WE sang and sipped. On January 25 at Skippy’s BGC, the BusinessMirror celebrated the launch of the newly-expanded and renamed Millennial Universe page: an 8-page tall boy insert called “Y2Z,” which also includes the new addition of the SoundStrip page, as well.
Revamping the “The Millennials” page to Y2Z—the platform you’re holding now—is significant since Generation Y (Millennials) are composed of those born from 1982 to 2000 and the newer generation Z are those born from 2001 to 2012. The goal is to attract most, if not all, of the younger generation, to read not only online content but also print ones like the BusinessMirror. The members of these generations are also encouraged to contribute to the page.
“They can write about any topic under the sun, may it be a personal piece or a discussion on free education to anything else that concerns and affects the youth,” Dennis Estopace, editor of the Millennials page, said.
SoundStrip
ACCOMPANYING the relaunch is the new page called “SoundStrip,” which will be BusinessMirror’s music-centric addition.
According to Aldwin Tolosa, Advertising Sales Manager, and Mike Policarpio, SoundStrip editor, the page will be composed of band and music reviews straight from the local music scenes to exclusives from established names in the industry, as well as new bands from both the mainstream and the indie scene.
This is, in a way, their best tribute and contribution to OPM, they said.
Long way
THE Millennials page began in April 2014 when the BusinessMirror came up with an idea to gain the following of the younger generation, thus the title, Millennial Universe.
With a small crew of four regular contributors—Cyril Razon, Maxine Mamba, Sabrina Anonas and myself, as well as the advertising and marketing teams and Dennis Estopace—the space was created and was not expected to become such a staple in the newspaper.
The Millennial page has, indeed, gone a long way from being a skinny column space in the opinion page, to a half page after a few weeks then, after a month, a one-page space that we have come to love.
Its transformation is not one that the BusinessMirror expected at all.
Relaunch
GRACING the event were the editorial staff of the BusinessMirror, the advertising team, other corporate employees from the ALC group, including their family and friends.
Yours truly and my sister, Sabrina Kathryn S. Anonas, hosted the event. Guests sang along to the entertainment that came in the most unlikely band set-up composed of BusinessMirror’s staff, someone from the accounting department and a guest who they just met on the event itself. They decided to call this impromptu band “Street” due to the circumstance of their abrupt formation.
Street serenaded the audience with hits from Ed Sheeran, Radiohead, Eraserhead and Guns N’ Roses. A few guests also had their chance to shine on the stage as they sang a few songs like Kamikazee’s Narda, Moonstar 88’s Torete and Maroon 5’s She will be loved, to name a few.
All was well as everyone talked over a few drinks and spent the rest of the evening enjoying each other’s company even as the event fizzled down to a comfortable lull. In the end there was a sense of contentment: print is not dead; the young have come to appreciate it and will keep it running for a long while.
Image credits: Alysa Salen