IT’S important to remember that social and mainstream media don’t really function independently anymore. CNN using Twitter is one example of how traditional is really married to social at this point. And more broadly, if a story starts in traditional media, you’ll see discussion in social, and the dialogue components can bubble back up and out into traditional. So it becomes an interesting kind of loop.

With publication as the easier format to convert online—a lot also has been asked if print media (newspaper and magazine) are either being cannibalized or, bluntly put, replaced by the proliferation of news and lifestyle article sources online. It’s a place where news stories start, it’s a place where stories continue, and it’s a place where stories are discussed.

Is media ready to go fully online? How do we ride the tide? OMD studied multiple sources, looked at the trends and conducted interviews, if indeed we are looking at a paperless print future.

The Internet is defining the new speed of delivery from headline news items to lifestyle articles and the latest trends: everything has become almost real time. News distribution is cheaper and news items are now more interactive than ever via consumer-generated news content. This trend has pushed publishers to tap into digital newspapers since digital news and newspapers are among the most sought-after services on the Internet.

In a study conducted by Flavian and Gurrea discussed in “Digital Versus Traditional Newspapers: Influences on Perceived Substitutability,” there are different motivations in reading newspapers online and in traditional form. They found out that those who read digital newspapers are in search for the up-to-the-minute information, while those who read the physical newspaper read for entertainment or to pass time (Bouwman and Van de Winjgaert, 2002).

“Thus reading the press takes up part of the readers’ leisure time while the individual acquires knowledge of current affairs. There are also significant evidences suggesting that readers who read newspapers out of habit acquired overtime and is generally associated with a given time of the day [Len Rios and Bently, 2001], they will read or leaf through the newspaper almost systematically.”

The study explained that there is a negative relationship between the search for updated news and the level of substitutability between the two newspaper formats. Some newspaper readers satisfy their reading needs using both media when the motivation behind reading is that of entertainment or habit. Some publishers might have recognized this fact which provides sufficient reason for them to operate on two platforms, digital and physical newspaper.

How does this development (digital or one of its platforms) change how we receive and relay information? Will Internet readership make the medium obsolete?

According to OMD’s “The Print in the Digital Age,” there is a scarce material discussing the possible cause and effects of the Internet in terms of gathering and spreading information in the Philippines.

The country’s digital landscape is, relative to our regional counterparts, in its early stage. Since its debut in the mid-’90s, the Internet as a communication platform has changed dramatically. It is the birth of DSL, cable line, broadband, Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi hot spots that changed the psyche of the Filipino Internet consumer. Overnight, the Philippines is connected to the world adapting every technology available. The 2011 Q1 Nielsen Media Index reports show that there are close to 12 million Filipinos who have access to the Internet, that’s 33 percent of the total urban Philippine population.

What is more interesting is the fact that the Philippines is the seventh top Facebook user in the world, and if you look at the relationship of the numbers—that it can be deduced that almost 90 percent of those with Internet access has an FB account, and almost 12 million Filipinos are updating and reading their account, and counting. Social media, may it be through Facebook, Twitter, etc., has definitely changed how we interact, communicate and relay information.

As the Philippines is fast adopting the new technology, the Philippine print media has also taken steps to catch up with the rising Internet trend. Similar to Western countries and our tech-savvy Asian neighbors, publications have developed online versions of newspapers and magazines. Advertising has also taken a new form with online advertising, website sponsorships, microsite developments, etc. With this, online media and online advertising are slowly making a territory vs. broadcast advertising.

A study conducted by UP students on “Assessing the News Literacy of Public High School Students” stated that “it is not that the youth is not concerned about news and current affairs, in fact, they actively seek news and do have a notion of ‘newsworthiness.’ But their selection and consumption of news depends on what interests them. “Interest, not notion of newsworthiness, directs news consumption.”

Consuming news and having the notion of newsworthiness boils down to interest or relevance. Consumers are not shifting back to TV viewership, and, in fact, is at a status quo across TV channels. There is already a constant attention given to news and information on television, according to the OMD study.

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Bubuwit Squeaks

Moment of Truth

This topnotch ECD in a multinational agency says it gets harder for him to write any ad because he never thinks he can do it. Sometimes he thinks he writes quite a good ad, but whenever he’s faced with having to do one, he has absolutely no confidence in himself at all. “This is quite a serious block. It’s made worse for me because I’ve written some quite well-known advertisements, and I love publicities about what a good copywriter I am. But that creates quite a problem for me because I think I used to be a very good copywriter—very good, but I don’t think I’m nearly as good today and I don’t think I can live up to my record.” The reason is that he is preoccupied with management responsibilities and has no time for good ideas.