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Anniversary Supplement
6 THINGS INQSNAP makes possible How to use your smartphone to make your copy of the INQUIRER bristle with bonus content By Penelope P. Endozo Team INQSnap
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EOPLE may not be able to take other newspapers everywhere they go but they sure can bring the INQUIRER with them from breakfast to bedtime. All they need is a smartphone. Readers now have a new way to get INQUIRER news with INQSnap, the augmented reality (AR) feature of the INQUIRER Mobile app that can be downloaded for free from the iOS App Store or android Google Play. With over 30,000 downloads and some 2 million views since it debuted in May, the INQUIRER Mobile app, with breaking news, official tweets, classifieds and INQSnap, is a habit-in-the-making for INQUIRER readers. INQSnap allows readers to launch digi-
tal content to “leap” from page to phone. This includes videos, audio clips, exclusive documents, photo galleries and zoom-able maps, among other applications. Unlike other AR apps, INQSnap needs only one “capture” on the page to get the bonus content. INQSnapping is easy because readers do not have to hold onto the page while viewing additional files. The app can unlock multimedia content by scanning even as little as 30 percent of the page. The content can then be accessed again any time of day; readers can even share it with family and friends on Facebook or Twitter, too. Here are the top six applications that INQSnap makes possible: Videos - Reporters, contributors and even readers can share exclusive outtakes, backstage interviews or contributed reports while syndicated news wires show micro-movies (e.g., the NBA finals), a preview of some of the hottest bands’ concerts and international news coverage. Photo galleries - See the picture in today’s newspaper? There’s more where that came from. INQSnap gives readers a daily dose of visuals—from style guides to Top 10 images from around the world. Interactive maps - From the continent down to the barangay level, INQSnap can
NERY (in purple shirt) with (from left) Yee , Hidalgo, Verayo, Louie Bacani of the support unit, the author and Roger Filomeno of the INQUIRER MegaMobile (abov of INQSnappable content (right) that readers can access with their smartphone track, via Google Maps, new “in” spots, remote provinces and hole-in-the-wall establishments to guide the reader. One recent map was of companies and nongovernment organizations accepting donations for Yolanda victims. PDF files - Readers want the real deal so INQSnap brings copies of exclusive court documents, full texts of speeches, copies of historical texts and any file of interest right at their fingertips. Audio clips - “Did you hear that from the INQUIRER?” With INQSnap, that is possi-
ble. Sound bites of personalities and soundtracks of celebrities are featured, like the exclusive interview with Jason Mraz where he sang for the INQUIRER. Sidebars - Want that recipe in the food review? Do you know “what went before” in the dispute between China and the Philippines over parts of the West Philippine Sea? Some sidebar stories are featured on INQSnap, too. Other applications provide movie trailers of the week, daily answers to the crossword puzzle, additional column pieces
from Project Syndicate authors gree panoramic street view and on special topics such as the mi tions and post-Yolanda guide o ers can help victims. INQSnap is powered by Mega its multimedia content is curate torial staff—Penelope Endozo, V dalgo, Frances Katigbak, Nastas and Jovic Yee—with John Nery See that blue INQSnap logo o page? Snap away to make your from page to screen.
e-Paper comes into its own By Javier Vicente D. Rufino Director, Inquirer Mobile THIS year, INQUIRER Mobile, the INQUIRER Group unit that handles INQUIRER content for over 100 million mobile users in the Philippines, hit a significant milestone. By the end of the year, paid digital subscriptions to the INQUIRER Group’s premium e-paper newsstand for tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices (http://bit.ly/Inquirer-digital) will, for the first time since the product was introduced, exceed the number of INQUIRER print home- or office-delivery subscribers. The milestone not only means a boost to the group’s paid circulation (each paid e-paper is a replica of the print copy and thus counts as part of paid print circulation) it also shows that charging for content is a viable digital strategy in addition to purely advertising-supported revenue streams. The e-paper also allows
the INQUIRER Group print editions to reach areas where delivery is hampered by inadequate infrastructure and geographic remoteness. Previously, readers in these areas had to put up with late, even sporadic, newspaper deliveries. Now, thanks to the wide availability of tablets and smartphones and the INQUIRER e-paper apps (http://bit.ly/inqepaperapps), subscribers in far-flung areas can enjoy complete, reliable and early access to all the INQUIRER Group’s publications, a case study that got a warm reception at the recent Digital Media Asia conference of the World Association of Newspapers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. While for many readers the INQUIRER e-paper’s main purpose is to deliver the complete “lean back” print experience on a tablet or smartphone, it is also a digital product in its own right. Stories can be viewed in either the traditional print layout or in SmartFlow, a form that organizes content
THE PRINTED newspaper has to be physically delivered to different points in the country, but sometimes an emergency situation, like a landslide in Baguio post-Typhoon “Pepeng” in 2009, can make distribution difficult. Not to worry, our INQUIRER dealer (in yellow shirt) still managed to carry copies of our newspaper over the eroded area and deliver our paper to Baguio readers. (Above, right) The tab accesses the news effortlessly in its second edition while the printed newspaper is first edition. into a stream of stories similar to such tablet apps as Flipboard or Zite.
Stories can be shared on e-mail, tweeted, posted on Facebook or even “clipped” on
services such as Evernote and Instagram. Some aspects of digital life
are deliberately dropped, though: No flashing banner ads, intrusive pop-ups or anonymous comment trolls are found in the e-paper. The INQUIRER e-paper aims to deliver an uninterrupted reading experience as befits a premium
THE PLATFORM is the story From page 1
huge rise in the site’s traffic included the sex video scandal involving musician Chito Miranda, the Fiba Asia basketball league that featured the Smart Gilas Pilipinas team, the ship collision off Cebu City, the devastation wrought by the habagat (southwest monsoon) and Tropical Storm “Maring,” the State of the Nation Address (Sona) of President Aquino and another sex video scandal involving popular television personality Wally Bayola. The publication of the verbatim transcript of the round-table discussion between Napoles and the INQUIRER staff in the newspaper’s editorial office in Makati City also contributed to the dramatic jump in web traffic. The first part of the five-part series drew close to 11,000 shares within the first two hours of posting.
Bigger stories Bigger stories unfolded in October and November. A 7.2-magnitude earthquake rocked Bohol province and parts of Cebu province, destroying centuries-old churches and displacing hundreds
of thousands of residents. And before the victims in Bohol could recover from the disaster, Yolanda came and devastated Leyte and Samar provinces and other parts of the Visayas. Stories on these disasters were published on the various INQUIRER platforms. But those posted online were given more depth and drama with the use of videos, photo slideshows and infographics. Well-written articles dotted with good photos had always been winners, but the addition of moving images and sound bites to such stories significantly boosted their chances of being read, shared and commented on. For any website, that spells increased traffic and viewership. Another feature employed to keep readers on site is live blogging as in the case of the Oscar awards, the Sona of President Aquino, the Napoles appearance at the Senate and the Manny Pacquiao-Brandon Rios fight. It provides a blow-by-blow account, so to speak, of unfolding events. I NQUIRER .net has also created special sites for big events, compiling news stories as well as other pertinent information on those events. Among these
sites are those on the pork barrel scam, Pacquiao, the Bohol and Cebu earthquake and the Yolanda aftermath. These features have made INQUIRER.net the top Philippine news website. Alexa, an online firm that ranks websites based on daily traffic, ranked (as of Dec. 3) INQUIRER.net No. 11, behind global brands such as social media giants Facebook and Twitter, search engines Google and Wikipedia, search and news aggregator Yahoo and video powersite YouTube, but ahead of other local news sites (See Chart 2 on Page 1). Of course, bigger things go beyond numbers. The statistics are only as good as the news and issues that get posted on the site. If the content is dry and wanting, no amount of technical innovations and promotional plans could convince readers to visit a site. Or even search for it. Thus, the need to continue producing quality content that would not only compel and engage people to read but also empower them to act and make the right decisions. At INQUIRER.net, the platform is only a part of the story.
Chart 1
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