There are at least 3,000 digital news publishers in Nigeria. More than 80% of these are focused on news and current affairs and general interest.

However, as a media relations practitioner, below are the most influential digital news publishers under the News and Current Affairs which can offer real value for money because of their extensive reach and massive readership.

Based on SquirrelPR’s quarterly ranking of the digital news publishers in Nigeria, below are the most popular and influential platforms. They include:

1. Punch Online: Punch has been the undisputed king of Nigeria’s journalism for more than four decades and doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. Punch enjoys the widest print circulation in Nigeria and according to our ranking remains the most visited news website in Nigeria through its online edition, punchng.com.

According to SquirrelPR’s report, Punchng.com generates nearly 50 million impressions per quarter and monthly average traffic of over 15 million. It also maintains leadership in several categories including News and Current Affairs, Business and Finance, and Entertainment and Lifestyle.

2. Daily Post: Founded in 2011, Daily Post is a Nigerian newspaper published by Daily Post Media Ltd., and based in Lagos. It reports on local and national news, politics, metro, business, entertainment, sports, and opinions. In March 2015, the newspaper debuted the free distribution of its print version across Nigeria.

Daily Post is reputed for its authority in Politics reporting and highly optimised digital news stories, which earns its website, dailypost.ng the second most visited news platform in Nigeria.

According to the SquirrelPR ranking report, dailypost.ng generates no fewer than 44.7 million impressions per quarter and over 14 million monthly visits.

3. Legit: Founded in 2012 by Legit Media Group, Legit claims to be the world’s largest news publisher on Facebook. While we cannot independently verify this claim, SquirrelPR’s ranking shows that Legit is Nigeria’s third most visited news platform.

The website, legit.ng attracts no fewer than 14.1 million monthly visitors and 42.5 million impressions per quarter, according to SquirrelPR’s digital news ranking report.

It draws readers through its dynamic content covering several categories including entertainment, business, politics, current affairs, and human interest stories.

4. Vanguard Online: Founded in 1983 by the co-founder of Punch, Sam Amuka-Pemu Vanguard newspaper is one of Nigeria’s top news publishers. Vanguard was one of the earliest newspapers in Nigeria that invested heavily in digital news publishing and ramped online readership to the tune of millions, claiming the top spot as Nigeria’s No.1 digital news provider.

However, other newspapers have invested in their digital news assets and therefore ramped up their readership as well. The online edition of the paper, vanguardngr.com now ranks as the fourth most visited news website in Nigeria.

According to SquirrelPR’s Q2 ranking report, vanguardngr.com attracts around 12.7 million monthly visitors and cumulative quarterly impressions of no fewer than 38.2 million.

5. Premium Times: When it comes to real, ground-breaking investigative journalism, Premium Times is the undisputed king, and it has several crowns to show for it.

For instance, in 2013, Premium Times was nominated for the 'Website/blog of the Year' award at the Nigerian Broadcasters Merit Award.

In 2017, Premium Times reporters shared the Pulitzer Prize for participating in the international consortium that investigated the Panama Papers, revealing corruption and offshore tax havens used by highly placed people.

In November 2017, Global Investigative Journalism Network announced that Premium Times was awarded Global Shining Light Award for the investigative work on the extrajudicial killings in Nigeria's South-East and How the Onitsha Massacre of Pro-Biafra supporters was coordinated.

As of Q2, 2023, the website premiumtimesng.com attracts 18.5 million visitors per quarter and more than 6 million monthly impressions.

6. The Guardian Online: Founded in 1983 by entrepreneur Alex Ibru and journalist Stanley Macebuh, the Guardian was a pioneer in introducing high-quality journalism to Nigeria with thoughtful editorial content.

As of 2020, The Guardian maintained a monthly print readership of over one million, one of the few national dailies in Nigeria to achieve such a circulation milestone.

Its online edition, guardian.ng is the 6th most visited news website in Nigeria, attracting no fewer than 14.5 million visitors per quarter and a monthly impression of 4.7 million.

7. Sahara Reporters: Although it is published in New York City, United States, Sahara Reporters’ preponderance of content is still in Nigeria.

Sahara Reporters focuses on promoting citizen journalism by encouraging everyday people to report stories about corruption, human rights abuses, and other political misconduct in Africa, with a special focus on Nigeria. Sahara Reporters specializes in exposing corruption and government malfeasance.

It has gained quite a reputation for its firebrand journalism, which drives no fewer than 14.4 million people to its website, saharareporters.com every quarter, according to the SquirrelPR’s latest ranking, and placing it securely among Nigeria’s top 10 digital news platforms.

8. The Nation Online: The Nation newspaper is one of the top three most influential newspapers in Nigeria. With printing plants in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, the Nation newspaper's target audience include the business and political elite, the affluent, the educated, and the upwardly mobile.

Its print fortune has rubbed off on its digital edition published on thenationonlineng.net as it generates at least 12.4 million impressions per quarter and a monthly average of 4.1 million visitors.

9. Channels TV Online: Channels TV is Nigeria’s commercial broadcast giant, with both terrestrial and cable television licenses in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. It has been named “Best Station of the Year” 12 times by the Federal Republic of Nigeria's Media Merit Award Trust. Its digital edition, channelstv.com is the 9th most visited news website in Nigeria.

10. Daily Trust: One of Nigeria’s largest media companies – Media Trust Limited, publishes the Daily Trust newspaper. The newspaper publishing company is based in Abuja and publishes the English-language Daily Trust, Weekly Trust, Sunday Trust, and the Hausa-language Aminiya newspapers, as well as a new pan-African magazine, Kilimanjaro.

Daily Trust commands the largest readership in northern Nigeria, so media planners prioritise when targeting the northern market. As of 2020, it averages a national readership of over 530,000 monthly.

Its digital edition, dailytrust.com is the 10th most visited news platform in Nigeria, with an average monthly visit of 3.2 million and a cumulative quarterly visit of 9.6 million per quarter, according to the SquirrelPR’s digital news ranking report for Q2, 2023.