Islanders Magazine

City People’s Reporter, Saheed Ojubanire, Starts Wedding Focused Publication
*Says: “‘Couple’s Diary’ Is Designed To Tell Love Stories”

Ace journalist, Saheed Ojubanire is one of the reporters writing for
City People magazine. And he is not just a run-of-the-mill writer but
a very creative one. But that is not the news about the young man who
joined the popular celebrity magazine in 2009. The news about him is
that he has just broken a new ground in the area of specialised
publication in the media industry. And he calls his unprecedented
offering to journalism “Couple’s Diary” which he has designed for
“about to wed” couples to be handed out to guests at their wedding for
their reading pleasure.

Speaking with this magazine recently about his novel idea of a
publication, Ojubanire said: “Couple’s Diary is a concept that came to
me when I was getting married in 2011. Then, it had not been named
‘Couple’s Diary’ but was just a publication to tell the love story
between me my bride. As a journalist I felt there was a need for my
kind of job to reflect on my wedding and when I was thinking of
printing the wedding programme, I had a brainwave. I thought I could
do more than just a wedding programme and I came up with the idea of
actually publishing the story of how my relationship with my fiancée
then, started up till when it culminated in the wedding. And inside
the publication I knew I could incorporate the wedding programme I
wanted to print.”

On why he has decided to make the publication a media project for
interested couples, Ojubanire responded eloquently that: “From my
personal experience on my wedding day, I realised that publishing the
love story between me and my bride for guests to read added colour to
the event to the extent that none of the guests left the publication
behind. They all went away with it and it then served as a different
kind of souvenir about my wedding. As a matter of fact, an elder
brother of mine still requested for two more copies from the few ones
I kept for my library when he visited me and my wife about a week
after the wedding. So, I was able to imagine the kind of effect the
publication had on the guests from entertaining to informing them
about the love story behind the wedding they came to witness.

“And now, four years after, I stumbled on a copy of the publication in
a pile of books in my library and something told me I could do what I
did for myself on my wedding day for others who might be interested in
my services. More so, my inspiration was born out of the fact that I
am a creative writer, a feat a good number of proof-readers who worked
on my reports for City People have attested to over the years. In
fact, a particular woman among them, Mrs. Owoeye, kept urging me to
start writing books till she left City People about two years ago. And
I must confess that her encouragement made me to take up the challenge
of writing a book, a biography to be more precise, for a former
colleague in City People, a photo journalist, who clocked 40 in 2014
and the book was launched as part of the activities for his birthday
celebration.

“So, ‘Couple’s Diary’ is designed from the perspective that rather
than for guests to come to a wedding, sit, drink, eat, dance and
listen to one disjointed and inaudible tale from one of the friends of
the groom about how the couple met or started their relationship in
the name of giving a ‘toast’, it would serve a greater purpose if
journalism is employed creatively, to deal with that. Apart from the
fact that, after both the bride and the groom must have been duly
interviewed ahead of the wedding on how like a movie, the clapperboard
clicked on  their relationship and some of the episodes of love they
went through together paying attention to every details, some
illustrative pictures of two of them would also be taken to liven up
their ‘blockbusting story’ in the publication so that it would not be
drab to the readers.

“Meanwhile, there is a blog already created for ‘Couple’s Diary’ on
www.thecouplesdiary.blogspot.com where the love story would also be
presented to audiences around the world to read and get inspired by it
one way or the other. The soft copy of the story published for the
audience at the wedding would be posted on the blog on the night of
the wedding or the next day because the guests at the wedding deserve
to read the love story of the subjects of the wedding they are
attending first and in hard copies for keepsake, before people who
were not at the wedding or may not even know the couple from around
the world can get to read same on the internet. That is the idea. So,
in essence, ‘Couple’s Diary’ is an engaging narrative of a love story
for people to read and get inspired by it in some ways.”

But what would it cost any “about to wed” couple to get the services
of Ojubanire and be in “Couple’s Diary” on their wedding day? He had
an answer for that too: “It is simple. To start with, the minimum
number of copies to be printed is 200 and it could go up to 500, 1000
or even 2000 copies depending on the number of expected guests at the
wedding. And the principle of economy of scales applies like in
anything printed. That is to say that, the higher the number of copies
to be printed, the lower the price to be charged. And the cost is
quite flexible and negotiable vis-à-vis the current economic reality
in the country. So, I can be reached on 07034570500 or 08121366599 for
negotiation. I can also be reached via email: [email protected]
and people can check a sample of ‘Couple’s Diary’ on
www.thecouplesdiary.blogspot.com”.

Saheed Ojubanire who has converted his hitherto full employment with
City People Magazine to a freelance engagement read Mass Communication
and specialized in print journalism at the prestigious Moshood Abiola
Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State. He had a rear privilege of being an
Editor, Managing Editor, Editor-in-Chief and Vice Chairman of
Editorial Board of different campus publications as a student. He had
work experience with Radio Lagos/Eko fm, Insider Weekly Magazine,
African Mail International Magazine, News Digest Magazine, Ebonyi
Voice Newspaper (Now, The Voice of Reason) where he ran a column on
“Youth Matters” as a corps member in Ebonyi State before joining City
People Magazine. He was employed as Movie/Music Reporter with the
celebrity magazine before being redeployed to Society Reporting due to
his exceptional ability to capture graphic realities in his writings.