How Do You Solve a Problem Like Our Newspapers?

A self-proclaimed print futurist weighs in on the most recent Inquirer announcement, Philippine print media’s decline, and identity crisis in the digital age.

On May 2, 2025, the Philippine Daily Inquirer, one of the country’s top broadsheets, announced a major shift: a merger of its print and digital operations. The official line was financial sustainability. But inside the media industry, the mood was somber. For many, it felt like another nail in the coffin of the “Fourth Estate,” a pillar of any functioning democracy.

As a lifestyle journalist myself, I couldn’t help but give much thought to the major problems that the nation has been facing, especially in the last decade: the massive shift to digital, the proliferation of fake news, and the demonization of traditional news agencies, which have all led to the decline of print media. It’s both saddening and frustrating to see these institutions, not only in the Philippines, that were once shining beacons of freedom in the country, continue to struggle in the 21st century.

As they say, “hindsight is 20/20.” So in this article, I will have a look back and attempt to identify which areas the industry has an edge in and where it can improve, in the hopes of rebuilding its reputation and making itself relevant once again.

Social Media as the Game-Changer

Here’s the reality: before Facebook, Twitter, etc., Philippine online news was not considered a threat to traditional media companies because online readership was supplemental and functioned virtually the same way—long-form and came up with one piece of news on a specific topic once a day.

It wasn't until the advent of social media platforms in the mid to late 2000s that millions of users began taking the place of journalists because of the user-generated content concept. Combine the novelty of social media engagement with the expediting of telecommunications infrastructure modernization, and the same pattern happened abroad.

By the 2010s, as traditional readership shrank, so shifted advertising budgets to digital, and you could only imagine how the pandemic of 2020 made things worse for the major broadsheets and tabloids in the Philippines.

With the rise of artificial intelligence, heralded by the public launch of ChatGPT in 2022, was Inquirer’s merger a clear sign of the impending doom of print? To understand this, let’s see where print and digital media stand.

Print and Digital: A Comparison

There are various aspects we can see how print media differ from digital media. especially nowadays. I’ve made a side-by-side comparison of their respective pros and cons: