True Tales Publications acquires Hello Magazine franchise for Nigeria, West Africa

Africans will soon be treated to an era of noble celebrity and lifestyle journalism as the Spanish based Hello! International Magazine has extended its publishing franchise to True Tales Publications Limited (TTPL), Nigeria’s most successful fashion and lifestyle magazine publishing house based in Lagos.

TTPL is the publisher of the renowned romance magazine, Hints; Complete Fashion, Nigeria’s premier magazine on total fashion and lifestyle.

The franchise enables TTPL to exclusively publish and distribute Hello Nigeria across West African countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia.

In a statement quoting letter dated April 22, 2013, and signed by the international operations manager, Hello! Anthony Luke, welcomed True Tales Publications into the Hello! Family, affirming that the partnership will be a long and fruitful one, “bringing to Nigeria and West Africa a unique publication that is famous the world over for its extraordinary, first-class and tasteful coverage of celebrity news.”

In response to the development, Ibe Kachikwu, founder of True Tales, noted that “the dawn of Hello in sub-Saharan Africa is testimony to how far Nigerian journalism has come of age.” He believes that True Tales Publications will leverage on decades of quality, top notch features journalism, that Hello! International has been reputed for. Indeed, ‘Africans will be exposed to a brand of journalism which blends the best of African celebrations with western glamour.

Speaking on the business focus of the new magazine, the Group Managing Director of Signature Group, promoters of TTPL, Anne Omezi noted that the Hello! Nigeria franchise is a huge opportunity for True Tales Publications to redefine lifestyle journalism in Africa as well as contributing to the global creative economy currently estimated at a GDP growth of more than 5 percent in 2012.

Speaking further on the formal launch of the maiden edition of the magazine scheduled to take place across West African cities, Omezi explained that “True Tales will bring to bear on Hello! it’s over 25 years’ experience garnered in publishing such household magazines as Hints, Complete Fashion, Beauty Box and many others.”

‘Hello! Nigeria, she continued, will feature mainly exclusives, covering royalty, achievements, entertainment, weddings and child birth, as well as providing a window into personal moments of role models across West Africa.

For advertisers, according to her, “Hello! Nigeria will create a wow platform for advertisers to share page placement of their products with global brands they admire as well as connect them to a global market of prospective customers across 100 countries and 15 million readers where Hello magazine is adored.”

Hello! magazine is popularly described as the world’s most admired celebrity magazine. In the 25 years since its launch, Hello! has established itself as a publishing phenomenon. The current circulation figure stands at 352,985 per week, more than 1.4 million copies on average each month. Hello! digital subscriptions are now up to 2,764 – an increase of 43 percent Pop-up (PoP) by 2012.