Why I celebrate clerics-Sunday Dosunmu
By SEGUN AJAYI and NGOZI ECHENDU
Tuesday, April 1, 2008

Celebrity magazines are common sights at the newsstands. With glossy pages, they are awash with glamorous pictures of celebrities and society’s crème-de-la crème. Such journals target the secular world as they capture social events involving the noveau riche, and the gliteratti.

Meanwhile, young and upwardly mobile Mr Sunday Dosunmu introduced a new facet to celebrity journalism with a title tagged Celebrity Christian. According to him, the glossy quarterly is a boost to Christianity in Nigeria, through showcasing church activities, at home and abroad.

Dosunmu who hails from Abeokuta, Ogun State and a graduate of Public Administration from the Kaduna Polytechnic told Daily Sun that the magazine highlights events like church weddings, crusades, anniversaries, seminars, among others. Although CCM is a Christian magazine, the publisher quickly added that the pages are not for charity. “ We cover and publicise events in churches especially those who want publicity and are ready to pay.”

In addition to the glamorous aspect of Christianity, the publisher devotes space to columns, inspirational thoughts, and articles. He specifically mentioned writings that ennoble and enlighten the minds of Christian professionals.

So, what are the challenges, vis-à-vis the turbulent sea of Nigeria’s publishing industry and the non-secular character of the journal? Dosunmu however explained. “ The challenges are enormous. We intend to increase our print-run, but we have not been able to achieve that, due to inadequate finances. Even though, we have been in business for three years, we have not been published quarterly as planned due to the capital intensive nature of the business.”

On the magazine’s target audience and distribution network, the journalist said there are no restrictions, as it is meant for whoever has the ability to meet the financial obligations.” Our distribution sometimes is based on our stories. For instance, if we publish a church’s programme or event, the General Overseer of the church might want the edition distributed to all members, be it, a crusade or seminar. That has been our mode of circulating the magazine, but we hope to improve in the future.”

Not dampened by the teething problems of publishing, Dosunmu is still beckoning on others to join the train. He has words for aspiring publishers, “ first they must be inspired to publish. They should acquire all the necessary tools before venturing into it. With consistency, the sky will be their limit,” he noted.