Those wondering what Daily Newswatch would look like need not wonder anymore. News Express can report this morning that the paper wears a soft look, with generous use of photographs and visuals, including on the front page. (Please see photo, courtesy of ThankGod Ofoelue’s Facebook page.)

Though Newswatch ran as a serious weekly magazine for 27 years (from January 28, 1985), News Express exclusively reported on November 1 that core investor Jimoh Ibrahim who bought 51 per cent of the shares last year but suspended operations last August 7, has turned it into both a newspaper and a magazine.

News Express can report this morning that – just as is the case with Ibrahim’s other newspaper, National Mirror, Newswatch newspaper shall appear seven days a week with the names Daily Newswatch, Saturday Newswatch and Sunday Newswatch.

The newspaper is currently under production and is expected to hit the market soon. It is operating from Broad Street on Lagos Island, where Ibrahim has his business headquarters and to which he transferred Newswatch after closing its erstwhile head office in Oregun, Ikeja, on Lagos Mainland, three months ago.

As previously reported by News Express, staffers of the newspaper assumed duties on November 1 while those of the magazine are to start later.

Newswatch, which blazed a trail in Nigeria and became an icon, was founded by four of the country’s finest journalists, namely, Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu, Yakubu Mohammed and Dan Agbese. It fell on hard times years after Giwa’s death via parcel bomb (on October 19, 1986, apparently from the military government in power at the time), culminating in the decision to invite a core investor.

The founding directors (including Soji Akinrinade, a founding senior staff member who was later promoted to the board) however lost out in the deal after Barrister Ibrahim forcibly took full control of the enterprise in his capacity as the controlling shareholder.

The ownership tussle remains in court but Ibrahim can afford to continue operations having obtained a court order to restrain Ekpu and co from interfering in the running of the company.