Philippine newpapers holding up in the switch to online

Vitung states that switching from print to mostly online operations necessitates more interactive and visual output. Whilst he does acknowledge that the publication has lost a number of older readers, the majority are "comfortable with our transfer to cyberspace". A success so far, the on-going challenge for Newsbreak remains "finding the business model that will allow us to earn from content and be able to operate a newsroom -- without losing our audience. We have subscribers who pay an annual feel but that's measly. We need advertising to flourish." For the time being, the publication continues to fund much of its operations from grants. Revenue from its tie-ups with ABS-CBN and the Philippine Star as a content provider helps, but also mean that the website must only publish unique content.

Though Vitug credits web-only publications and possibly more partnerships among media organisations as the way forward, he remains positive about the future for print publications in his country: "I don't see the demise of the newspaper, like what's happening in the US. That's going to take a long time, with the affinity for print here, and the limited reach of the Internet in the country." Vitung's optimism for the future of print is shared by publisher-editor Ermin F. Garcia Jr. of the Sunday Punch, who also notes that "online is definitely the way to go" and feels that eventually the reach of print will "be limited, if not obscured by others".

Sunday Punch, a community weekly published out of Dagupan City in the country's northern province of Pangasinan, is relying on its online version (punch.dagupan.com) to draw in readers to its print copy. Garcia states that the majority of online traffic directed to the site is generated from Pangasinan people living abroad, who in turn encourage friends and family at home to subscribe to the print version. Completing the circle, subscribers of the print version also encourage others to check out the website.

Developments in online media do not stop at websites however. The latest news is that one of the country's most widely read broadsheets is finishing up plans to launch its very own e-paper to paying subscribers. Rumour has it that the publication is expected to be highly interactive.

Over the past three years Internet usage has increased dramatically in the Philippines, and can only be expected to grow further. This can be attributed to increased competition among telecoms providers, resulting in improved connectivity and affordable rates.  In 2006 the percentage of the population with access the Internet stood at 21 percent. Nielsen Media has since reported that figure has grown to over 28.3 percent. The correlation between the increase in Internet usage and the decline in newspaper circulation is noteworthy (from 20 percent to 15 percent, and from 18 percent to 7 percent, respectively, over the same period).

Not all media outlets in the country have recognised the web's potential just yet however. Alexa Internet reports that just four of the Philippine's news providers rank amongst the country's 100 most accessed websites. Theses include the two leading broadsheets Philippine Daily Inquirer (www.inquirer.net) and Philippine Star (www.philstar.com), and the two leading broadcast networks GMA Network (www.gmanews.tv) and ABS-CBN (www.abs-cbnnews.com). Certainly GMANews.TV made the most of all available resources in its creation of interactive 'disaster maps', detailing the extent of damage and the conditions of people stranded in certain areas when two large typhoons spelt disaster for the country earlier this year.  GMANews.TV Editor-in-chief, Howie Severino recalls: "Soon after typhoon Ondoy hit we were publishing raw data about people needing rescue as we were receiving it. Some enterprising and Web-savvy good Samaritans started plotting our data on a Google map, which I found out about on Twitter. I quickly decided to embed the map on our site [and] pretty soon we were developing our own interactive maps with the help of volunteers, both online and those who went to our office."

Despite this success however, GMANews.TV is also still in search of a "clear business or revenue model." Though the website is said to be financially still afloat, Severino only attributes this to subsidies received from the networks television operations, although he does see potential profits in the future.

For the time being however, the Philippine media industry with its current "wait-and-see attitude", is right to remain cautious in its launch of any new enterprises. The move from print to online poses a plethora of challenges to any publication, not least in a country where Internet access, though growing, is not always readily available. Certainly, some publications have suffered at the hands of this fact. Daily broadsheet BusinessWorld paid the price for being one of the first major Philippine broadsheets to go online, launching its website, http://beta.bworldonline.com/, all the way back in 1994 and having since folded back into the main BusinessWorld Publishing Corp. as a department. Former BusinessWorld Online COO and editor Mike Marasigan cites the then exorbitant cost of Internet compared with today, as a contributing factor, as well as placing the blame on "conflicts in culture within the company, as well as the marketing side".

Source: Asia Media Forum