TheCable is one of our favourite news platforms – the writing has flair, the sensibility is fresh, and they understand the concept of the-news-behind-the-news as an important concept for news in the 21st century.

And they have led the way in terms of breaking news and incisive analysis for the two years that they have been in the space.

That has led to massive growth across the field: shooting above 70 on the Alexa Nigerian rankings, getting almost 50,000 followers on Twitter, and logging 297,660 followers on Facebook as at the time of this post.

It is a news platform, purely and clearly, armed with the pay-off ‘news and views unlimited’.

But now it appears that isn’t enough anymore, and so TheCable is planning to launch a focused new vertical called TheCable Lifestyle – this will focus on soft stories across life, relationships, entertainment, and gossip.

Apparently, it needs new readers. Its Alexa rankings have noticeably dropped – from the 60s on a steep drop to 136. We wonder why though. It continues its trend of high quality journalism for these parts, with a regular stream of exclusive stories and interviews.

And for whatever its worth, Premium Times, which is easily the online news leader has maintained that position with purely news for the past four years – without fail.

Does TheCable really need a Lifestyle vertical to continue its growth?

Not sure Daily Post – another online news leader – tried an independent vertical called Daily Star in 2014. It soon closed it up and doubled down on its news proposition, including a full-fledged Abuja bureau and reporters across at least 4 states.

The owners of Twitter-based news service @NigeriaNewsDesk also tried the same, launching three independent sites – Today.ng, Opinions.ng and the lifestyle-entertainment site, Radar.ng. None of the sites really caught fire, and Radar was the first casualty, sparingly updated these days.

So one wonders at the strategy, and its effectiveness.

But we are looking forward to what gives. TheCable has soul – and there is never such a thing as too much.

 

PS: See anything worth talking about on the ins and outs of the media business in Nigeria on TV, radio, print and online (could be news, tweets, photos, opeds etc) send us a mail on [email protected] titled TMB. Let’s share the insight together!