By Aluta News
June 19, 2022
The Director-General of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA), Mr Kiril Valchev, has urged the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to target young people in its news reportage.
Valchev gave the advice during an interview with NAN in Abuja, after both agencies had signed a news exchange agreement.
The director-general of the Bulgarian news agency advised NAN to take advantage of social media using applications such as Instagram and TikTok to reach young people via interesting photos, short videos, and messages/stories.
“The problem is how to have access to young people.
“At BTA we discussed opening a TikTok channel but it’s difficult to project the news in 15-second short videos for young people.
“When the parliament appointed me as the director-general of BTA a year ago, my 17-year-old daughter asked me the name of my company and I told her BTA.
“So she immediately tried to check it on social media but could not find it.
“She now said: `you haven’t gone Instagram. Why did you accept to be the DG of this agency without one?’
“So I took it as a challenge and created an Instagram account and we used students to check and criticise our Instagram page every month.
“Basically, reaching young people with news is a challenge not only in Africa but also in Europe.
“When I checked I discovered that only Reuters and German news agencies tried to have a TikTok channel,’’ he said.
Valchev said that NAN’s use of social media applications such as Instagram and TikTok to project news via interesting photos, short videos, and messages/stories would boost its news content and make it relevant in today’s world.
“Everyday NAN can have full access to our news. BTA produces at least 1,000 news stories and 3,000 photos.
“It will be impossible for your editors to review all the news that is interesting in that ocean of stories.
“That’s why we will try to help your editors by sending the most important and interesting stories directly to be published here in Nigeria.
`We will also receive from NAN news about Nigeria so we will help each other,’’ he said.
The Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (abbreviated БТА, BTA) is the national news agency of Bulgaria.
It was founded in 1898 through a decree of Knyaz Ferdinand of Bulgaria during the government of Konstantin Stoilov.
Like NAN, it is the main source of information for the Bulgarian media and the country’s governmental institutions.
The agency is a member of the European Alliance of News Agencies and of the Black Sea Association of National News Agencies.
In addition, it is the founding member of the Balkan News Agencies.
It issues Daily News, the only English-language Bulgarian daily; the weekly Bulgarian Economic Outlook, also in English; the weekly magazine, Paraleli; and the monthly culture-related magazine, LIK.
NAN