Business Magnate Ramon Ang to Acquire the Philippine Daily Inquirer

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Rumors has it that the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) newspaper will be re-branded as "Ang Inquirer".

Ramon Ang confirms he has accepted the offer of the Prieto's to acquire Inquirer or PDI. "I have accepted the offer of the Prieto family to invest in the Inquirer Group" say Ramon Ang.

The Inquirer Group said the Prieto family "is confident that Mr. Ang will uphold the Inquirer Group's commitment to pursuing the highest standards of journalism."

The Prieto's have been running the PDI for 25 years, what motivated them to sell their brand?

The PDI sellout to Ramon Ang ensures full control of Big Business over local traditional mass media. Big Business is everywhere.

Changes will most probably now happen with PDI, my favorite independent-minded and crusading newspaper, now that Ramon Ang will take over
is taking over.

WINNING STATEMENT: "Never did we think we’d be sold off to a DUTERTE campaign donor at that."

Since there was a confirmation that all existing employees of PDI would still be retained, there is no fear of losing jobs.

Now that San Miguel Corporation's Ramon S. Ang has acquired the PDI, is this an impending information dissemination rivalry among Manny Pangilinan's Philippine Star and Business World. With businessmen in control of leading newspapers, there would surely be an influential force that would change the mindset of its readers.

But we all know that newspaper, and even magazine, readership has gone down so abruptly that there have been plenty of closures already. It seems it would be on the digital scene where "influence" would be strongly eminent.

I've been reading a lot from my social media timelines related to print media closing down and so I've tried my best to summarize and put everything substantial into the paragraphs below:

"A major publishing house is shutting down ALL its regular print magazines. Brands are shifting ad budget to digital. Circulation also down. So the two main revenue streams are drying up."

We were supposed to embrace digital spaces YEARS ago. Digital is a great new frontier. It is definitely effective. Nothing beats big data. Measurable, sortable, and shapeable. No bloated, bullshit "pass-on readership" numbers as well. The days of lying through the teeth about print runs and pass on readership are now over. Nothing beats an honest business.

Same with TV and radio. They bloat the numbers, and round 'em up to the next highest number. Figures that are untrackable and cannot be proven. Never as accurate and precise as digital. Dinosaurs don't like to be told they're going to be extinct.

Local print media ending their print runs was bound to happen. Most brands are pulling out support for print and putting everything in digital. People now believe digital is cool because it is easier to track, to trace, make data for and formulate conversions over amount of money spent..

But some are saying that "Print isn't dead, but needs to adapt. Digital is cool, but expectations need to be tempered." Would you agree to that statement?

"There needs to be more digital spaces that value and promote long form stories, meatier stuff that doesn't fit in 600 words or less." Since most of our attention span when it comes to online are short, articles are done as short as possible. The creativity is then reduced, or people are becoming more precise and straight to the point?

Well, there are still the fake news and those click-bait articles that seem to be more cunning in attracting readership. In this entertainment-centric world, if we stick with direct but boring headlines, people would tend to skip it if their curiosities are not actively triggered.

Even though Wazzup Pilipinas belongs to the digital or online world, we still value the prestige of traditional media, but is always happy to embrace an all digital world soon. We can't stop the inevitable.