The relationship between some banks and journalists has gone sour, no thanks to the unprofessional conduct of Strategic Effects Media, a public relations firm owned by Ayodele Aminu who is also a Managing Director of New Telegraph newspaper.
While some bank’s corporate communications staff would be wondering why they’re still having bad press, despite spending a fortune annually on media reach, the reality is that all PR and advert disbursements don’t get to the intended destinations. They simply end in the purse of Strategic Effects Media.
Strategic Effects Media has a WhatsApp group consisting of over 300 media platform owners, where press releases from financial institutions like Fidelity Bank, Union Bank, Polaris Bank, Unity Bank and Keystone Bank are disseminated everyday, with no rewards whatsoever.
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This has been the norm for years, despite several complaints from the journalists. It is only when some of the journalists take the bull by horn to directly complain to the banks that Strategic Effects Media would disburse peanuts to a selected few, despite collecting millions of naira from the banks.
This act of greed has triggered negative actions from the media practitioners, who have the impression that the banks are either taking them for granted or playing on their intelligence.