Social media vs print media will always be an unending debate.
New age journalism belonging to the digital age would insist social media is the way to go and that print media is a dying communications tool.
It’s always the case with the evolution of technology.
I was introduced to the world of journalism at eight years old when newspapers are delivered at your doorstep around lunchtime. If you live in the province like me, newspapers arrive mid-day from the city. The earliest flight from Manila known then as “bulilit” flights brings the major national dailies to Davao City and circulated to the nearby towns by bus.
Oh, I loved the smell of ink when I get hold of the day’s copy. Fresh, crisp and yes, literally hot. It’s probably because the bundle sat on the bus’s cargo section which is nestled at its belly. I must admit, the newspaper was my version of caffein. As a second-grader, I must have gotten addicted.
It was in those times when I fell in love with the newspaper. Leafing through page by page, keenly observing first its design and artwork, before beginning to read each story from the front page where the day’s news are found, to the back pages — the sports section — where I get my dose of inspiring stories of human achievement. The back page is the exact opposite of the front page which heralds mostly man’s mishaps failures.
It was then that I began to understand the elements of news.
My late father told me this fact: Good news is no news.
I don’t necessarily buy that but I know what my father, who was my first journalism mentor, is trying to drive. Journalism is business. You are only as good as the stories you tell.
This is where I bring this social media vs. print media debate. Relevance.
This is also where Edge Davao is driving a point.
You see, I have received straightforward comments even from advertising clients saying newspapers these days are useless and that they rather spend their advertising money for social media.
I respect their opinion. However, I would waste no time correcting the misimpression.
It’s a given. The past decade or so perhaps saw social media emerge change the way we communicate and spread news throughout the world. The growth and influence of social media influenced the way news organisations evolved.
When I joined Edge Davao in 2013, it was the time social media is beginning to wield influence while chewing a chunk of the media pie already shared by the acknowledged trifecta of print, television and radio.
With the emerging internet domination, the traditional media were forced to adapt to the changes. Retooling became a byword. A number of news organizations incorporated online into its readership.
That included Edge Davao.
First, we made the bold move to throwing away the traditional rules of newspaper design and experimented on large photographs while sacrificing the volume and length of stories. We used other tools like talking heads, a legacy of the late editor in chief Antonio M. Ajero, as well as cartoons and infographics.
Edge Davao would later expand its footprint online with a digital version where readers virtually flip through the pages.
It must be a portent of things to come.
When Covid-19 hit us and everyone were indoors, no publisher in his right mind would print a newspaper and expect people to buy copies and touch them. No solitary soul wants to touch anything. And with advertisers knowing people would not dare touch anything, why place ads.
For this reason, many newspapers folded up. Sad, but true.
Advertisers migrated online. Newspaper shutdowns became as ordinary as deserted coffee shops and restaurants. By all indications, it didn’t look rosy for Edge Davao as well as all other newspapers.
For the remaining newspapers, it was a struggle for survival.
What held publishers to hang on to their publications were either commitment, pride or family legacy.
Edge Davao general manager Olivia Velasco admitted she was on the brink of closing down the newspaper during the pandemic. The fierce competitor in her, she kept the fire burning.
Mindanao Times owner Dr. Guillermo Torres, in one of our conversations, said he kept the newspaper which happens to be Davao’s oldest all because it was a legacy from his father who inherited a printing press from the Japanese in World War II.
Just when people started to believe the internet is their best source of news, the chink in its armour took its toll. The next thing we knew, the internet was hounded by what we now call as fake news.
The spate of fake news eventually became the road block to the internet takeover of the news platform. Therein lies the difference. The naked truth is that when journalism is handled by non-professionals, the issue of integrity and authenticity sets in. And therein lies the difference.
It is that lack of knowledge and training that eventually crept in and delivered the kind of justice for traditional journalists.
A year after the restrictions of the pandemic were relaxed, the Heidelberg offset printing machines are chugging again at Edge Davao’s plant in Maa. The stench of ink is in the air. The good old newspaper is still alive in the age of apps and downloads.
For Edge Davao and other news organizations, it’s all about relevance amid the changing times.
