MANILA Philippines -- While boxing icon Manny Pacquiao was making history by becoming the first Filipino to hold four championships in as many weight divisions, media was also making history with new ways of delivering news.

No more than a minute after the official announcement that Pacquiao had wrested the World Boxing Council Lightweight championship from David Diaz via ninth-round knockout, the news was already up online. Reporters and editors from the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) and INQUIRER.net, sister company of PDI, collaborated to bring a blow-by-blow account of the Pacquiao-Diaz title fight.

Through a special site called The Pacquiao Files, updates about the undercard matches and the Pacquiao-Diaz fight itself were delivered literally every minute. The team made use of micro-blogging, running account, breaking news and video materials to give readers and viewers a virtual peek at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Here’s how they did it:

Using the micro-blogging service of Twitter -- a Web 2.0 tool on the Internet -- INQUIRER.net Multimedia Specialist Erika Tapalla wrote 140-character entries every minute of every three-minute round. There were times when there were five updates per round in real-time, such as a simple “Round 8: Diaz’s right eyebrow cut widens as doctor tries to clean it. His white shorts are stained with his own blood.”

Then, PDI Assistant Editor Francis Ochoa inputted entries into INQUIRER.net’s homegrown blogging system called the Running Account, with a comprehensive summary of each round of the 12-round championship bout, again in real-time. INQUIRER.net has been using its in-house Running Account since 2001, way before blogging became popular.

Later, these real-time live blogging and micro-blogging entries were gathered by INQUIRER.net desk editor Nonoy Espina to produce Breaking News entries, again a pioneering effort of INQUIRER.net back in the year 2000.

From other places, INQUIRER.net Multimedia Editor Joey Alarilla was capturing the action on video from his home in Mandaluyong, while INQUIRER.net US sales director Esther Misa Chavez was sending pre- and post-fight video captured with her own camera straight from Mandalay Bay.

As soon as Diaz was knocked out, a text message about Pacquiao’s victory was sent via SMS (short messaging service) to cellular phone subscribers nationwide. Behind it all, INQUIRER.net Editorial Assistants Feliza Cana, Joreem Somodio and Ryan Leagogo were uploading the entries with all cylinders firing.

This is but a sample of how media have transformed to deliver fast breaking news, whether real-time via written updates or multimedia via video. The changing media landscape and audience requirements are forcing media to evolve into a faster animal, and media organizations are starting to become like wire services themselves.

Yet behind this seemingly fleeting bombardment of information in a 24-hour news world is a change much more significant. The skills needed as journalists in a multimedia world are changing. Consequently mindsets are also undergoing a metamorphosis, and this goes with the transformation of training requirements.

Twitter and micro-blogging, for example, teaches reporters to write more quickly and editors to edit more tightly, considering the 140-character limit. You think that’s easy? Try writing -- under pressure, in real-time and for more than 30 minutes -- a complete yet informative sentence about a fast-paced boxing match every 30 seconds without resorting to using “txt shortcuts ppl use, lyk dis 1.”

The Running Account and Breaking News also teach journalists the same principles. The challenge is how to maintain speed without sacrificing accuracy. Regarding video, journalists who are used to having the pen and paper as their sole tools on the field would find it difficult to point, shoot, focus and hold steady a digital or video camera while asking questions.

More important, it is all about the discipline of getting the information quickly and accurately and having that sense of urgency to send that data over to the desk as soon as humanly and technically possible. And then you update, correct, update, correct and update again constantly to deliver the freshest news while admitting errors along the way -- a growth process which the pride of media stunted years ago.

It’s all about attitude. It’s all about how you roll in this age of new media.

These are interesting times for journalists, indeed, and a wave of change is splashing onto media’s shores. Resisting this sea change could lead to the extinction of some news organizations.

Moreover, such developments would be of universal interest to progressive media organizations. Those who do not recognize this fact may want to consider stepping out of their alternate universes and join the one in which everyone else is becoming a part.