N.B. – A master’s student from the Ateneo de Manila University who also works for a media monitoring institution emailed some questions about the effects of the global financial crisis on the Philippine mass media. Please find below my answers. Thank you.

How would the crisis affect the local media industry and community? Or do you think that the local industry and community would be spared from the effects of the financial meltdown? Why or why not?

Mainstream media organizations, considering that they operate no differently from other business entities, are directly affected by the global financial crisis in various ways:

1. As other economic industries like manufacturing lay off workers to cut down on production cost, it’s likely for some business organizations to either do away with or spend less on media advertising on which mainstream media are totally dependent;
2. As media owners have other business interests, it’s likely that they would see their non-earning media organizations as “white elephants,” resulting in either downsizing, merging with other media organizations or closing them down altogether; and
3. As consumers cut down on spending, their consumption of the mainstream media may be affected, resulting in less subscribers of publications and telecommunications services like mobile telephony, cable and Internet.

Content-wise, mainstream media organizations would probably provide news media content that caters more to the least common denominator, making it even more attuned to infotainment and escapism. The end-goal in this particular case is to attract the already dwindling number of media audiences.

The crisis would most likely affect a lot of sectors such as advertising and production. Advertising revenues may drop and, at the same time, production costs may shoot up. Do you think our media organizations are prepared for this?

Despite their dependence on advertising, the mainstream media organizations probably have plans to weather the crisis. But it would be hard for them to do so given that even cable channels that are supposed to survive mainly on cable subscription also have their share of advertisements.

Mainstream media organizations would likely resort to importing canned programs as it is much cheaper than producing shows locally.

Owners may also not see this year as the time to bring in more state-of-the-art broadcast and printing equipment, given that they would be resorting to various austerity measures.

Are we seeing now the effects on the media industry and community at this time? Or is it too early to tell? Why or why not?

The fact that media organizations are resorting to interstitial or stealth advertising is an indication of their efforts to pull in as much advertising revenues as possible, even if they are already compromising the dissemination of information (in the case of news and public affairs) and the presentation of the narrative (in the case of entertainment).

Even if ethical standards clearly stress the need to differentiate between advertisement and news media content, there are mainstream media organizations that opt to use the latter in promoting goods and services of advertisers.

This is, in my opinion, a creative way to pull in advertisers in the wake of the global financial crisis, given that they would have more “captive media audiences” through stealth advertising.

If you think the crisis would also affect Philippine media, do you think it would stay for a long time?

Commercialism in the Philippine media has been there since the various forms of media had been introduced, with the notable exception of the alternative media that, through the years, had maintained some degree of independence from profit-seeking entities.

The issue here is therefore fundamental: The global financial crisis could result in more “creative” ways for the mainstream media to generate income, even if this is done at the expense of shaping public opinion.

Are you seeing changes in newsroom policies and direction, such as job layoffs, closure of news outlets, media mergers, migration to online media, salary and budget cuts, and more pressure for journalists to be multi-skilled so they can do more for their salaries?

These are distinct possibilities, as may be gleaned from the unfortunate experience of Newsbreak and Pinoy Weekly that opted to just go online. Mergers in the print media may happen in the future, and the case of Manila Standard and Today is a good example.

Even a leading newspaper, according to a reliable source, is seriously considering venturing into the broadcast media and strengthening its online presence while maintaining the same number of reporters who will be tasked to produce stories not just for the paper but also for the broadcast and new media counterparts.

From a management point of view, this may be optimization and maximization of the staff (and could even be claimed as providing multimedia training to its journalists). From a labor point of view, however, this is plain and simple exploitation.

How would the global crisis affect the economic and working conditions of Filipino journalists and media organizations?

Just like in other economic industries, contractualization could become the order of the day in mainstream media organizations.

Other cost-cutting schemes like job rotation and diminution of benefits could also happen, hence the need for journalists to organize themselves into unions, as well as strengthen already existing ones.

What is the future of Philippine press, given its old problems (rising production costs, lower advertising revenues, lower readership, credibility issues, etc.) and the current global economic crisis? What should journalists and media organizations then do to handle the situation, and to survive in the future?

The future is not bleak as we are wont to think, considering that alternative media have been around since the Spanish period, assuaging the people’s hunger for information.

It is necessary for like-minded journalists to support the alternative media by reporting for them even if the financial reward may not be that much.

Mainstream media organizations should also help expand the audience base of the alternative media as the latter are not necessarily competitors. This can be done in various ways, though the most beneficial in the shaping of public opinion is citing the alternative media’s analyses of social issues in the mainstream media’s stories.

It may be also necessary to lessen dependence on advertising by studying alternative media ownership schemes like establishing cooperative-owned media organizations.