TIMES have changed, and so did almost everything else – including the way people get information.
The dynamics of the 21st-century world have challenged the way traditional media organizations operate. Some were able to adopt while some were not as resilient.
So you may ask, what’s the kind of future that’s in store for traditional media? Like print? Like Panay News?
Ariel Sebellino, executive director of the Philippine Press Institute, has the answers.
“The print medium will not die; it will be at the helm of re-shaping narrative or storytelling,” according to Sebellino as he spoke before Panay News employees, business partners and advertisers on April 7.
Held at Seda Atria in Iloilo City, the event was a celebration of Panay News’ 37 years of factual reporting and effective advertising – the things that made the local paper the No. 1 news daily in Western Visayas.
Sebellino believes that no matter how mediums change, the principles that guide news content will always be the same. The goal is still to deliver facts.
“[The print medium] will be crucial in providing a more nuanced content that will churn out stories to get people to act,” Sebellino stresses. “It will remain a critical platform to speak truth to power and hold those in power and high echelons accountable to their patrons, consumers, and public at large.”
Sebellino adds, “The community press will be at the forefront of telling the lives of Filipinos at the community and regional level. [It] will continue to be a trailblazer and a game changer in so far as engaging stakeholders in the community is concerned.”
“Advertisers will continue its faith and confidence in the print medium – and they will appreciate the necessity of supporting local press to ensure economic dynamism,” he furthers. “[I am] hopeful that Panay News keeps its leadership in the region to keep press freedom, free speech, and access to information as moving and pivotal force in ensuring a functioning democracy and well-informed citizenry, that it will a strong platform to combat disinformation and misinformation.”
While keeping the conventional way of delivering significant stories through print, Panay News is also jiving with the tides of change, especially in the age of digitization.
In the same event, Panay News officially launched its website (www.panaynews.net), proving its partners and advertisers that “the old and the new” can coexist, resulting to a more dynamic and nuanced platform.
Because behind the tidbits of breaking stories online, editors and writers still work their way to giving readers a more contextualized content – a dose of reality that the Philippine society badly needs. (Photos by Ian Paul Cordero/PN)
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This article was first published in print on April 15, 2018.
