Steve Ayorinde appointed MD/Editor-in-Chief of National Mirror

Source: pointblanknews.com



Mr. Steve Ayorinde
The Pubiisher and Board of Directors of Global Media Mirror Limited, publishers of National Mirror newspapers, has appointed Mr. Steve Ayorinde as the Managing Director/Editor-In-Chief of the paper. The appointment, according to a release signed on behalf of the Publisher of the newspaper, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, OFR, takes effect from Friday, July 15, 2011. Ayorinde, until his elevation, was the Daily Editor and Executive Director (Publications) of the paper.

Dr. Ibrahim, OFR in the press release described Ayorinde as a “young, hardworking, loyal and committed journalist in whose hands the vision of making the National Mirror a brand of choice has been placed.”

Dr. Ibrahim added that Ayorinde's contributions to the company several months before the repackaged newspaper hit the newsstands on December 17, 2010 and the seven months he has spent editing the daily paper as well as supervising the production of the weekend titles, among other factors, recommended him for the new position.

Ayorinde, 41, is the current Editor of the Year, on the platform of the prestigious Diamond Awards for Media Excellence (DAME), which he won last year as the Editor of The PUNCH. Under his editorship, the PUNCH was also adjudged the Newspaper of the Year by both DAME and the Nigerian Media Merit Award (NMMA).

Ayorinde, who had his tertiary education at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife and the University of Leicester, United Kingdom, started his journalism career at The Guardian in 1991. He was a pioneer staff of the defunct The Comet (which later metamorphosed into The Nation) in 1999 before joining The PUNCH in 2003 where he worked as Arts Editor, UK Correspondent, Member, Editorial Board and Daily Editor between 2003 and 2010.

A polyglot and multiple award-winning journalist, Ayorinde was a European Union Fellow at the Foundation, Journalists-in-Europe, Paris, France between 1997 and 1998 and was a grantee of the prestigious International Visitors' Program (IVP) to the United States in 1999 to study the American Media and cultural institutions. He has also been a proud beneficiary of the Italian and German governments' scholarships in 2001 and 2002 respectively to study s Italian language, media and culture at the University of Siena and at the Goethe Institute Berlin to study the German language and media institutions.

An executive member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Ayorinde is the author of Masterpieces: A Critic's Timeless report (Spectrum Books, 2008.)