The roots of the newspaper business in Nigeria can be traced to the middle of the nineteenth century. The primary goal of newspapers then was to influence the literacy rate of the population. Foreign owned newspapers quickly emerged as an avenue for readers to educate themselves and also as a tool for the mercantile traders to read about trade-related ads or to advertise their goods. The success of the early newspapers was linked to the competence of its writers and editors, political appeal, patronage by local administrators and the financial purse of the owners. However, fluctuating subscriber revenues by the 1920s led to a greater dependency on advertisement, with about 50–70% of pages devoted to ads but most of it was related to merchandise goods. By 1943, a strategy to increase revenues led to the introduction of classified ads mostly covering one page. It wasn't until the establishment of two politically inspired newspapers, the "West African Pilot" in 1937 and the "Nigerian Tribune" in 1949, did newspapers began to devote more space to personality profiles.