DGtization: Innovating Ilonggo Media

By: Lcid Crescent Fernandez

My brother and I have been around the media industry pretty much all our lives. With our father being Lemuel Fernandez, the line “Ahh bata ka ni Lemuel” is something we’re very, very familiar with. I grew up with people in the industry as my babysitters, and playmates. Everytime I hear the staccato of the printing press, my mind instantly goes back to those days where I did my homework while waiting for Papa to finish working on tomorrow’s paper. Sometimes I’d end up falling asleep to its rhythmic clattering.

This is the very reason why it was with great hesitation that we accepted Papa’s offer to take over Daily Guardian. We had always viewed the Free Press with reverence that the pressure to now step into the industry was tremendous. We decided to answer the call.

In stepping in, we found that the people were familiar.

The media outlets were familiar.

The content was very familiar.

There was a need to revitalize an industry that would become, if it wasn’t already, antiquated. The story had changed – evolved. Yet, the method of story-telling remained the same. That needed to change. That was our mission.

Fast forward 5 months. We’ve now launched three innovations:

DG Initiative

When you think about the great stories, they’re always seen with different lenses. This is because that’s how reality is. Stories have many sides to them, different perspectives. That’s what makes life interesting: the fact that we all have a story to tell. So, we decided to create a community where people were empowered to tell their stories. We looked to passion and advocacy. If you felt strongly about something, you’d want people to know that story. We partnered with advocacy-based organizations and passion-based people and now DG Initiative is one of our most popular sections.

 

DG Documentaries

We pledged to go digital in telling the Ilonggo story. DG Documentaries is us keeping that promise. We’re shedding the limitations of storytelling through text. With the internet being what it is today, the quality of journalism should be much higher. There should be no excuse. We will produce content with the highest quality standard. To provide anything beneath that is undeserving of the Ilonggo public’s attention.

 

DG In-Depth

As a member of the Free Press, we must ever be vigilant. We must take a closer look at the issues plaguing society, and push ever forward to progress. An informed citizen makes for an active citizen. We must always empower the people with information that they may understand what is happening around them, and act accordingly.

It has begun! We welcome the media outlets that have followed our lead. We must remember our duty is always to the people. The better we are as media outlets, the more our public win!

This is not the end of our innovations.

It’s only been 5 months.

On our anniversary night, my brother welcomed all of you to Page 1 of Year 19. This is what Year 19 looks like.

This is the year of DGtization.