When Biz Buzz was first published on July 16, 2008, gossip columns were a rarity in the local media landscape, especially one that dealt primarily with business issues of the day.
Back then, it was published once a week—every Wednesday—and it quickly became staple reading for business personalities and people wanting to know the latest developments in the world of taipans and tycoons.
Voracious demand from our readers soon prompted management to increase its frequency to twice a week, Mondays and Wednesdays and, not long after that, to thrice a week where it has stayed since.
Over the last 14 years, Biz Buzz carved a name for itself as the go-to platform for information about important business developments that one would not find published in business news stories—a sort of venue for helping stakeholders read between the lines of the news and understand the things that go unsaid and unprinted.
It was a huge success. But then, one could say that Biz Buzz eventually became a victim of its own success.
With thousands upon thousands of eyes on the column, a growing number of advertisers flocked to the Biz Buzz page of the Inquirer’s print edition. More ads were published and more space was allocated for the tri-weekly column.
How Biz Buzz started
And since juicy, earth-shaking gossip doesn’t come up every day, the printed items became longer in an effort to fill up the space.
Also, we did not take full advantage of emerging social media trends in an ultimately futile effort to keep our audience faithful to the print and digital editions instead of capitalizing on the popularity of Biz Buzz on www.inquirer.net.
Better response
The good news is that we’ve taken stock of the situation, while weighing our strengths and weaknesses, to be better able to respond to the needs of our readers. And we’re acting accordingly.
So starting this month, readers of the Inquirer’s print and digital editions, as well as www.inquirer.net will be able to read the Biz Buzz column five times a week, Monday to Friday—two days more than our old frequency of thrice a week.
For us, putting out the column more frequently means no more seeing business gossip go stale or being overtaken by developments while waiting 48 hours for the next edition to be published. Biz Buzz will now be available more frequently and, when the situation calls for it, on a near-realtime basis through www.inquirer.net—all while maintaining the flagship status of our print and digital editions.
For our readers, it means you will now be able to get your fix of the latest developments in the business world on an almost daily basis. Yes, we’re talking about gossip that have yet to become full fledged news events, and controversies that are just unfolding. But we’re also talking about positive developments that the public could be interested in. Good news, bad news, and everything in between, we will have them.What we’re really saying is simple: we’re back.