The End of Inquirer.Net?
By Rico, 5:05 pm Wed Jan 21 2009 - Analysis - 7 Opinions
In the world of Philippine online media, few other sites catch more attention than inquirer.net, the partner website of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Driven by up-to-date local news and a rumored ability to generate extraordinary amounts of advertising revenue, inquirer.net enjoys the interest of an increasingly online Filipino public, and the envy of local entrepreneurs with dreams of building a profitable online empire.
Turns out though that inquirer.net’s assumptive profitability may be just that—an assumption.
As Cocktales shares:
As things are shaping up within the Prieto-Rufino media empire, not only would the dinosaur Inquirer save the money-losing Web operations, the Inquirer.net as a corporate entity would be collapsed and be folded into the Philippine Daily Inquirer, which, despite the similar names, has a different shareholding structure altogether. [emphasis mine]
Now I honestly don’t know how a website that enjoys so much traffic (out of the billions of websites globally, it currently ranks 3,905 on Alexa) could be non-profitable. That’s a lot of exposure to monetize! But then again, people have become skeptical about online advertising revenue, and inquirer.net may be suffering from rising labor costs.
That’s obviously speculation on my part; what’s more interesting is how inquirer.net editor-in-chief JV Rufino may have to swallow his pride, especially after statements like these (also courtesy of Cocktales):
“It was good for me to be separate [apparently referring to the separate newsrooms and offices] because it allows my people the creative space to innovate.”
“We like to keep them separate for the moment because they’ve got a lot of old habits in the Inquirer that we’d like to move away from online, so I don’t like my reporters getting infected at the Inquirer.”
“[The old reporters] are freaking out that the new and improved version [of reporter] is going to take over their livelihood.”
Is “infection” inevitable? Will inquirer.net close? Thanks to reader Alvin for the tip.
Mike Abundo
9:09 pm Wed Jan 21 2009
If this is true, then it just goes to show how far behind the Philippines lags. In the US, print publications are going Web-only.
thegreatest
1:01 am Thu Jan 22 2009
It actually shows how *behind the times* marketing and advertising is in the Philippines, when they can’t take advantage of a website that enjoys more readership than their print edition.
Rico
1:01 pm Thu Jan 22 2009
Mike Abundo: Well, I think the rumor’s more about inquirer.net getting folded into the main PDI organization. In other words, the end of the website as a relatively independent media vehicle.
thegreatest: And a readership that’s truly worldwide.
gestalt
3:03 pm Thu Jan 22 2009
you need to take into account as well that vic agustin isnt exactly the best source for this kind of news as he left inquirer with bad blood.
Andrei
7:07 pm Thu Jan 22 2009
The title is misleading – they’re not exactly closing down inquirer.net, just absorbing it.
But if we read between the lines…
What is actually happening is 1) the hacks at the inquirer paper are complaining that advertising revenue and subscriptions are dropping because more and more people are reading the news online, but 2) the online arm isn’t making as much money as the print one, therefore they should absorb the current online one in order to stop the apparent “cannibalizing” of print sales, and 3) Give the old hacks their share of the limelight on the “new” inquirer.net?
Wow, nice politics.
This is the problem with our country as always – the oldies refuse to adapt. And when they do, unfortunately, they also refuse to let the younger generation take over. That’s why we’re still 40 years behind the times.
The true victims here are the young reporters on the current inquirer.net – if the website is absorbed, it is highly likely that they’re going to be made redundant.
jv
9:09 pm Thu Jan 22 2009
Please check on the credibility of your source. You don’t want to be involved with such libelous statements. Agustin has a beef against Inquirer and his opinions are tainted with malice.
maven
11:11 am Sat Jan 24 2009
inquirer.net gives a refreshing breath to the traditional media. it is surprising that the site is not getting enough revenue considering that the traffic it generates