By the Innovative Media Partners Cooperative Multipurpose Society (IMPCMS)
It is with heavy hearts that we, the members of the Innovative Media Partners Cooperative Multipurpose Society, pay tribute to our pioneer President, Mr. Dotun Oladipo, who was called home on 25 August 2026, at the age of 56.
Dotun was, in every sense, a builder. Long before many of us imagined that online publishing could stand shoulder to shoulder with the traditional newsrooms that trained him, he saw it. He carried the discipline of the print newsroom — earned across nearly three decades at Newswatch, PUNCH Newspapers, Nigerian Tribune, Nigerian Compass, and The Sun — into a new medium, and in doing so helped legitimise digital journalism in Nigeria at a time when it needed champions who understood both the craft and the responsibility behind it.
The Eagle Online, which he founded and published, was more than a platform. It was a statement that facts, discipline, and public accountability had a home online, not just in print. As Managing Director and CEO of Premium Eagle Media Limited, he built an institution that will continue to carry his standards forward.
His leadership did not stop at his own newsroom. As President of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers from 2017 to 2021, and later as its Emeritus President, he helped shape the rules of engagement for an entire generation of Nigerian online publishers, encouraging cooperation over rivalry and professionalism over expedience.
And to us at IMPCMS, he was something even closer: a founder. He did not simply lend his name to this cooperative — he helped conceive it, believing that Nigerian media professionals were stronger working, training, and building together than apart. As our pioneer President, he set the tone for what this Society would become, and every member who has benefited from the collaboration he championed carries forward a piece of his vision.
He was, until the very end, eager to see the cooperative grow. He was in the middle of a membership drive to bring more media professionals into the fold, and he dreamed of a cooperative substantial enough to one day help individual members purchase real estate of their own — a dream he did not live to see realised. He was also looking forward to the inaugural meeting of the heads of committees, scheduled for 28 August 2026, which was to mark the point at which the cooperative would truly begin its work in earnest. He did not make it to that date.
Those who worked alongside him remember his humility, his readiness to help younger colleagues find their footing, and his quiet insistence that the business side of journalism — sustainability, cooperation, shared resources — mattered just as much as the stories themselves. He was, by every account, a dependable friend and a man of considerable warmth and integrity.
He is survived by his wife and family, to whom we extend our deepest condolences.
Dotun Oladipo spent his working life telling other people’s stories with care and rigour. Today, it falls to us to tell his — and to say, simply, that Nigerian journalism, and this cooperative in particular, is better and stronger for the decades he gave to it. The meeting he did not make, the members he had not yet recruited, the dream of real estate he had not yet realised — these now belong to us to carry forward.
Rest well, Mr. President. Your work continues through us.
— The Members and Executive Committee, IMPCMS