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Execs resign as Inquirer.net folds back to PDI

Based on accounts from several reliable sources, the operations of online publication Inquirer.net will be folding back and joining the Philippine Daily Inquirer publication anytime now.

inquirer netThe site Inquirer.net will not be closing down, contrary to earlier rumors but will be consolidated with the operations of the print publication. Although the Inquirer.net team has not yet moved offices, the status of this consolidation is still “on hold”.

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Several key people have already resigned from the team, including Editor-in-Chief JV Rufino and VP & Executive Editor Leo Magno, a couple of weeks ago.

Apparently, the online advertising business model that Inquirer has been swimming on in the last decade didn’t really pan out. While operations grew and content creation expanded to web videos and a blog network, the ad money wasn’t enough to sustain the business. Some part-time bloggers in the Inquirer Blog Network were also asked to stop writing a few weeks back.

Inquirer.net used to be Inq7.net which is a joint venture between PDI and GMA 7 until the latter bolted off of the partnership to put up its own website, GMA-News.tv. Inquirer.net is the top online destination in the Philippines and this development could have a huge impact in the online publishing industry in the Philippines.

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Avatar for Abe Olandres

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines. He is also a technology consultant, a tech columnist with several national publications, resource speaker and mentor/advisor to several start-up companies.

43 Responses

  1. Avatar for jhay jhay says:

    Mismanagement and expensive maintenance costs?

    I think it’s more of the former than the latter, really surprising to know that will all those ads plastered all over the pages, they’d be doing well.

    It’s high time to put new minds and vision in the driver’s seat.

  2. Avatar for marvin marvin says:

    @Israel

    maybe u just using the internet a year ago, do u know that before wordpress was born, there’s already inq7.net ?
    better check internet history 101

  3. Avatar for EiBox EiBox says:

    I am so sad about this very bad news…and so surprised that the country’s top website is not making any money.

  4. Avatar for Andre Marcelo-Tanner Andre Marcelo-Tanner says:

    maybe a lot of ad buyers cancelled upcoming campaigns due to the economy and are late on current payments. nevertheless you would think the #1 website in the Philippines can do better?

  5. Avatar for Leo Santos Leo Santos says:

    Well, it’s sad to hear that… We worked so hard when it was just a startup company, I came from GMA during that time and I asked to be transferred to the partnership. We did well on the ratings and I guess, the sales and marketing team were doing so great at that time. I had a wonderful opportunity working with the most creative multimedia team ever- Chuy, Brian, and Roy. We serviced all departments at INQ7. The editorial team was topnotch, back then our EIC was Rigoberto Tiglao who’s now ambassador… JV did excellent work filling in his shoes! My hats off to his work ethics, he’s a workaholic. So too with Leo Magno who always impresses me with how he always seem to get the job done. Joey, Erwin and Gerry and Ms. Linette were the team to beat at the newsroom writing news 24 hours as it happened, of course with the hardworking interns from St. Benilde and St. Paul, QC. The power team of Ms. Edna Belleza kept finances steady with Marilyn Dee doing marketing and Mike See handling the accounts, they got it all covered coz we were happy to receive our year-end bonuses. Who would never forget Dennis Valdes, he’s a great man to work with! I look up to his management practices and ideas, my only regret was he left the fledgling news website too early not to see what would later happen. Haay! Reminiscing the good days with INQ7. I miss the dining at the pantry with Ms. Lina, Ms. Joveee and Mang Nestor!

    My decision to leave INQ7 was the hardest. It was funny coz my team wanted to leave more than I do but I surprised them by being the first to resign but I talked them stay on. I loved working for the company, INQ7 was the turning point of my career… We received a Hall-of-Fame award for best current affairs website! We beat them all… everytime! We were innovative, we were dreamers and took pride of serving the Filipinos all over the world. We had the best programmers ever, you wouldn’t believe that INQ7 only had 3 senior programmers-Maui, En and Twinkle and 4 junior programmers, Tikoy, Karlene, Percy and Gabby not to mention Jesse the sole system adminstrator of the entire site. They are all very successful in their own businesses and careers. It’s really unfortunate that there were just some changes that I didn’t like and did not accept… The company had tremendous potential. I think it still has… I would be a dream to manage it and sail it back to sea again.

  6. Avatar for jomar jomar says:

    maybe their cost of “production” exceeded their profits. there are a lot of people maintaining the site – “too many people to employ”.

    in anycase, if the site’s still going to be up, then it’s just a matter of “changing of the guard” and not really bad news for pinoys.

    jomar hilario

  7. Avatar for Jumanji Jumanji says:

    Actually, Marvin is correct… There’s the one guy in upper management that they should fire. We all have same feelings toward him because his management inexperience and very poor understanding of the technology side. He always relying on the skills and expertise of others and claim all the glory to himself. No wonder talented individuals come and go, it’s because of this guy. I just wonder what he did to the board of trustees at Inquirer and made them think he’s the right guy for the job. He is also the cause of the other people in the other departments to leave. They don’t like him to.

  8. Avatar for Dexter | Tech At Hand Dot Net Dexter | Tech At Hand Dot Net says:

    I think what they need to do is somebody who can convert those visit to money. Inquirer.net is really of big help to us OFW.

    I am just wondering how come that a blog can earn much with a few traffic and a bog news network with huge traffic cannot earn.

    It is just a matter of a right person in a position

  9. Avatar for marvin marvin says:

    Believe me mis management yan specially sa TECH department. I was there with my team. Cream of the crop yung batch namen but eventually lahat yung umalis at napalitan ng mga inexperienced staff. There best people left dahil sa mis management ng TECHNICAL head and conflict of interests. and other dept ng inq7 can agree with that. tsk tsk super sayang ganda ng potential ng company nde na maximize bec of incompetent people.

  10. Avatar for LinQed Potatoes LinQed Potatoes says:

    Not enough Internet Marketing? – NOPE

    How come the number one news site in the Philippines cannot make a profit – It’s because 75% of their news are outsourced. If you notice all of their news, 15% are local current event news and 5% local technology news, 10% local showbiz, and 75% are outsourced from either Associated Press, Reuters, and many more.

    If and only if they created their own news, that will never happen.

    Actually, there’s this news that I’ve seen last december which is about what happened in the Discovery Suites. I was the first one who created the news article before ABS-CBN and INQ7 posted theirs. When I checked Google, my website is on the top SERP when I typed the keywords that ABS-CBN and INQ7 is using.

    News from their website most of the time are late.

  11. Avatar for elmer elmer says:

    blame pep.ph, pinoys love showbiz more than your regular current events

  12. Avatar for Andre Marcelo-Tanner Andre Marcelo-Tanner says:

    too much expense maybe, i thought they made lots… time for someone to influx cash and fix things up

  13. Avatar for Robert Tejada Robert Tejada says:

    I wonder what the most profitable website in the philippines is? We always hear how easy it is to make money in the internet… but significant money?? Not Easy!

  14. Avatar for Robert Tejada Robert Tejada says:

    I wonder what the most profitable website in the philippines is? We also hear how easy it is to make money in the internet… but significant money?? It’s hard!

  15. Avatar for Essays.ph Essays.ph says:

    Not enough Internet Marketing

  16. Avatar for Israel Nicolas Israel Nicolas says:

    Someone is sleeping on the job.

    How come the number one news site in the Philippines cannot make a profit a 13 year old can make thousands blogging? The content and the articles are on par with the news publication but the way it is managed and presented leave a lot to be desired. The links are a mess and I cannot find what I want quickly. It is just not steamlined enough. Typograpgy is bad, it is hard to post content, not enough images,and there are better news blogs that look better.

    A revolution wordpress theme and some plugins will work better than what they have now. hehe

  17. Avatar for gizno gizno says:

    yeah, with all the ads posted all over their site you would think they’re raking in profits… and it’s just odd, the internet is supposed to be the future of future media… is it a case of mismanagement?

  18. Avatar for gelo gelo says:

    yeah that bad news for a news site.
    dont worry, there’s still philstar.com and so many other news and gossips websites for all Filipinos around the world.

  19. Avatar for Camillon Camillon says:

    Wow! Unbelievable. All the while I was thinking that the site was going strong. I visit it daily to have a peak of everyday news. I hope it doesn’t crumble soon.

    Ironically, this news should have been reported in their site. lol :)

  20. Avatar for www.mp3hive.com www.mp3hive.com says:

    this is bad news for pinoys

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