Inquirer launches 5-platform redesign

THE MEDIA QUINTET. The INQUIRER across the platforms.

“How do we bring the Inquirer to the next stage? How do we take it to the world standard of integrated experience?”

Thus asked Inquirer Group of Companies chair Marixi Rufino-Prieto amid the challenges being faced by traditional news media in the digital world where the public’s habits of consuming information have evolved dramatically.

The answer for the three-decade-old Philippine Daily Inquirer was unveiled yesterday when the country’s No. 1 newspaper launched its new, five-pronged thrust to deliver the news to an increasingly news-hungry public not only through a redesigned print product, but also through more engaging desktop, tablet, mobile phone and smartwatch platforms.

“Tonight, we reveal the answers to our nagging questions,” Prieto said in her speech on Thursday night in Makati City before the media group’s external stakeholders, like advertisers, including some of the country’s most influential business personalities.

Single seamless unit

The new Inquirer media platform—where the group’s reporters, writers, editors and production staff are integrated to function as a single seamless unit—is meant to address the growing demand for 24/7 news delivered rapidly over several digital channels, while emphasizing the role of the newspaper that will continue to play a central role in the information delivery cycle.

Not negotiable

The Inquirer partnered with media design guru Mario Garcia and his firm, Garcia Media, to conceptualize and execute a new news product, building on the “nonnegotiables” set down by the group’s stakeholders.

“When we started this journey with him, we laid our cards on the table,” Prieto said. “My humble plea was in whatever platform change or enhancement that we do, in every story that we tell, we keep the readers at the center of it all.”

“While content is our strength, we also draw our strength from our commitment to empower Filipinos with information that will enable them to be touched, moved and inspired to take positive action,” the Inquirer chair added.

Total rethink

In a separate address, Inquirer president/CEO Sandy Prieto-Romualdez gave the public a glimpse into the process, from conceptualization to execution,that led to a total rethink of the way the 30-year-old media organization delivers news to the public.

For the past 18 months, we have earnestly and tirelessly worked with Garcia Media for a serious rethink of our business,” Romualdez said.