It’s a revolution that has evolved quite naturally within the small yet overachieving newsroom. The bedrock of Edge Davao strategy has been getting the people who can do many things.
In a round peg, everyone has a role. News writers write news, business writers do finance matters and sportswriters cover the action. Photographers? Snap shots and that’s it.
At Edge Davao, the culture is unique. Here, you’ll find a photographer doing desk duties, a sportswriter covering the news and business beats, and lifestyle writers writing news and manning social media operations.
Multitasking, mixed with some versatility, has revolutionized the paper’s editorial operations.
This is our quirky Swiss Army knife mentality. As it is diverse and demanding, not everyone thrives in this culture. There are those who tried and did not find fit and instead grappled for excuse at some ghostly creatures hounding the cramped box where the daily which shocked many to become the country’s best edited community paper for three years in its very young existence. In reality, that’s what is haunting. What has this paper have that others, more established and well-financed, don’t?
Hardwork.
Those who have left a mark in this newsroom are now making a mark elsewhere. Two have become the President’s trusted men–Greg Deligero at the Presidential Communications Office and Charles Raymond Maxey at the Philippine Sports Commission. And who would forget Charles’ father, Ram. He too is making a mark in heaven.
And now, this brings us to the current bunch. Lean and mean. Let’s meet the team.
ANTONIO M. AJERO. Editor In Chief
No need of any introductions, this man is already an icon in Davao journalism. Tony is every writer’s dream editor. He is compassionate, understanding and always ready to provide the needed guidance and yes, some schooling, to all members of the newsroom.
He spends time mentoring young writers even from other media outlets and is well regarded in the media community as a revered veteran who commands respect from fellow journalists to the ‘high and mighty’ politicians and businessmen. ‘He has been around’ is what best sums up his jaded career in journalism. And yes, he never gets tired. Still going at age, uhm… forget it. He’s an ageless virtuoso.
Tony built the newsroom with that unique mentality anchored at making everyone develop versatility. All he wants is for team members to be in that same page, to learn and develop writing skills with strong foundation that allows for one to switch assignments with ease. Seamless journalism as he calls it, in the same manner that he epitomized that Edge Davao motto of “Serving a Seamless Society.”
In his more than half a century as editor and broadcast executive, Tony has mentored many of the working journalists covering Mindanao and the country. One of his ‘students’ is Emmanuel “Manny” Pinol who was an outstanding newspaper editor and broadcaster before becoming a provincial governor of North Cotabato thrice and now secretary of the Department of Agriculture.
Aside from his work in the Edge Davao newsroom, Tony finds time in being convenor/moderator of the 4-decade old Kapehan sa Dabaw media forum, whose topics he thinks he conceptualizes and speakers he invites.
NEILWIN BRAVO, Managing Editor, 5-year Service Awardee
If bullying is a degree, Neil has a PHD. To a certain extent, bullying can be a positive thing. That’s what Neil has mastered with the precision of a surgeon. Those who came and left the newsroom of Edge Davao knows he is the gentle bully. Yes, he bullies around because he wants to get things done.
When Neil came on board at the time Edge Davao made the giant leap from weekly to daily, Neil started as the paper’s Sports Editor but he was more than that. He orchestrated the makeover of the paper’s look from the conventional to the revolutionary. He was a coup plotter for maverick designs which, combined with the team’s editorial wonders, produced trophies after trophies in no time. He became Managing Editor of Edge Davao and was Tony’s ‘toolbox’ which paved the way for the newsroom’s culture of multi-tasking.
When fate set him off miles away to the land Down Under, Neil stayed on and worked remotely like a virtual domotics. He epitomized a seamless newsroom using the wonders of technology to put the Edge Davao newsroom into automation. For the past three years, Neil kept his virtual presence day after day and deadlines after deadlines. Distance may have rendered him a mere virtual bully, but he still gets things done on anything that’s good for the newspaper.
LEAN DAVAL JR., Photographer, 5-year Service Awardee
Lean Daval Jr is a self-taught photographer from Davao City. He is the son of prolific and well-respected cartoonist, artist and local media practitioner Lan Daval.
Lean started his career rather oddly juggling his time as a wedding photographer and freelance photographer for Edge Davao and other publications. He officially joined Edge Davao on February 2012.
Lean is a late bloomer in photography. He never picked up a camera until the age of 36. He was inspired to become a photojournalist after seeing the works of conflict photographers Enrique de Castro, Goran Tomasevic and Jorge Silva of Reuters and Associated Press’ Rodrigo Abd. Not long after, Lean won various awards but the highlight of his young career was when he won ‘singlehandedly’ the Best Photojournalism award for Edge Davao from the prestigious Philippine Press Institute on May 2016 against the more equipped and more complete battery of photojournalists of bigger publications from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
Lean is currently a contract photographer of Reuters and contributing photographer of national newspaper BusinessWorld.
LEEBAI SINSUAT AMBOLODTO, Social Media Manager and Lifestyle writer
A student of life, Leebai Sinsuat Ambolodto, MBA hoards on details that allow her to enjoy the infinite surprises that come her way. Not meant to be a writer, she learned to love words and storytelling in the most unconventional of ways. Her foremost repertoire is food features teasing readers to eat and indulge on calories. For Leebai, ‘feeding’ people’s minds with a good food read is her favourite past time.
At present, she has moved on to the pages of Edge Davao as their resident online and offline ninja. She continues to write her column The Royal Chef and doubles as the designated deskwoman for the paper’s day to day operations as well as man the online and social media platforms of the newspaper.
If anything is worth tasting, anything is worth this royal chef’s writing.
ADAM B. MORRELL, Reporter
This dude is as carefree as a dog. Edge Davao newsroom’s newest homie, Adam is learning the meaning of being multidimensional.
Adam admits to having been in a roller-coaster ride. His tattoos speak for his adventures and mishaps. A father at 21, a rockstar wannabe, he dabbled as medical rep, entrepreneur. Many times he had been refused a job because of his tattoos, he wanted to be a band vocalist but never had the right voice. But he always finds a way to bounce back.
When he first reported to work at Edge Davao, he came in with his virtual backpack of scorebooks, stat sheets, balls and anything sports as his career took off in sportswriting elsewhere. Little did he know, he would be thrust into a whole new world.
From being used to covering action-packed basketball games, boxing and karatedo, to name a few, Adam was deployed by his new home to sit and record press conferences, ring police and military officials, and roam around City Hall and Sangguniang Panlungsod. He was introduced to the mentality at Edge Davao that is comparable to basketball’s position-less system–being able to play all positions. In this case, being able to write all assignments. And he is slowly adapting to this unique Swiss-knife culture.
Adam believes, “Something worth having never comes easy.” Finding a niche at Edge Davao, this self-confessed “bad boy with a good heart” has just began.
THE DESIGN TEAM
Behind Edge Davao’s powerful words are the men who create the visuals. The men who grapple with the design and layout to come up with the most appealing layout day in and day out.
That’s another strength in Edge Davao. The designs are executed with some simple things in mind: to be different, to stand out, and to be ahead.
These two guys who must have been christened on the same day as they bear the same names, carry out this philosophy as demanded by the standards of the paper. Christian Jay Rafal is the lead layout artist who also dabbles up as cartoonist. He is an out-of-this-world artist who can spring a surprise just when everything seems to get boring. Christian Lumain is the ‘other Christian’ who pinch hits on weekends and works as the back up. The two may have contrasting styles but they too, can be outrageous when spoiled to bring out their ideas.
