december 14, 2004 - philippine daily inquirer prints 2 versions of their front page on fernando poe jr.'s death

on december 14, 2004, exactly 4 years ago to the day, philippine daily inquirer (PDI) printed their newspaper and released it like all other days. or so they thought.

the top news during those days were the health of fernando poe jr, FPJ or "Da King", the hugely popular actor who ran against president gloria macapagal arroyo. FPJ says he won the presidential election, arroyo said he did not. because FPJ was a huge matinee idol with nearly a masa following as strong as that of his best friend ex-president erap estrada, most people thought he won that election, too. to prove his point, FPJ filed an election protest in the courts questioning arroyo's win.

but FPJ or Da King suffered a massive stroke just a few days before and everyone, specially the media was on a hospital watch.

PDI had written on it's front page the headline "FPJ condition turns for the worst", with the subhead, "Wife Susan "remains strong"". the article went on talk about how FPJ is struggling to stay alive and his family and friends were trying their best to cope with the situation.

then, something unexpected happened - FPJ died at 12:15 am, december 14, 2004.

as all other newspapers do, PDI starts to print it's newspapers starting around 11:00 pm of the previous day for the next day's edition. PDI must have printed and distributed some already when they got the news about FPJ's death.
PDI was forced to print a 2nd copy of the december 14, 2004 edition but with a different and more accurate headline : "Da King is dead", with the subhead "Fernando Poe Jr. united nation in prayer during two-day vigil for his recovery"

all other articles and pictures in that front page were the same except for the headline and lead story. they had no choice, it would have been foolish and stupid to just let the "first edition" to be distributed to readers with the "erroneous" headline. it would have most likely caused a riot at most and irreparable damage to the reputation of PDI.

i don't know how many subscribers got both editions, but four years ago, i was very surprised to find in my garage door 2 copies of PDI. i kept those two copies and thought it would make for an interesting talk piece in advertising and media.

newspapers are in the business of transmitting news to its readers. that means accurate news. life and reality will not wait for newspapers, they will just happen. and just like in this case, PDI needed to adjust and do the right thing.

you can just imagine the kind of rush and panic the whole newspapers had to go through to get the 2nd edition in a lightning speed pace. they needed editors, writers, layout artists and the whole printing press on hand between 12:15 am to 5:00 am. the whole printing press and its workers were on stand-by as the editors, writers and layout artists wrote a fresh headline news and story. the distribution people needed to be on stand-by as well as they needed to do a 2nd run.

fernando poe jr. was not just a presidentiable. he was also a considered to be the King Of Filipino movies. his movies during his prime was a sure hit. almost all his roles were about a man with modest means fighting the big guys, the wealthy and the powerful and winning in the end, justice is done. on this day of Da King's death, we publish this blog exactly 4 years to the date, december 14, 2008 at 12:15am.