the idea in 2013 when we decided to do a show but unfortunately it did not work out. I invested a lot of money in it but it did not see the light of day. But still it is something that I will consider when I have the proper management that will help me with all of that.
What sets you apart from other bloggers in Nigeria?
Everybody is different, that is all I know. I let my work speak for me. Every other person has a way they manage their own business. In the blogging industry, they don’t take us seriously. But I want people to see me and take me seriously. That is why a lot of rebranding came into OSG. There are a lot of people working with me. It is not just about me anymore; it is about us getting the job done. On the long run we are all looking for people to invest in us.
Has it been easy getting people to invest in you?
It has not been easy getting people to invest in us. People have offered me money to buy off my blog with the name and everything. I have had such offers. I had to ask one of my mentors, Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, who sat me down like a younger sister and told me what she thinks and she also advised me to go home and think about what I want for the business. Despite how hard it is, I still want to keep pushing and keep looking for investors that are going to be interested in making OSG a better brand.
Away from work, is Tosin Ajibade in a relationship or planning to say I do soon?
Yes, I am, and it will be very soon. I can’t say anything more because I don’t like putting my personal life out there.
