As the financially difficult year of 2008 winds down, there is cause for celebration for the newspaper industry from Lagos, Nigeria, where a new newspaper has launched. The online edition titled NEXT has launched in beta version, Garcia Media reported Wednesday.

Dele Olojede, a former editor at Newsday in Long Island, New York and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, will lead the NEXT team.

NEXT will provide news and opinion to the Nigerian public living within the country and abroad. The online edition is available via online, mobile devices, YouTube and Facebook - "wherever you are and by every means," Olojede stated.

The daily print version, NEXT and NEXTonSunday will be distributed beginning January 4, 2009, in multiple cities in Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States, Garcia Media reported.