The future of journalism

I celebrated my 76th birth anniversary yesterday, Nov. 25.

Nov. 25 also marked the 23rd anniversary of BizNewsAsia, the largest Philippines’ weekly business and news magazine. I have little or no competition now, in my niche.

At the dinner marking the occasion at Fairmont Hotel Makati, 220 guests confirmed their attendance, including the biggest businessmen of the land, led by Ramon S. Ang of San Miguel Corp., Tessie Sy of BDO and SM Investments Corp., Manny Villar of Vista Land and Lifescapes, chairman Amando Tetangco of SMIC, CEO Lorenzo Tan of HI and CEO Edgar Saavedra of Megawide; a number of notable ambassadors, MaryKay Carlson of the US, Laure Beaufils of the UK, Andreas Pfaffernoschke of Germany, Dr. Lai Thai Binh of Vietnam, Agus Widjojo of Indonesia, Tull Traisorat of Thailand, Matsuda Shigehiro of Japan and Economic Counsellor Luke Villiers of Australia.

Members of the Cabinet included Frederick Go, special assistant for investment and economic affairs; Transportation Secretary Jimmy Bautista, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and DICT Secretary Ivan Uy, along with DFA USec Charles Jose, DBM USec Margaux Salcedo, DMW USec Dominique Tutay and Sen. Francis Tolentino.

Of course, my colleagues from the Management Association of the Philippines, Rotary Club of Manila, the Manila Overseas Press Club, Tuesday Club, Wednesday Club, First Friday Club, First Saturday Club, Greenhills Walkers Club were there.

At the dinner, BizNewsAsia honored the best in visionary management, management, the profession and the arts. About 20 of them. I also launched my second book on business, “Great Lives, Great Deeds.”

At 76, I am into 55 years of professional journalism.  Add my five years of campus journalism, senior year in high school, where I was the editor-in-chief of the student organ, and four years in college where I became the managing editor of The Varsitarian, that’s 60 years of unstinting journalism, making me perhaps the most senior practitioner in the Philippines, of what is increasingly a dangerous and an endangered profession.

I don’t know if the generations of journalists after me are prepared for challenges facing the profession today – the rise of lying as an industry and a profession in politics and business, AI, disinformation and Big Tech – today the biggest usurpers and disruptors of traditional journalism. Majority of sports stories are now written by robots. A third of stories by major US newspapers are written by AI. About 90 percent of news content is curated and peddled at non-media like Google, FB, Apple, X.

So is the future of journalism dark or bright? Yes and No. Yes, it’s dark, for those who fail to adapt to changing technology and the rise of new media. No, it’s not dark, for those who excel in niche market media audiences.

In the case of BizNewsAsia, my weekly magazine has been able to hold its own against the onslaughts of technology and new competition. I notice people still want to see their faces on the cover of BizNewsAsia, with their personal profiles and the narrative of the success of their enterprises. In fact, for personalities who want to be cover stories, BizNewsAsia is fully booked for the next three months at least.

There is also a market for serious, competent, profound journalism as epitomized by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and our own Philippine STAR. You have to go digital and online and be able to charge for subscriptions.

It has been an exhilarating, fulfilling journey, one marked by more triumphal ups than depressing downs. On balance I could not have asked for more in life.

I covered and witnessed all kinds of events – fires, crimes, storms, massacres, massive floods, plane crashes, epidemics, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, three EDSA revolts, 14 coup attempts, the world’s two longest insurgencies – the NPA and Muslim separatism – and wars. I interviewed presidents, from Marcos I to Marcos II, from Aquino I to Aquino II, from Macapagal I to Macapagal II.

In the Philippines in the last 65 years, our presidents came from just five families.  It’s called democracy and inclusion. 

I am a product of public elementary and high schools when state education was the best in Asia. I graduated with honors in Tondo and would not have finished college were it not for a four-year scholarship I won after topping a citywide competitive exam. 

I finished journalism at UST, magna cum laude, with minor in economics and marketing. I took up three semesters of MBA at Ateneo Padre Faura. 

I didn’t learn much from MBA that is new except for the technical aspects of reading a balance sheet and analyzing problems with numbers. I attended economics and banking courses. I finished global journalism at the University of Stockholm. 

BizNewsAsia is remarkable for its incisive and in-depth reporting on business and the economy and for chronicling the achievements of the country’s leading enterprises and entrepreneurs.

BizNewsAsia is a publishing success story. It took off greatly and never lost ground, despite three years of COVID and its after effects. While many publications closed shop and lost their moorings, BizNewsAsia instead grew in strength, thanks to my business friends. 

For this reason, I thank all of you, my colleagues, my readers, my advertisers, my business friends who have been with me, no matter the state of the economic and political weather. 

Of course, I thank my Philstar president Miguel Belmonte, a compadre, for the honor and privilege of writing a column in this now venerable newspaper, the No. 1 daily. 

Finally, I thank my family, my children, Myra, Ivy, Ranel, Noreen, Ciara and my six grandchildren, Enzo, Gio, Audrey, Anika, Rafa and Nacho. They are my motive power and my inspiration. They make my life complete.

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