CNN Philippines, the Manila bureau and franchise holder of the CNN International brand, ended its live broadcast on Monday morning local time (Jan. 29) with the end of the final episode of its breakfast program "New Day," after almost nine years.
Breakfast presenters Ria Tanjuatco-Trillo, Jamie Herrell, Paolo Abrera, and Christine Jacob-Sandejas became the last faces ever to be seen on live television as the character prompts read, "Thank you for watching CNN Philippines."
It was earlier reported that the network announced the end of its live broadcast on Monday, but management said it would discontinue its "operations on all media platforms" effective Wednesday (Jan. 31) due to financial struggles.
Op-Ed: Journalist Numbers Dwindling
In his opinion piece, PressOne.ph editor-at-large Manuel Mogato compared journalists to dinosaurs who have been "vanishing" in modern society as they have been replaced by social media influencers and ordinary vloggers who focus on mundane issues but are more relatable to the general public.
"People, including those in the media, were shocked to learn that CNN Philippines, the only English-language news channel, is set to close shop due to financial losses," he wrote.
Mogato, a Pulitzer Prize winner for his stint with Reuters as Manila correspondent, added that its main competitors in the predominantly English-language cable TV format have also been struggling, with the ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) - the pioneer in the niche - on borrowed time as its original carrier Sky Cable would conclude its operations to focus on transitioning into an internet provider service after the acquisition process by telco firm PLDT was approved by the Philippine Competition Commission.
Both ANC and Sky Cable are owned by the Lopez family, who also owns ABS-CBN.
Meanwhile, OneNews, the cable news service of broadcaster TV5, would still be on the air for the time being, but Mogato indicated that it also "suffered losses" and scaled back its programming to stay alive.
He also cited the recent layoffs at the Los Angeles Times as a global example.
Mogato: Filipino Journalism Slow to Adapt
By the time the second quarter of 2024 rolls in, Mogato projected that many in the broadcast media industry, including several talented journalists, producers, and workers, would have to reinvent themselves as podcasters and content creators, squeezing themselves into a field that has been saturated since the COVID-19 pandemic.
"The news media cannot blame the internet and social media for the sudden demise of newspapers, radio, and television news," he added. "They were very slow to adapt to the changing attitude and behavior of news consumers who now put a premium on tailored and on-demand information any time, anywhere, and whatever interests them."
Mogato further noticed that news media the world over should have detected "the fast-changing political, economic, and sociocultural global landscape" prior to the pandemic or even before the rise of populist leaders like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and Rodrigo Duterte. Such scenarios and shifts significantly affected - almost to the point of extinction - the consumption and reception of news in a public and generalized format through newspapers, radio, and television in favor of personalized information at their fingertips through social media and mobile devices, he added.
"Everything has changed. The people's attention span on the news was fleeting," Mogato lamented.
He then cited that the worst impact of the changing landscape of news media came from the decision the Philippine Congress made in July 2020, under the Duterte administration, to reject the franchise renewal of ABS-CBN, which was preceded by its permanent shutdown that May.
And yet, the movement that discredited the news media has since splintered into Duterte and Marcos factions, Mogato observed. This meant an opportunity for the news media industry to push back against disinformation and properly do their job.
"The news media must also explore and experiment on viable business models to gain back audience and advertising revenues to make news organizations financially sustainable," he suggested, indicating that they should learn from the closure of CNN Philippines and the imminent closure of ANC on Feb. 24, including ways on how to harness new technologies and produce more reliable news content while operating leaner manpower.
Related Article : CNN to Close Manila Bureau on Jan. 31 Citing Financial Losses
