Google has concluded two major events in Lagos geared towards equipping Nigerian media professionals with advanced digital tools to drive advertising revenue and newsroom efficiency.

The Google Ad Manager Academy 3.0, held on Friday at the Google office in Ikoyi, Lagos, brought together media practitioners across Sub-Saharan Africa in a hybrid format—both in-person and virtual.

The event focused on helping publishers fully unlock the potential of Google Ad Manager, understand new consumer insights, leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning, and implement yield optimization techniques to boost earnings across mobile and web platforms.

On Tuesday, the company also held Publisher Day NG 2025, featuring a hands-on workshop that introduced participants to Google’s suite of newsroom tools, such as News Consumer Insights 3.0, Gemini for News, NotebookLM, and Pinpoint.

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The sessions were designed to demonstrate how these innovations can enhance content research, audience engagement, and ad performance.

Attendees included editors, ad operations specialists, marketing managers, and journalists from leading media houses such as Vanguard, Channels TV, Silverbird TV, The Nation, BusinessDay, Pulse, Dochase among a host of others.

Speaking after the event, Onyinyechi “Nini” Eze, Strategic Partner Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa at Google, reflected on the growing interest among Nigerian news organisations in programmatic advertising.

“I think the Google Ad Monetization journey has been interesting for me. I’ve been in Google for three years and we had the Google Ad Manager Academy 3.0, so this would be our third edition. What I found really interesting is the amount of news companies and news agencies that are now coming on board with Ad Monetization, programmatic Ad Monetization,” she said.

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“Primarily, you know that the newsroom really adopt more of traditional advertising, but then now, you’ve seen from statistics that 80% is going programmatic. So this is where I find a lot of joy: to see that a lot of news organisations are actually now adopting programmatic advertising, which will potentially increase their yield.”

Asked about how the initiative aligns with Google’s broader vision for Nigeria, Eze said, “If you think about Google’s mission, it’s always about making our content more accessible. So if you think about the news, right? And you think about Google’s mission, it always tally because the news agencies are trying to ensure that they give out credible news, trustworthy news, and then making it accessible to everyone, so that everybody understands what’s going on.”

She emphasised Google’s commitment to supporting both large and small content creators with free tools.

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“It could be you’re a blog, it could be you’re a small news outfit, but then we want a situation where we can showcase a lot of tools—these tools are free—so you can upskill yourself and then also sustain the news industry, the media industry as well.”

On the tools that stood out to participants, Eze mentioned, “From the Ad Monetization side, we have the Google Ad Manager platform, which is free. We also have AdSense, it’s also a free tool. We have AdMob. Starting your Ad Monetization journey is actually quite easy now. It’s really more about understanding what the tool can do and how it can monetize your platforms.”

She also highlighted tools from Publisher Day, such as News Consumer Insights 3.0, Google Ad Analytics 4, Gemini, and NotebookLM, saying “all these tools can help those news agencies: both small and large to actually sustain themselves and grow.”

Looking ahead to future editions and ongoing support, Eze said, “Google mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. This tally’s with the general news industry goals to drive credible, trustworthy news, making accessible to everyone. Google aims to support the media industry through its technologies and innovation to achieve their goals.”

A tragic case of culpable homicide has rocked the Galadanchi village in Dutse Local Government Area of Jigawa State, leaving a family in shock and grief.

According to a statement made available to journalists in Dutse, the State capital, on Friday, by the Police Public Relations Officer, Jigawa State Command, SP Shi’isu Adam, the incident occurred on July 1, 2025, around 1530hrs.

“The Jigawa State Police Command is currently investigating a tragic case of culpable homicide that occurred on July 1, 2025, around 1530hrs in Galadanchi village, Dutse LGA,” SP Adam stated.

“The suspect, 70-year-old Adamu Yakubu, allegedly killed his 45-year-old sister, Hannatu Hashimu, over a land dispute stemming from family inheritance.

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“The suspect allegedly stabbed his sister with a stick during a heated argument over the sharing of family inheritance land,” SP Adam revealed.

The altercation began as a verbal disagreement but escalated into physical violence, resulting in the tragic death of Hannatu Hashimu.

The deceased exited the house bitterly and fainted upon entering the matrimonial house, prompting relatives to rush her to Dutse General Hospital.

Unfortunately, she was pronounced dead by the medical doctor on duty, leaving the family in mourning.

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The Police statement highlighted that “the suspect was arrested and is currently in police custody, assisting with the ongoing investigation.”

However, SP Adam disclosed that the assault stick was recovered and kept as an exhibit, and the suspect will be arraigned in court upon completion of the investigation.

The Jigawa State Police Command has strongly condemned the incident and urged members of the public to seek peaceful and legal ways to resolve family and land-related disputes.

The Command also expresses its condolences to the family of the deceased and assures the public that justice will be served.

The Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday found the senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, guilty of contempt over a satirical apology she posted on her Facebook page on April 27.

Justice Binta Nyako, while delivering judgment in the suit filed by Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan challenging her suspension, began with the contempt application filed by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

Akpabio, in his application, challenged the senator’s post on social media, arguing it violated an earlier court order restraining all parties from commenting to the press or making social media posts related to the case.

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Akpoti-Uduaghan’s counsel argued that the post was not connected to the court’s order concerning her suspension, but rather referred to a separate issue involving sexual harassment allegations against the third respondent (Akpabio).

However, Justice Nyako held that after reviewing the post and the application before her instituted by the third respondent, she was satisfied that it was linked to the suspension matter before the court and therefore found the plaintiff guilty of contempt.

The judge ordered Akpoti-Uduaghan to publish an apology in two national dailies and on her Facebook page within seven days. She also imposed a fine of N5 million.

Details shortly….