By Brian Mboh
The management and staff of authoritative weekly English language newspaper, The Herald Tribune, converged on Saturday, December 6, 2025 in Yaounde for a stocktaking session, as the year 2025 gradually comes to an end.
The meeting, chaired by the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief, Richard Nde Lajong, brought together all correspondents, reporters and Bureau Chiefs from six Regions of the country.
Aside evaluating the road covered in 2025, the Publisher says the team will also brainstorm on some key innovations the media house will embrace in 2026 to meet the demands of its growing readership in a challenging context marked by scarcity of adverts, digitalisation, Advent of AI among others.
Freelance journalist, Tech enthusiast and budding digital rights advocate, Giyo Ndzi, delivered a talk on online strategy during the meeting, The Herald Tribune’s website was launched weeks back.
Speaking during the professional exchange, Giyo Ndzi, said it was very important for The Herald Tribune Newspaper to curve out a digital identity for itself, that will suit its audience.
He added that, personal branding was very important for The Herald Tribune media house and it’s workers. He urged the staff, to invest more time in working on their brand image.
Giyo also said it was important for reporters to master issues related to online security. Reason why he called on the Publisher to have more of these sessions, so his staff maybe drilled on it.
To the staff of The Herald Tribune, he called on them to make use of social media tools like canvas, capcut, Google analytics, WordPress to produced contents, that will attract more viewers. Some of these contents suggested were: human interest stories, short videos, explainer, graphic designs and behind the scene.
Nalova Akua, a multi-award journalist with Cameroon Insider, a biweekly publication of SOEPCAM, also shared his experiences with The Herald Tribune crack team.
During his exposé, Nalova urged reporters, to move from the common daily news reporting ways. And go for contents or topics that turn to be of no interest for others.
He further, said as reporters, news values like timing, prominence, current, proximity and unexpectedness should be meticulously, considered before writing stories.
He added, that as journalist, we must improve on our reading habits. Calling on them to invest more time into reading, with the aim of building their language proficiency.
Laure Nganlay, a fact check expert, said with the advent of fake news and AI, journalists must be very vigilant in the way they perceive and treat information. She insisted that all information must be fact checked and accurately presented. She said in case of doubt, reporters should always get to the competent authorities or still experts.
The event also served as an opportunity for The Herald Tribune staff to reinforce the link among them. The encounter drew it curtains, with the entire team taking the commitment to be more performant in 2026. As for The Herald Tribune’s paper Publisher, a series of innovations, is expected to take place for the new year. He also thanked all those who have been supporting the paper in one way or the other.
