Blind 9/11 Survivor's Story an Instant New York Times Bestseller

The story of blind 9/11 survivor Michael Hingson and his guide dog, Roselle, has become an instant bestseller. (PRNewsFoto/Thomas Nelson Publishers)

Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero

22 Aug 2011 17:49 Africa/Lagos

Blind 9/11 Survivor's Story an Instant New York Times Bestseller

PR Newswire

NEW YORK, Aug. 22, 2011

NEW YORK, Aug. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The remarkable story of a blind man and the guide dog that led him and dozens of others to safety just moments before the World Trade Center crumbled nearly 10 years ago has become an instant best-seller. Thunder Dog: The True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog & the Triumph of Trust at Ground Zero made its debut on the vaunted New York Times bestseller list this week in its first week of release.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110822/CL55598 )

Co-authored by Susy Flory, readers follow Michael Hingson and his yellow Labrador Retriever, Roselle, in a firsthand, moment-by-moment account of not only what it was like to be inside the World Trade Center when Tower One was struck, but of each painstaking step between the 78th floor and survival on the streets below moments before the tower collapsed just yards away.

"On one level, this is a book about the events of 9/11, but it is so much more than that," said Brian Hampton, Senior Vice President and Publisher at Nashville-based Thomas Nelson Publishers. "It's a beautiful story of trust and courage, an exploration of the unique bond between humans and animals. It leaves the reader inspired and full of hope. I believe that's why it has impacted people so quickly and powerfully and why they are telling their friends about it."

A cum laude graduate of the University of California with a master's degree in physics, Hingson has never been one to let blindness slow him down - figuratively or literally. As a boy, he rode his bike around the neighborhoods of Palmdale, California, drove a Mustang around campus as a college student and today, pilots small planes and plays golf when time away from his San Francisco consulting firm allows.

Hingson is also a national ambassador for the Braille Literacy Campaign and has recently launched "Roselle's Dream Foundation," the purpose of which is to assist blind children - and later blind adults - in obtaining new technologies.

Roselle, after navigating a number of ailments through the years - not the least of which were severe muscular atrophy and an auto-immune disorder that was believed to be have been brought on by the ingestion of the toxic dust generated by the destruction of the towers - passed away on June 26. It was recently learned that she has been named a finalist in the 2011 American Humane Association's American Hero Dog Awards.

For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/roselle911dog

SOURCE Thomas Nelson Publishers
NOTE TO EDITORS: Hingson is available for interviews. Media contact: Jason Jones, Thomas Nelson Publishers jjones@thomasnelson.com

CONTACT: Jason Jones, +1-615-306-8627, jjones@thomasnelson.com

Web Site: http://tinyurl.com/roselle911dog

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Re: Do Nigerians Read?

Re: Do Nigerians Read?
« #103 on: Today at 10:25:49 AM »

Yes. Nigerians read.They read headlines of newspapers at the bustops.They read gossip tabloids more than their church magazines.They read how-to-get-rich quick pirated books and most of them read text messages more than their text books.




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The Untold Story of Distributing Newspapers and Magazines in Nigeria

Nigerians reading newspapers at a news stand.

Distributing newspapers and magazines in Nigeria is not an easy task, because there is no good infrastructure for the distribution of newspapers and magazines in the 36 states of the most populous country in Africa. With a population of over 140 people, Nigeria is the largest market in Africa and there are over 65 million users of GSM phones in Nigeria spending over $78 million weekly on phone calls. This awesome population of millions of people can afford to read newspapers and magazines if you know how to reach them daily, weekly or monthly.

We can attract some millions of the over 65 million users of GSM phones to buy newspapers and magazines if we can convince them to appreciate the fact that buying and reading more newspapers and magazines will be of great benefit to sustainable development of the Nigerian press and very important to nation building. It is possible.

I have been in Lagos city since last August, working with the Publisher of the new Supple magazine and following him to supply thousands of his magazine to distributors and vendors

We have to wake up early at 5 am and drive to the office of the Newspapers and Magazines Distributors Association of Nigeria on the Marina in Lagos, where scores of distributors and vendors gather everyday by day to share and circulate newspapers and magazines of all sorts.

They get to their workplace at dawn and I have seen them using candle lights in their large warehouse when there was a power outage. I have seen many young women among the young and old men carrying and sharing newspapers and magazines with total professional concentration. These conscientious Nigerians make me proud of being a Nigerian whenever I see them at work even in the dim candlelight. I wonder if some of them have taken their bath before leaving their various houses and rushing to their daily workplace before 5 am!

After supplying to them, we move on to Ikeja to supply to our distributors in the state capital. We also supply hundreds of copies of Supple magazine to the other distributors and vendors in other states through the distribution network of the National Daily newspapers.

Until you have handed your publications to the vendors you will not rest, because without these vendors your newspaper or magazine will not be well distributed all over Nigeria.

The Punch is the largest circulating newspaper in Nigeria and believe it or not, the circulation is not up 100, 000 copies daily in a country with over 140 million people! The irony is the fact that The Punch was circulating over 200, 000 copies daily when the population of Nigeria was less than 120 million people. Why?

Many reasons have been given for the gradual drop in the figures of copies of newspapers and magazines sold in Nigeria. But the truth is the figures of the readers have not dropped over the years. In fact, the readers have been increasing, but the majority of them do not buy the copies of newspapers and magazines they read daily. They have been sharing the copies bought by their colleagues in the workplace or neighbours and thousands more actually pay less to the vendors to read the newspapers on the spot and then drop them and many of these copies have been returned as unsold to the publishers.

If you are in Lagos city or other urban towns and cities in Nigeria, you will notice small crowds of people milling around news stands of vendors and gazing at the covers of the displayed newspapers and magazines. Many of them read the headlines and first paragraphs on the front pages and others pay less then the cover price to read more pages of the newspapers before leaving the spot. The vendors have nothing much to lose if the copies of these newspapers passed round among so many “on the spot” readers are returned unsold, because they make extra money from these passersby on each copy of the various newspapers and also collect their daily commissions from the distributors or publishers. In fact, some publishers use shortcuts to bypass the major registered distributors and engage the vendors to sell their newspapers and magazines directly to the readers on the street. The publisher of the Castle real estate and property newspaper employs his own vendors. The Guardian and The Punch also have their own vendors.

Millions of Nigerians will prefer to pay less to read fewer pages of newspapers and magazines than to pay more for more pages, because most of them will read only what attracts them and skip or glance over the adverts and other uninteresting things before dropping the newspapers and magazines. Most of them are interested in reading sensational breaking news on politics, crime and social gossip of romantic or erotic scandals and the millions of applicants prefer to look for vacancies and that would be all. Therefore, I can bet that newspaper of only 10 pages on these topics selling for as little as N50 will sell more thousands of copies than The Punch or The Guardian of 50-100 pages. In fact, they regard most content as garbage and the less garbage or page fillers the better for them.


~ By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima is the Media Consultant of Supple magazine and the President/CEO of International Digital Post Network, LLC.




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