The lady does not rest on her laurels.
Jena F. Fetalino, President of Mosman NewMedia Inc. which publishes Medical Observer, was adjudged the “Female Executive of the Year (Business Services – 10 or Less Employees)” in the 11th Stevie Awards for Women in Business.
Besting three other finalists (one Canadian and two Americans), Fetalino became the first Filipina to win the Stevie Gold Trophy in the “Business Services Global Category” for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The Stevie Awards is the world’s premier business awards.
Medical Observer’s New York correspondent Innie Williams received the Stevie Gold Trophy on Fetalino’s behalf. Fetalino was not able to attend the Stevie awarding ceremony held on November 14, 2014 at the Marquis Marriott Hotel in New York because she was in Cebu City to receive the SISA Award for Outstanding Magazine given to Medical Observer by the Philippine Psychiatric Association during the Asian Federation of Psychiatry and Mental Health Convention held on November 13.
“Running a small business requires big and hard decisions as much as big corporations do,” said Fetalino in her acceptance speech delivered by Williams on her behalf during the Stevie Awards ceremony. “A few years ago, I made a decision to keep Medical Observer going despite all the odds the publishing business was facing in our country. Thank you so much for honoring me with this award. It will serve as yet another inspiration and source of strength for the hard work and, hopefully, few hard choices still to come.”
Two other Filipinas who won the Gold Tropy in different categories of the 11th Stevie Awards for Women in Business were ABS-CBN President & CEO Charo Santos-Concio and Pag-IBIG Fund CEO Atty. Darlene Marie B. Berberabe.
Fetalino founded Mosman when she was only 28 years old, steering the company to leadership status in its niche, providing information on the practice of medicine to the country’s healthcare community for over two decades.
Just two years after it was launched in 1992, Medical Observer overtook its competitors, producing thousands of customized magazines, patient-health information materials and medical/health books. It also staged a number of successful health summits.
In 2011, the magazine suffered a setback, leading to the stoppage of its printed edition. Fetalino had to retrench most of her 25 employees but managed to pay retrenchments costs and supplier arrears using her personal funds. She refused to declare bankruptcy, which could have been the easy way out of the company’s dire financial state, saying “they were our partners for 20 years”.
Fetalino also refused to sell the title, (“Medical Observer is like my own child.”) and decided to maintain its online presence by hiring freelance writers.
In October 2013, she and nephew Mario Jordan Fetalino re-launched Medical Observer as a purely digital publication using its revitalized website and Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts as platforms. In less than six months, its digital reach ballooned to a high of 3 million a week and its audience base extended to a global level. Medical Observer’s tweets are re-tweeted by patients, doctors, organizations, government officials, even senators.
Medical Observer has evolved from a magazine servicing only medical professionals to one that caters to a vast audience including patients and consumers, providing a global audience with free, accurate health information.
In June 2014, Medical Observer won the Stevie Award’s Silver Trophy for Best Service Company of the Year, together with Philippine media giant ABS-CBN.
Today, Fetalino runs Medical Observer from a 15-square meter office assisted only by five full-time employees and a pool of contributing writers from as far away as Africa.