INQ ‘knockout’ coverage of megafight to be ‘all heart’

By: Chito de la Vega, Editor in Chief - 10 years ago

Boxers Manny Pacquiao (R) from the Philippines and Floyd Mayweather from the US pose during a press conference on March 11, 2015 in Los Angeles, California, to launch the countdown to their May 2, 2015 super-fight in Las Vegas. AFP PHOTO/ FREDERIC J. BROWN

A knockout of a coverage.

That’s what the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Inquirer.net will aim for when the two media giants launch an unprecedented comprehensive and exhaustive multimedia project, the coverage of the megafight between Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao and unbeaten American welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The country’s No. 1 newspaper and its trailblazing news portal will lead the multiplatform coverage in print, radio broadcast, mobile, mobile chat and social media for a 24/7 definitive coverage of this breathlessly awaited encounter.

A five-man team composed of seasoned, multiawarded sportswriters and photojournalist will be dispatched from Manila to link up with the Inquirer’s US-based network, effectively giving the Inquirer a coverage unit with at least 12 members.

Pacquiao and Mayweather are scheduled to fight on May 2 (May 3, Manila) at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Inquirer dream team

Inquirer news editor Jun Engracia will head the team from Manila. With him are Pacquiao fight veterans Roy Luarca and Francis Ochoa, Inquirer photo editor Rem Zamora and Inquirer.net sportswriter Mark Giongco.

The Inquirer US team will be led by correspondent Nimfa Rueda and veteran Hollywood writer Ruben Nepales.

Other Inquirer contributors will be embedded in the different venues.

Once this blockbuster project, dubbed the Inquirer Report: Pacquiao-Mayweather, shifts into overdrive, it will reach an estimated audience of 16 million daily.

Aside from the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the other print titles are Inquirer Libre, Inquirer Bandera and Cebu Daily News.

Inquirer.net and the news portals of the different print editions, as well as mobile chat apps (Kakao, Line, Viber, Firechat and WeChat), Inquirer Plus, InqSnap, Mobile Alerts and listeners of Radyo Inquirer dzIQ 990 AM will draw an audience estimated to reach 12 million.

The Inquirer’s social media account for an additional audience of 2.5 million. These include the different presence in Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

‘The Pacquiao Files’

The Inquirer has adopted the hashtag #PacMay and #LabanManny to unify its coverage on social media and mobile chat apps.

Inquirer.net has produced “The Pacquiao Files,” a special dedicated site which will contain well-researched stories, day-to-day activities, photos, slide shows and videos. All these are available 24 hours.

For more updates on Pacquiao-Mayweather “Fight of the Century,” visit The Pacquiao Files.

“#PacMay is really the fight of the century. And Inquirer.net is sending a sports reporter to cover the training camps. He (Giongco) will join a powerhouse team … for the most substantial coverage of a boxing fight since the Thrilla in Manila,” said Inquirer.net editor in chief John Nery.

Ochoa and Luarca

Ochoa and Luarca have chronicled Pacquiao’s triumphs and setbacks in the past 10 years. Between them, they have covered 18 Pacquiao fights.

Engracia, a former sports editor and sportswriter, will be lending his expertise to the Inquirer Report, being among the young Filipino boxing writers who covered the fabled Thrilla in Manila, the third fight in the epic trilogy between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, at Araneta Coliseum in 1975.

“We hope to provide our readers, with this kind of coverage, everything they want to know about the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. All the important things, trivial things that I know readers will be interested in. We will give that to them, short of giving them the actual ringside experience,” Engracia said.

The Inquirer Group’s coverage will be coordinated by the central news desk. This writer will coordinate the coverage of the teams in the US and the other Inquirer teams in Manila and across the Philippines exclusively focused on this blockbuster event.

“This will be a full-force coverage of all the Inquirer platforms to give our readers an unforgettable and exhilarating experience from ringside in Las Vegas to our champion’s hometown in Sarangani,” said Juliet Labog-Javellana, central desk director.

Coverage with heart

Inquirer editor in chief Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc said classy and great writing and reporting will differentiate the Inquirer from the rest of Philippine media covering the megafight. “This is what we will give our readers and this is what they deserve,” she said.

“Plus,” she said, “it is coverage with a heart.”

This will be the second time this year the Inquirer will be covering a major news event with its different platforms delivering an integrated report.

The first was the coverage of the apostolic visit of Pope Francis to the Philippines in January. An Inquirer journalist, lifestyle editor for arts and books Lito B. Zulueta, was the only Filipino print media representative aboard the papal plane ‘Shepherd One.’ He joined the Vatican Press Corps throughout the Asian tour.