FEMI OKUTUBO SPEAKS ON 17 YEARS OF THE TRUMPET NEWSPAPER.

FEMI AND LOLA OKUTUBO

RUNNING THE TRUMPET NEWSPAPER FOR THE PAST SEVENTEEN YEARS HAS NOT BEEN EASY-FEMI OKUTUBO.

The likes of Ovation magazine elevated the publishing business in the Nigerian UK community especially but with its operations now out of the UK, a yawning gap seems to have materialised, yet with a newspaper like The Trumpet owned by Femi Okutubo, hope is not all lost you would say. For the past seventeen years, this dodged and hardworking man has dished out juicy stories that affect Africans in the UK. Now circulated freely, The Trumpet can claim to be a household name and chiefly the main source of news that the mainstream media would not usually feature. Femi Okutubo will tell you the journey started to address the negative stories in the UK media, Portraying Blacks as Benefit Thieves and Fraudsters. Having told the story better, The Trumpet has succeeded. The internet and the aid of social media has fast tracked the work as well and made it the voice for Africans in diaspora. Initially a Monthly, it is now a fortnight publication and the response is adjourned very positive also with about 350,000 readerships in all. The Trumpet Known with the annual (Gathering of Africa’s Best), GAB awards, when people doing good works in the community are recognised and seen as true Africans. It has not been all rosy though,’ most people prefer to buy flashy material things rather than pay for a newspaper, ‘lamented Okutubo. Confessing to patronage issues as well, running a business at all in the global market these days is not easy. Apart from the GAB awards, Trumpet Connect a networking project that cuts across all Africans in the UK is doing well too. The passion of writing, Journalism and a noticeable gap in newspaper publishing in the UK African Communities spur the Economist to set up The Trumpet. And he did not mince word in pronouncing Nigerian Media as void in terms of publishing leaving a gap but the internet has helped a lot

Femi Okutubo studied Economics at the Ogun State University, Nigeria. With an MSc from Birbeck University, UK, he started the Trumpet in 1995,which has established him as a major player amongst his Contemporaries. The negative and distrusting image of Nigerians in the UK has not helped many Black Entrepreneurs but Okutubo who is married with four kids believes that with staying focus and being hard working, the sky is the limit. He advised that positive media and good disposition from the generality of Nigerians in diaspora will benefit all in the long run. .

The Trumpet interestingly kicked off from Nigeria and it could still be making a triumphant return especially with The Trumpet Ogun that recently berthed expectedly in Ogun state. Plans to replicate this feat in other states are in top gear,confirmed Okutubo.