- TV5 will be closing down its online news portal InterAksyon.
- InterAksyon.com EIC confirms the sad news.
After the announcement of its mother network TV5 on the partnership with US sports channel ESPN, news website InterAksyon.com seems to be the most affected by the drastic changes of the network. Launched in 2011 and with almost seven years of serving Filipinos, the said website is finally closing down.
In a report written on Newsbytes.ph, InterAksyon employees were informed in mid-2017 of the site’s impending shutdown. It has been operating without regular reporters since last year and has also stopped getting contractual workers starting this year.
With its dissolution, it is not known yet if the employees will be let go or absorbed by other departments in TV5 or other companies under the PLDT Group.
The site’s editor-in-chief, Roby Alampay, is now expected to become full-time at BusinessWorld where he also serves as its top editor. The business daily is majority-owned by the PLDT Group.
“I cannot give an official statement, I am just an employee, but I can at least confirm that it’s true,” Roby Alampay told Rappler in a phone interview.
According to Roby, TV5 is “rationalizing and integrating all its digital properties and consolidating all the brands under News5.com.ph.”
Roby said that the InterAksyon.com will be winding down its operations by the end of March,
Launched in early 2011, InterAksyon.com immediately became a top property of TV5 at a time when the PLDT Group was still pouring money on the TV station. The site regularly issued hard-hitting editorials that were shared widely by netizens.
