G 4
Tapos na bagyo
Talking carabao …
ized page lay-outing, marking
almost 90 percent computeriza-
tion.
This dramatically altered the
workflow and work environ-
ment in the INQUIRER newsroom.
For one, the newsroom fell
“silent,” with no typewriters
around.
The INQUIRER soon undertook
a most challenging project—the
installation of a new editorial
system called Tera GN3 or sim-
ply Tera. The conversion to the
new system was done section by
section and almost took two
years to complete. By Novem-
ber 2002, Tera was 100 percent
in place as a centralized and in-
tegrated editorial system allow-
ing editors to search, create,
merge and send stories and re-
porters and editors to create
and edit text, use a pagination
application to produce newspa-
per pages and giving them ac-
cess to archived stories. With
Tera, INQUIRER is also able to do
remote printing and connect
with the bureaus’ remote edito-
rial sites.
Job Market On-line
In 1995, INQUIRER launched
RIDING, READING PUBLIC LRT commuters are engrossed
in reading the country’s first free paper, INQUIRER Libre.
wow, may silver
lining na!
Job Market, which has become
a premiere recruitment ad sec-
tion for the country’s top corpo-
rations. In 1998, its online ver-
sion, Job Market On-line, be-
came a feature of INQUIRER’S
website, and now one of the
most popular Filipino websites.
Full color, satellite printing
The INQUIRER started as a
black and white newspaper. In
1998, in time for the celebra-
tion of the country’s centennial
anniversary of its indepen-
dence, it went full color in the
main section.
Three months later, copies of
the INQUIRER started printing in
Cebu City, to become the first
Metro-based newspaper to be
printed outside Metro Manila
through remote or satellite
printing.
What led to this innovation
was a two-fold threat: Rising
transport costs and then Presi-
dent Joseph Estrada who was
then unfriendly to the INQUIRER,
with his influence over the
transport sector a given. In
1999, Estrada instigated an ad
boycott against INQUIRER,
mounted by his business allies.
From page G2
In February 2001, INQUIRER
copies began a print run in
Davao City and hit the news-
stands in other cities of Min-
danao on the same day and the
same hour as the paper came
out in Metro Manila, while al-
lowing for better quality print-
ing and huge savings in produc-
tion and transport cost.
Inquirer.net
The INQUIRER went online at
http://www.inquirer.net on Oc-
tober 1997 to become the prime
mover on Philippine online
news. On Feb. 27, 2000,
Inq7.net, a joint venture of the
INQUIRER and GMA 7 was
launched, to better integrate
print, TV, radio and other media
with the Web and deliver con-
tent to users anytime, any-
where.
Updated 24 hours a day, sev-
en days a week, it features the
most current multimedia tech-
nologies, and provides the most
comprehensive and up-to-the-
minute coverage of both local
and international news. It has
helped complement the
strengths of the broadsheet
with the Internet’s global reach
and interactivity.
The site is constantly evolv-
ing to offer better integration
and more interactivity. The
biggest recent change was from
Inq7.net to Inquirer.net—ush-
ering a new format and design
following the change in owner-
ship, with 100 percent now
owned by INQUIRER.
Inquirer Libre
In November 2001, the maid-
en issue of INQUIRER Libre, also
in tabloid format like JI, was
distributed to Metro Rail Tran-
sit and Light Rail Transit com-
muters.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2009
FEB. 2, 2001
The date marks
the launch of
Inq7.net. President
Macapagal-Arroyo
drops in as inaugural
guest. DENNIS SABANGAN
Libre pioneered in being a
free paper and in reinventing
tabloid readership with access
to decent and useful news and
feature articles, and in attract-
ing a substantial number of
young and female readers, who
used to avoid the tabloids for
their racy photos and stories,
and a host of advertisers.
‘Project Big’
2000 and 2001 were tough
years for the newspaper indus-
try with the double whammy of
a 30-percent increase in
newsprint prices worsened by
the decline of the peso against
the US dollar.
To cut down on the use of pa-
per, INQUIRER had to adopt one
of its most significant innova-
tions dubbed “Project Big” in
2002.
The result was a paper
slimmed down to a narrower JURASSIC (top) Paste up artists paste and cut, 1989; (above)
width (by an inch) and a re- INQUIRER’s new computer system in place by 1995
design to make the readers get
more for less space. That is, a not only for INQUIRER Arts but al- tentimes, readers don’t notice.
slimmer newspaper with more so for every one in INQUIRER Edi-
news to read through tighter torial. Windows
editing, dramatic photographs, A redesign to meld emerging The INQUIRER started to put up
explanatory graphics and illus- technologies and improve read- windows on its upper fold in
trations and inviting headlines ability is actually a work in 2003 to guide readers to impor-
and new fonts and layout. It progress in INQUIRER but it is tant, big or interesting stories in
was a huge redesign challenge mostly subtle and soft that of- TALKING/ G5