A world beyond news: GMANews.TV launches new Lifestyle section
11/06/2009 | 01:23 PM
Regular users of this web site will have noticed this already -- there's lots of fresh splashy content about food, music, films, books, travel, even quirky high-heeled shoes and fancy rain boots for those wet streets. And large rare pictures of Cory Aquino's slim daughters together, all made up in stylish black.
These are all part of GMANews.TV's new Lifestyle section, a radical departure from the staid but steady news coverage that's been a staple of this web site since its beginnings.
"We need to balance our reportage of so-called 'hard news' - politics, the economy, global affairs - with stories that showcase the unique aspects of Philippine society such as arts and culture," says managing editor Yasmin Arquiza, who took charge of the section's development. "This helps Filipinos across the globe reconnect and share insights as well as new trends with their kababayans everywhere."
A veteran magazine writer and newspaper editor before she assumed her new position at GMANews.TV, Arquiza herself has written stories for the section on whales and Michael Jackson -- which give readers an idea of the breadth of the Lifestyle section's coverage.
Just a couple of weeks old, GMANews.TV Lifestyle already reflects the rich variety of this place we call our homeland. Juxtaposed in the same Trends sub-section are stories about the classic Filipiniana fashion worn at Mar and Korina's wedding and an exhibit of surreal, playful sculptures of shoes, a tribute to Marikina.
“I wanted to remind people of what Marikina is really known for—shoes, not floods," engineer-sculptor Ferdinand Cacnio is quoted in the story as saying.
There is already a growing body of travel reportage in the section on places near (Ilocandia) and far (Florida) and exotic (Guyana). The Travel sub-section will seek to go wherever the Filipino diaspora has established roots, or may just be interested in visiting through cyberspace.
GMANews.TV Lifestyle is just the latest improvement in one of the Philippines' leading web sites, punctuating a year in which it has set record highs in web traffic for online news with its coverage of the Ondoy floods and the wake and funeral of Cory Aquino.
Among other new features added in the last several months are interactive maps, the Philippines' first election-related web shows, and intensive coverage of under-reported subjects like climate change.
The site also now features a new, ultra-fast search engine developed in-house by GMA's tech team.
Tapped to edit GMANews.TV Lifestyle is Faye Ilogon, a former writer for Cosmopolitan magazine and other glossies. - HGS, GMANews.TV
These are all part of GMANews.TV's new Lifestyle section, a radical departure from the staid but steady news coverage that's been a staple of this web site since its beginnings.
"We need to balance our reportage of so-called 'hard news' - politics, the economy, global affairs - with stories that showcase the unique aspects of Philippine society such as arts and culture," says managing editor Yasmin Arquiza, who took charge of the section's development. "This helps Filipinos across the globe reconnect and share insights as well as new trends with their kababayans everywhere."
A veteran magazine writer and newspaper editor before she assumed her new position at GMANews.TV, Arquiza herself has written stories for the section on whales and Michael Jackson -- which give readers an idea of the breadth of the Lifestyle section's coverage.
Just a couple of weeks old, GMANews.TV Lifestyle already reflects the rich variety of this place we call our homeland. Juxtaposed in the same Trends sub-section are stories about the classic Filipiniana fashion worn at Mar and Korina's wedding and an exhibit of surreal, playful sculptures of shoes, a tribute to Marikina.
“I wanted to remind people of what Marikina is really known for—shoes, not floods," engineer-sculptor Ferdinand Cacnio is quoted in the story as saying.
There is already a growing body of travel reportage in the section on places near (Ilocandia) and far (Florida) and exotic (Guyana). The Travel sub-section will seek to go wherever the Filipino diaspora has established roots, or may just be interested in visiting through cyberspace.
GMANews.TV Lifestyle is just the latest improvement in one of the Philippines' leading web sites, punctuating a year in which it has set record highs in web traffic for online news with its coverage of the Ondoy floods and the wake and funeral of Cory Aquino.
Among other new features added in the last several months are interactive maps, the Philippines' first election-related web shows, and intensive coverage of under-reported subjects like climate change.
The site also now features a new, ultra-fast search engine developed in-house by GMA's tech team.
Tapped to edit GMANews.TV Lifestyle is Faye Ilogon, a former writer for Cosmopolitan magazine and other glossies. - HGS, GMANews.TV
