- Teaching and doing journalism - December 10, 2024
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- Finding “Success” in digital news - September 4, 2024
Over the past few years we have seen a drastic decline in newspapers. This is a worldwide phenomenon and not an isolated case. With the advent of technology: the Internet, smartphones, tablets, social media apps and the like, it also changed the way people have been consuming the news.
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism based in Oxford University has been studying changes in news consumption and trust in the news over the years. They have noted a continuing pattern of increasing or sustained digital news consumption in their annual Digital News Report as compared to a decline in print news consumption. In the Philippines, the 2024 Reuters findings show that online and social media remain the most popular sources of news particularly in urban settings. TV and radio news is important for those who are not online, but reach has declined over the last five years.
Does this mean that if you launch your traditional or print newspaper into the digital space would it equate to a newspaper’s survival and success? Not exactly, but this seems to be what many local netizens had in mind when Midland announced its closure in its Facebook Page on June 30, 2024. A lot of the comments pertained to its perceived inability to adapt to the digital space. However, many of them are not aware that Midland has had a website since 2007. It also ramped up its social media presence through Facebook during the pandemic. Whatever amount it may have earned as revenue from its digital version was not enough to equal or replace its hardcopy ad revenue. Definitely not enough to sustain the whole news production process.
So what would it take for a community paper to be successful and sustainable online? There really is no clear cut answer. If we define success as measured by longevity and having enough financial support to run a sustainable news production, then here are three of the more “successful” digital news companies.
SunStar Philippines or sunstar.com.ph was among the trailblazers in digital journalism in the country. It was first launched in 1996 as the website of SunStar Cebu. The Garcia Clan of Cebu that owned it had good foresight and adaptation skills which made them see digital news as the way forward. By 2000, the digital online platform started operating independently, tying up all the digital versions of the locally printed SunStar papers found all over the country. Part of its success can be attributed to offering news from the provinces which many Manila-based digital news productions cannot steadily provide.
Phil.Star.com, started out as the digital version of The Philippine Star newspaper back in 2000. It eventually evolved into a digital only publication with its own editorial team and started producing its own content. It continues to host content from the Philippine Star broadsheet and other newspapers, radio and TV productions under Manny V. Pangilinan’s MediaQuest Holdings.
Rappler, founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, started out as a Facebook Page called MovePH in 2011 before launching its website in 2012. Despite its many legal battles, it continues to grow and be a strong voice in Philippine media while running on revenues from consultancies, advertising, and grants.
The question now is, can our remaining community papers “copy” or replicate the “success” of any of these companies? Or is there another model we have yet to see that would pave the way for their success online?