STAYING TRUE @
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Inquirer president and CEO Sandy Prieto-Romualdez links arms with (from left) GMA 7’s COO Gilberto Duavit, GMA 7 chair and CEO Felipe Gozon, PLDT-SMART boss Manny Pangilinan and GMA 7 news anchor Mike Enriquez after forging a partnership for the coverage of the 2013 elections. —ANDREW TADALAN
SATURDAY / DECEMBER 9, 2017 WWW.INQUIRER.NET
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An advocate of reading, Sandy regularly joins the paper’s read-along sessions. —AUGUST DELA CRUZ
‘A FULFILLING, NOBLE JOURNEY WITH STAFF, READERS AND PARTNERS’ FROM I-1 Alexandra Prieto-Romualdez President and CEO Dear readers, This year marks an important milestone, for the newspaper and also for me, because it’s been 25 years since I joined the Inquirer. I still remember as if it were only yesterday the first year I spent in the Inquirer immersing myself in the different parts of the operations. Those were hectic but highly exciting years spent in the two-story wood and concrete building on UN Avenue. I was so overwhelmed by everyone’s dedication and commitment to serve our readers’ thirst for information and truth. The staff spent each long day trying to ensure we had a paper that served our readers with passion. On my first year 25 years ago, our family felt welcomed and was drawn immediately to the passion of the mission: to be a catalyst for social progress and change. The Philippine Daily Inquirer has had 32 years of growth, heretofore unimagined, as well as challenges, and the enviable opportunity to contribute to the Filipino well-being. It is, therefore, with full gratitude that we celebrate this milestone, a sense of heartwarming gratitude that I am now trying to put in words. As we celebrate our 32nd year, I am deeply honored to have been part of it, part of a country’s heritage and commitment to help alle-
STAY TRUE TO BE FIRST, FAIR, AND FEARLESS Inquirer president and CEO Sandy Prieto-Romualdez, board chair Marixi R. Prieto and Trans-Radio Broadcasting Corp. and Inquirer.net president Paolo Prieto join reporters and staff during the relaunching of the Louies Inquirer Journalism Excellence Awards in March this year. The Louies is in honor of the late Inquirer president Louie Prieto.—PAUL R. AUTOR viate the plight of the disadvantaged, to help the country hurdle its natural and man-made obstacles, and to help advance the ideals of democracy. We have stood side by side with you through the many challenges, and you with us. It was so touching when a 10-yearold reader wrote us during the ad boycott—“Here is 20 pesos. I’m giving you half of my birthday gift to start a fund for press freedom, so you can continue to write.” Another time, a reader would buy
Sandy and then Philippine National Railways general manager Junio Ragragio try one of the PNR coaches after signing an agreement to distribute Inquirer Libre to passengers of the train company in December 2010.
five copies every time they would take a trip so they could share the newspaper on board. My heart fills with joy when people approach me to say that Inquirer has helped them grow or has been of help somehow in their lives. We try to write about understanding each other and about finding solutions. Someone once told me she was grateful to the Inquirer because, after reading our article about Alzheimer’s disease, she was able to understand better her grandmother. I am grateful for all the partnerships we’ve built in efforts to respond to the needs of the communities devastated by natural disasters and calamities. Notable among these were the Inquirer’s role in the multisectoral response to El Niño, called Tabang Mindanao, and later on in our joint efforts with you our readers, advertisers and suppliers to help the victims of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.” I am very proud of the culture of volunteerism we have nurtured in the Inquirer—employee volunteers to teach, to serve the community. For instance, an Inquirer program that runs on volunteerism is the multi-awarded read-along. We express gratitude also to our dealers and advertisers whose trust in and support for us have been amazing. It feels wonderful to see them on their path to achieving their goals, with the
help of Inquirer. Recently, some dealers related very touching testimonies, such as those who have been able to send their children to good schools and those who have been able to build homes, owing to their partnership with the newspaper. The same holds true for our advertisers. Many of them started with us—with one-fourth size, black-andwhite ad, that simple. Now their businesses have grown and are into yearlong plans, with strategic marketing goals at that. We and our partners have gone on this journey together, long and circuitous sometimes, but it’s been a fulfilling and noble journey. That we never missed an issue is, to me, simply amazing in itself. We grew from a newspaper to a multiplatform brand, from an audience of 300,000 to an audience reach of 30 million and growing across print, online, mobile, social, chat apps, OOH and broadcast platforms—an incredible stride we now acknowledge with gratitude and unwavering commitment to stay true to the Inquirer’s mission to tell the Filipino story, with honesty and courage, and to the level of excellence. I thank all who have been part of Inquirer the past 32 years. Thank you to all the Inquirers. You will always be in my heart in our journey as one. INQ
Marixi R. Prieto Board Chair Philippine Daily Inquirer On the occasion of the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s 32nd anniversary, I would like to congratulate the men and women of the organization for their unwavering passion and commitment to excellent journalism. We attribute our success to our readers, advertisers, dealers and partners for being magnanimous in their support. Throughout the 32 years, we have striven to reinvent ourselves, even adopting radical changes in our newspaper to be more relevant to you. We are fully aware of the change in the way people consume news—in how fast and viral it travels and in the way people engage and interact with news. Because of this reality, we changed from a single platform to different platforms so that readers can engage with us wherever they are and whenever they want it. But even with all the changes, we have stayed true to be first, fair, fearless. Whatever the platform, we always draw our strength from our commitment to empower Filipinos with information that will enable them to be touched, moved and inspired to take positive action. INQ
A PROSPECT IN THE FUTURE
DIGITAL MEDIA REVOLUTION FOR TRANSFORMATION By Danilo S. Venida Contributor Social media has set a fast clip against which institutional media must redefine its role. Traditional journalism in institutional media, where practitioners work with established rules and protocols for responsibility and accountability, continues to be besieged. Anyone can access and communicate “anything and everything” in the cyberage platform for a 24/7-and-beyond exposure, until deleted. The foundation of the trimedia—print/radio-audio/TV-video—has essentially been uprooted. The question is existential: Institutional media must respond to the challenge or hold its peace. Fake news, alternative facts, post-truth, exaggerated views and “foul-mouth” opinions or sheer lies and propaganda cannot be allowed to rule cy-
berspace. Institutional media practitioners must provide the capability for effective factchecking and responsible reporting. The challenge is formidable, and to not take it on is a cop-out. Various interest groups will always work to destroy the credibility of the “mainstream media” for their own agendas. Bloggers have become opinion and news bearers and are extensively present in the Web. They are active in Facebook and Twitter, Google and Yahoo, Instagram, Viber and WhatsApp. YouTube is a popular platform. Their following is monitored as a measure of their reach as information medium. It used to be just circulation for print and ratings for radio/TV. Today, hits make the difference. Presence in the cyberplatform is thus imperative. Developing the business model is the
big challenge. At the end of the day, there must be a market that will pay for the cost of providing the service. Advertising is the bread and butter of the media business. Diversifying the revenue pie will be the only way to sustain the venture. The most vulnerable among the trimedia at this time is print. Circulation has been the hardest hit in the digital regime. Radio and TV continue to keep their markets although the accelerated development of smart gadgets is forcing them to revisit their business models, too. There is no time to spare in keeping up with technology shifts in the communication infrastructure. Print must take on the digital challenge and decisively go digital. This is the only sustainable option. And the bottomline of going digital is to make institutional media a dominant
force once again in the reporting of factual news, fact-checking dubious reports, advocating well-argued views, and providing a platform for all points of view. Institutional media is called to be responsive to the dynamism in the communications world. And traditional print embracing the digital platform is the path going forward. Yet, the print edition cannot be totally set aside up to an undetermined turning point. Otherwise, the print identity is thrown out for the new venture. There is still a print market today, albeit on its way out. Presence in print, though the core is digital, can work on this traditional market and carry this segment in the transition. This can be a niche. The digital media revolution must happen. And the revolution is called in both form and
substance that will trigger a fundamental transformation in Philippine society. Strategic communication is the potent force available to institutional media to be able to reach out to every Filipino and various stakeholders, and initiate opportunities to make real change happen. The media are a very strong positive force, as well as a very strong negative force. It is time for the positive to overwhelm the negative. On Dec. 9, 1985, the Philippine Daily Inquirer Inc. printed and circulated its first issue. After 32 years, its majority ownership will change hands once again, for the fifth time. Originally, its structure was corporate but owned by its employees. The founders believed that it should be a media organization that could be spared the control of vested interests like business, politics and the gov-
ernment if the employees owned it. But it was not meant to be. The resource demands to sustain the business became too much for the employees to meet. Yet the editorial thrust continued from the time of its inception. The Inquirer identity has remained intact. But the pressure to play ball with society’s dynamic forces must be very strong. Today, as in 1985, the challenge continues: Develop and create a truly independent media organization whose only agenda will be societal transformation in freedom, for the benefit of all. The Filipino deserves no less.
Danilo S. Venida (danilosvenida@gmail. com) is a former president of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and now a business consultant.