Journalism’s digital future

By tracking the so-called “ber” months, Filipinos have a unique way of reminding themselves that Christmas is just around the corner.  September is the first Ber month of 2011 and already we hear Christmas songs played on the radio and pre-Christmas news bits featured on prime time.  For Cebu’s working media though, this week’s flurry of activities are not Christmas related although the energy that go into the fun, frolic and learning are quite the same.

Today is the fifth day of the 2011 Cebu Press Freedom Week.  The main driver of the activities is the Press Freedom Week Inc.,  a steering group composed of representatives from all five English and Cebuano dailies and the broadcast industry.

Stiff competition among media companies is set aside for a week as journalists from print and broadcast media join together in fun and games, sports events, social gatherings and professional fora that allows for interaction among members of the local and Manila media.  The discussions are not only interesting, but also timely and very enlightening.

Last year, I had the privilege of emceeing a forum for Cebu Daily News about the proposed Freedom of Information Act, which had the Canadian Ambassador William Thornley delivering a speech to frame the discussion.  Lawyer  Nepomuceno Malaluan, who chairs a coalition of nongovernment organizations pushing for the legislation, gave us an overview of the proposed bill.  The goal of getting the bill passed in Congress is far from becoming a reality, but the Right to Know, Right Now Coalition is unrelenting in its campaign to pressure President  Benigno Aquino III to prioritize the bill.  The NGO is tracking down P-Noy’s trip to the United States, where he took center stage at the launch of the Open Government Partnership.  Civil society is dismayed by the President’s stance on the FOI bill but I hope that in due time they’d be able to harmonize their differences and craft an acceptable bill.

Last Tuesday’s forum, “Where is journalism in a digital world?” featuring JV Rufino, director of Inquirer Mobile, had young media practitioners sitting in rapt attention.  Rufino told the journalist-techies there is a tendency to gobble up data that floods the Internet.  They can be very useful in research work or mounting a good backstory but the question is, can Web-sourced information pass the basic journalistic principles of truth, accuracy and fairness?

Rufino also touched on an interesting topic, the extinction scenario drawn by international experts who said newspapers will bow out of existence between 2040 and 2045.  The Inquirer executive challenged this view saying that newspapers, being an authoritative source of information have a character of “permanence.”

The view of international experts proceeds from the assumption that readers of newspapers will become fewer and fewer as their dependence on digital media grows bigger and bigger.  If we take this into consideration, then The Inquirer Group, which has fully come on board the digital age would, in effect, contribute to the demise of its main paper and its local affiliate, Cebu Daily News.  However, this is not the case.

According to Larry Kilman of the World Association of Newspapers, “The audience is bigger than ever, if you include all platforms.  It is not a question of readership, but rather a question of revenues.”

The digital technology has changed the equation and “News providers throughout the rich world are urgently casting around for new models,” according to a report by the Economist.  There is a new world out there, a market driven by highly literate, technology savvy and endlessly searching for new tech consumers. The digital age has barely begun and newspapers are finding ways to adjust.

According to the Economist, one way to generate revenues is to erect paywalls or restricting access to newspapers’ digital form.  For example, online readers used to have unlimited access to the online edition of The New York Times, but not anymore.  One now has to pay a minimum of 13 cents a week for the first eight weeks, at least based on the current media company’s promo offer, to be able to get unrestricted access to the international newspaper.

The Inquirer Group’s mobile platform makes the Inquirer, Cebu Daily News, Bandera and Libre available in digital form but according to Marian Z. Codilla, CDN’s multimedia  coordinator, readers can gain more access if they subscribe to any of the Inquirer Group’s 24 titles, among them, Inquirer Junior, Inquirer Golf, Sunday Magazine, Baking Press, Cocoon, Klik, Game, F&B, Look, Multi Sport, Northern Living, Southern Living, Turista, etc.  I didn’t know the extent of the Inquirer’s mobile platform until Marian gave me the lowdown.

Marian’s fearless forecast?  Time will come when online subscribers would outnumber readers of traditional newspapers.  She stressed the trend is unstoppable and digital is the only way to go for media companies like the Inquirer.

I have heard many times before that the challenge of today’s journalist is to become adept at multimedia.  However, as Rufino pointed out, the bigger challenge is still in the realm of tradition, that is, to sustain independent journalism.  Because Press Freedom Week fosters that kind of awareness, it’s great to be part of the unique Cebu media celebration.