#FEATURED SUBMISSION: SortedCents: The Filipino-Built Finance Tool Ending Your Spreadsheet Chaos A modern, web-and-mobile platform that helps freelancers, students, and side hustlers track income, expenses, invoices, and taxes—without feeling like you need a finance degree

#FEATURED SUBMISSION: SortedCents: The Filipino-Built finance tool ending your 'spreadsheet chaos' open.substack.com/pub/startupm...

#FEATURED: Third Team Media’s Long Game How a Cebu social media shop survived the agency treadmill, outlasted fads, and quietly became the operating system for brands and creators across the Philippines.

From a ₱20,000 reset in Cebu to becoming a quiet “operating system” for brands and creators in PH.
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#StartupMachine tells the story of Fleire Castro, Third Team Media, and how living through agency chaos led to the creation of DashoContent. 👉 Read
startupmachine.substack.com/p/featured-t...

How Hate Groups and Terrorists Use Gaming Platforms to Recruit Young Children

How Hate Groups and Terrorists Use Gaming Platforms to Recruit Young Children www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/w...

From Raket to Royalties: How Kom8ks.com Is Building Hub for the Filipino Creator Economy Providing the infrastructure for the Filipino creative economy, and a platform where Filipino creators build careers, readers discover culture, and Filipino stories reach the world.

How he wants to be remembered as a founder?

"As someone who built with integrity. As someone who put creators first. As someone who finished what he started."

Read the full interview on StartupMachine 👇

open.substack.com/pub/startupm...

→ GASI Komiks Years: Creators need a home, not a favor
→ Communications & StratComms: Platforms live or die by clarity
→ Governance Consulting: Build like public infrastructure—stable, fair, transparent

KOM8KS - Komiks Guild of the Philippines Connect with Filipino comics creators, showcase your work, and join the creative community at Komiks Guild PH.

Today, Kom8ks.com is building infrastructure for the Filipino creative economy—where creators build careers, readers discover culture, and Filipino stories reach the world.

Three chapters shaped his approach:

So he taught himself React, Supabase, and Vercel. Built the platform from scratch.

Routing loops. Auth crashes. Upload failures. Every failure clarified the product philosophy: stability first, clarity always.

Creators agreed. But early tech partners couldn't deliver transparency. No dashboards. No proof of sales.

That's when Joel realized: The Philippine komiks industry didn't just need digitization. It needed a new business model—and new technology.

After decades in TV, advertising, and governance consulting, Joel returned with a solution: a royalty-based platform where creators keep their IP and earn fairly.

His pitch? "Kung proud kayo sa gawa ninyo, delay gratification tayo. Let's earn from real sales, not crumbs."

Professional fees back then were so small that writers and artists had to flood publications with as many stories as possible. Quality suffered. Plots recycled. Art shortcuts became common.

Only the Class A creators could afford to care. Everyone else was buried in deadlines.

KOM8KS - Komiks Guild of the Philippines Connect with Filipino comics creators, showcase your work, and join the creative community at Komiks Guild PH.

In the early 90s, Joel Wayne was a komiks editor at GASI. He watched talented Filipino creators trapped in a "raket economy"—forced to prioritize volume over craft just to survive.

30 years later, he's building Kom8ks.com to fix what the industry left broken. 🧵

According to our Digital News Report survey, fielded in Jan 2025, CBS News is one of the most trusted news brands in the US, with 48% saying they trust it

More context in our country page, by @gravesmatter.bsky.social and @joyjenkins.bsky.social
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news...

Here we go. #campubla53

Fourth test but using plus sign instead of replying to thread. #campubla53

The third test. #CampublA53

Test post 2 #CampublA53

Test post #CamPublA53

What can traditional news brands do in response to the growing role of influencers in news?

Nic Newman explores how some are emulating content creators' style and delivery or partnering with them for mutual benefit.

🗎 Trends and Predictions 2026: reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/journalism-m...

Filipino Journalist Gets Prison in Case Seen as Attack on Free Press

A young Filipino journalist just got up to 18 years in prison on “terrorism financing” charges — a case rights groups call a blatant attack on press freedom and a failure of our justice system.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/w...

New podcast on media trends in 2026 Plus: El País’ subscriber numbers | Hungary’s English-language news sector | Sexual abuse in Kenyan newsrooms Journalism Today. 21 Jan 2026 Research | Reporting | Fellowships | Leadership 🗞️ Our top s...

Our round-up on journalism worldwide features our new podcast on media trends in 2026, El País’ subscriber numbers and a piece on Hungary’s English-language news sector.

Click to read, share and subscribe.

www.linkedin.com/pulse/new-po...

How will AI reshape the news in 2026? Forecasts by 17 experts from around the world As we enter 2026, and the third year since the transformative release of ChatGPT, journalists and media managers are wondering what the next frontier for generative AI and the news will be. We got in ...

How will AI reshape the future of news in 2026?

We asked 17 media managers working in this field, including @rubinafillion.nytimes.com @ollez.bsky.social @ezraeeman.bsky.social @sannuta-raghu.bsky.social @kschell.bsky.social

Click to read
reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/how-wil...

Newsletter #39: The year 2025 was bitter and sweet and more A year-end report, reflection of the year that was.

2025 was bitter and sweet: grief, midlife aches, quiet joys, and a growing need to get off the screen and back into real life.
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If you’ve been grieving, feeling your age, or wondering where your time is really going, this might hit close to home.

StartupHunt.ph by StartupMachine - Filipino-Built Startup Directory Discover the best Filipino-built websites, products, and startups.

Filipino founders are shipping real, good products, and now there’s a clean way to find them.
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StartupHunt.ph is a living directory of PH-made startups and tools. If you’re building something, add your project. If you know someone who is, boost this and tag them.

open.substack.com/pub/startupm...

Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent Peter Arnett has died Peter Arnett, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who spent decades dodging bullets and bombs to bring the world eyewitness accounts of war from Vietnam to Iraq, has died. He was 91.

Peter Arnett, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who spent decades dodging bullets and bombs to bring the world eyewitness accounts of war from Vietnam to Iraq, has died. He was 91. n.pr/3KYPXvx

Journalism educators confer highest honor on ‘Father of Barefoot Journalism’ - Manila Standard The Journalism Studies Association of the Philippines (JSAP) conferred its highest distinction on veteran journalism educator Ben Domingo Jr. during the

Journalism educators confer highest honor on ‘Father of Barefoot Journalism’ - Manila Standard manilastandard.net/community-sp...

Newsletter #37: Who is shaping the Philippine news today? Things that made me pay attention, you should pay attention to, and needs attention.

Filipinos get most of their news from social media — but it’s still the same TV journalists who dominate online.
Credibility > virality.
Read more: erwinoliva.substack.com/p/newsletter-37-who-is-shaping-the

Japan Has a New Leader, and She’s a Heavy Metal Drummer

Japan Has a New Leader, and She’s a Heavy Metal Drummer www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/w...

Journalism Today. 10 Oct 2025 Research | Reporting | Fellowships | Leadership 🗞️ Our top story Inside the fan backlash facing critics in the digital age. Over the past few years, artists and their fans have become emboldened to at...

Our Friday edition of Journalism Today is here featuring pieces on the backlash music journalists face, our report on how people use AI, and Google's search visibility for publishers.

Click to read, share and subscribe

www.linkedin.com/pulse/journa...

Earthquake in Philippines Kills at Least 20, Officials Say

Earthquake in Philippines Kills at Least 20, Officials Say www.nytimes.com/2025/09/30/w...