NDNB Introduces Paid Profiles and Advertising Panels

The Nigerian Dictionary of National Biography (NDNB) has introduced a paid biographical profile service and separate advertising panels to broaden its documentation services and support the project's long-term funding.

The paid-profile service is distinct from the NDNB's regular editorial biographies.

Under the NDNB's normal editorial process, individuals are considered for biographical inclusion based on demonstrated biographical or historical significance. This may arise from achievement, contribution, influence, controversy, notoriety, or participation in historically important events, whether at the national, regional, state, local, or disciplinary level.

A paid profile does not constitute admission into that editorial category.

Instead, the service provides a separate, clearly disclosed route through which an individual who does not meet, or has not been admitted under, the NDNB's normal significance criteria may commission the research, preparation and publication of a factual biographical profile.

Payment does not purchase editorial inclusion, recognition by the NDNB, a significance classification or endorsement. Paid profiles will therefore be expressly identified as advertisements and distinguished from biographies published through the NDNB's ordinary editorial process.

Each paid profile will carry a prominent notice in red background stating:

“ADVERTISEMENT: This is a paid biographical profile and does not constitute editorial endorsement by NDNB.”

Paid profiles will also carry no NDNB significance classification. Their publication should not be interpreted as a determination that the subject satisfies the criteria ordinarily applied to editorial biographies.

The distinction does not, however, remove the accuracy requirement. Paid profiles remain subject to NDNB standards relating to verification, sourcing, factual accuracy, editorial review, corrections and disclosure. Payment does not entitle a subject to unsupported claims, promotional language, suppression of material facts or favourable treatment of disputed matters.

This approach also ensures that a paid profile is prepared to a standard that would require only minimal editorial revision if the subject later independently meets the NDNB's normal biographical significance criteria. Where that occurs and the subject is admitted through the ordinary editorial process, the paid-profile designation and advertisement banner will be removed, and the entry will transition into a regular NDNB biography of a figure whose significance to Nigeria's history, society or public life has been established under the Dictionary's editorial criteria.

In a statement, the General Editor of the NDNB, Bem Max Nomor, said the service was introduced partly in anticipation of requests from Nigerians who want professionally researched biographical profiles online but may not qualify for regular editorial inclusion.

“The paid-profile service is intended to help accommodate the demand from Nigerians who do not meet the NDNB's significance criteria but nevertheless desire to have properly researched and verified biographical profiles available online. It also provides an avenue to contribute towards the cost of funding and sustaining the wider documentation project,” Nomor said.

He said maintaining a visible distinction between the two categories was essential to protecting the integrity of the NDNB.

“A paid profile is not a paid route into the Dictionary's editorial biographies. Payment does not confer significance, recognition or endorsement. Readers must be able to tell immediately whether they are reading an editorial biography or a commissioned paid profile.”

The NDNB has also introduced a separate advertising panel on individual biography pages. The space allows eligible organisations, businesses and other advertisers to place commercial messages on the platform.

Advertising remains separate from both the editorial biography process and the paid-profile service. The appearance of an advertisement on a biography page does not indicate any relationship between the advertiser and the person whose biography appears on that page.

Similarly, purchasing advertising space does not influence whether a person is included in the NDNB, the significance classification assigned to an editorial biography, the content of an entry, or its verification and editorial treatment.

The introduction of paid profiles and advertising is part of efforts to develop sustainable funding sources while maintaining a clear separation between editorial biographies, commissioned paid profiles, and commercial advertising.

The Nigerian Dictionary of National Biography is devoted to researching, documenting, verifying, and publishing biographies of individuals whose lives, actions, or experiences contribute to an understanding of Nigeria's history, society, culture, and development.