Cyberbaguioboy

(UPDATE) Writing Degree Zero has added interesting information about the layoffs in the Philadelphia Inquirer. As former colleague and self-admitted media junkie Arvin Reyes writes, and I quote, “The paper’s declining circulation is largely due its declining quality of journalism.”

He added:

Several years ago, the Inquirer, under the editorship of Gene Roberts, was one of the best papers in the US. Mark Bowden’s investigative series on the conflict in Somalia, which became “Blackhawk Down” was published in the Inquirer. The paper’s owner, the Knight-Ridder group, eventuallly exerted pressure to cut cost and increase profits. Some of the paper’s best editors and reporters accepted buyouts and left.

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I recently wrote an article quoting local editors and academicians about their views on the implications of the Philadelphia Inquirer layoffs on Philippine newspaper business. It was an interesting mix of opinions on the future of newspapers. While some believe the country’s newspapers are quite in a “unique” situation, they all believe the new media –with the Internet and other info devices becoming ubiquitous, will change the way we do journalism. Bloggers have posed a “threat” to mainstream journalism. However, as we will find out soon, bloggers/journalists are becoming “one.” (a note in reaction to Joey’s quick reply to this blog post: I think I meant that journalists will eventually be blogging. But I do agree with him that bloggers and journalists have different values. And we do have to make a strong distinction.) Journalism is also becoming multimedia.

As far as my memory serves me, online journalism started when Manila Times and Business World went ahead publishing news on the Internet, and later followed by the Philippine Daily Inquirer with the Inquirer.net (which was later called INQ7.net and now back to INQUIRER.net) a decade ago. But I believe even before the mainstream media went online, some local magazines like the defunct tech magazine 1969 was doing some form of online journalism. Now, other media organizations are starting to follow suit, creating their own “online news portals” to deliver immediate news to consumers via the Web, indicating that this might be, as Chay Hofilena quotes in the article, “the new savior” of journalism in the Philippines.

“Years back tabloids were part of the solution as they subsidized operations of less profitable broadsheets. Now, we’re all in search of a new savior,” she said.