Rappler ends 2019 with income: A comeback year

2019, a year that began with the arrest – twice – of CEO and executive editor Maria Ressa, ended with a bang for Rappler through a spike in online traffic, revenue, and global reach.

While Rappler battled 8 court cases last year, it was able to experiment with business models to tap new sources of revenue, open new channels of distribution, and bring in new readers inspired by stories of courage and in search of cutting-edge journalism.

“It’s our comeback year, the year we proved to ourselves that, with the support of community, you can turn crisis into opportunity,” Ressa said. “Rather than be derailed and discouraged by the threats and problems we faced, the Rappler team focused on our goals and worked every day to achieve them.”

Based on its audited financial statement, Rappler ended 2019 with income and positive EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization), which is the measure of a company’s operating performance.

Because of this, and with the support of our community, Rappler is able to extend assistance and benefits to its employees to help them cope with the coronavirus pandemic.

The last time Rappler reached positive EBITDA was in 2016, hitting the break-even target its founders set. But the systematic online attacks against the organization that began after Rodrigo Duterte became president in June that year, followed by government investigations and court cases against it, turned 2017 and 2018 into crisis years.

On January 15, 2018, in fact, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced its order revoking Rappler’s license on the basis of its findings – first put forth by the President – that alleged Rappler is not 100% Filipino-owned.

Rappler questioned the order before the Court of Appeals, which threw the case back to the SEC for reinvestigation based on evidence it is completely Filipino-owned.

The two crisis years of 2017 and 2018, marked by a climate of fear and massive online disinformation, caused Rappler's online traffic and revenue to drop in April 2018, while advertising dropped nearly 50%.

2019 turned things around for the organization through 7 key initiatives:

Rappler has been pushing these initiatives to the next level in 2020, as the company hit the halfway mark of its 8th year.

For Rappler, 2020 is a year of reinvention and re-creation, as it takes stock of the hard lessons it learned from its start-up years and harnesses the core values and practices that made it survive 4 years of state-sponsored attacks.

"These lessons and best practices put Rappler in a healthy position to navigate a pandemic world," Ressa said.

As of June 2020, Rappler has already exceeded its midyear revenue targets.

In the coming weeks, Rappler will tell you about a new platform: a tech solution to the question we've been trying to answer: what does civic engagement look like in the age of social media?

This becomes a more critical challenge as the Philippines and the world battle the pandemic.

– Rappler.com