I’ve been so busy the past week that I completely forgot that my very first contributing writing job for FHM has been out for two weeks already. There is no greater thrill than opening an FHM magazine and seeing your name attached to an article, albeit short, and tame. It’s a definitely a start. I regret them not giving me a story that was more, how should I say it, scandalous.

Still, if I ever find myself shaking hands with someone I am to interview who has the capacity to breastfeed an army of babies with her mammary glands (note my use of politically-correct terms), at the back of my mind will be the scenario of my parents banishing me from home. So right now, I’m thinking of a unique pen name.

Photo to follow.

Just a year old, Manor Superclub has already gained a cult following in the metro’s party scene, with partyphiles, and until recently, call center agents, entering its glass doors three nights a week, from 10pm to five in the morning. According to Erik Cua, operations director, Manor is “the premiere dance club in the Philippines with three areas where people can go to unwind, meet new people, and dance the night away.”

Launched in January of 2009 from the people behind the metro’s top clubs, Manor Superclub has gained notoriety among the country’s club-hopping and music-loving elite. The conceptualization process took around six months, while the construction of the three main areas, the penthouse, basement, and the terrace, took five months, with each area having its own distinct ambiance and music.

The guys behind Manor did more than just your simple party-planning. “First [was] finding the location we really wanted, then finding the right partners to complement each other,” says Cua. Thanks to Stephen Ku, marketing director, and Bingo Manahan, promotions director, they were also able to choose the right promoters to partner with. Carlo Aquino, Manor’s entertainment director took care of the music. The result was a place deserving of its name.

With its posh interiors, pulsating dance music spun by Manila’s top DJs, as well as a wide selection of cocktails for your enjoyment, it isn’t unusual to see long lines of people snaking around the corner waiting to be let in. According to Cua, Manor’s guests are usually college students, yuppies, industry people, businessmen, as well as models and actors. However, with the recent surge of BPOs in the country, particularly in the Quezon City and Pasig area, they’ve also gained a new client base. “It has actually gotten stronger since some of the call center agencies have held their parties in Manor.”

Open every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday night, many call center agents in the area actually choose to go to Manor during their “lunch break” sometime between midnight and 2am to relax and escape from the stress and pressure of work. While they’re service hasn’t changed with the emergence of this new market, the team behind Manor Superclub has begun thinking of ways to bring more of them in. According to Cua, “We give nothing but the best party for call center agents.”

At the end of the day, which in this case, is at six or seven in the morning, all everyone’s looking for is a place to relax with perhaps some booze on the side. And in Manor, it doesn’t matter if it’s during your lunch break.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Manor Superclub
www.manorsuperclub.com
F1 Big Kahuna Bldg., Eastwood Citywalk, Libis, Quezon City
(02) 421-3180, info@manorsuperclub.com

PHOTO CREDIT
Dairy Darilag

***

From Entrepreneur Philippines´ December 2009 issue.

In journalism, there is such a thing as “off the record.” I first heard it when I was interviewing a member of the President’s cabinet for a requirement in one of my journ classes. We were talking for about half and hour, when I asked him how it was working for the government. He took my recorder on the table, looked at it, and pressed the stop button, saying, “This is off the record,” and continued talking. I was a bit peeved at the fact he took my recorder without asking me, but was excited at the fact I was going to get some juicy government gossip. As my current editor once said, “off the record” means “for your information only.” It will only serve as a background to the whole issue and cannot be credited to whoever said it.

I have never encountered a subject (yet) who has requested to remain anonymous, probably because I’m in a business magazine and not a hard-hitting broadsheet. The only thing entrepreneurs want to keep secret is their capital, which I still ask (for reference), but don’t publish. But really, when you’re talking to the press, expect everything to get published, even what you’re wearing–it’s a great intro device, clothes.

Meanwhile, this is a perfect example of failure to protect your source’s identity. See, even the BCC makes mistakes. Anonymous fail!

Sorry, Abu Ibrahim.

Held at The Loft @ Manansala in Rockwell, Makati City, the country’s top ten entrepreneurs of the past year were recognized in Entrepreneur Philippines annual Entrepreneur 10 Awards Night 2009 last December 15.

In what has been—to say the least—a challenging year not only for business-owners but for all Filipinos, the night was a farewell to the year that was and a glimpse of hope into the next year. While to have survived the past year is an achievement in itself, to have gone way and above the rest deserves a very classy AVP with a kick-ass soundtrack–not a business term, but that succinctly sums everything up.

10 Outstanding Entrepreneurs of 2009

The seventh batch of Entrepreneur 10 winners are Patricia Besinga of Prestige Labels Co., they provide affordable R&D for start-up businesses; Junie del Mundo of EON Stakeholder Relations Firm, he has managed to transform the PR scene with his “stakeholder” concept; Benjamin Liuson of The Generics Pharmacy, he has over 600 outlets all over the country; Roberto Locsin of Locsin International, am uber-successful furniture exporter; Jerry Perez de Tagle of Integrative Learning International Inc., a genius; Jovita Romero, co-owner of Danilyn’s Enterprises, also exports furniture; Dr. Vivian Sarabia of Vivian Sarabia Optical, eyewear outfitter to the stars; Edgar Injap Sia of Mang Inasal, `nuff said; Carson Tan of Aquabest, `nuff said; and Kerwin Tansekiao of Jimini Foods and Pizza Pedrico’s, ’nuff said.

Before the night ended, Entrepreneur 10 awardee, Jerry Perez de Tagle spoke on behalf of his fellow winners, summing it up succinctly, “We all followed our DAD: pursued our dream, took action, and had discipline.”

Check out www.entrepreneur.com.ph for more on the event.

Entrepreneur 10 Awards Night 2009 was co-presented by Globe Business, Nokia, and Western Union.

A lot of thought goes into a magazine cover. It is, after all, what ultimately determines sales. Most, if not all magazines, prepare their issues some two to three months ahead. In my case, the December issue was done in October. In the United States, they release their issues a month before the actual published month. Many January 2010 issues have already been released or will be available to the public in the next few days. They probably do theirs four months ahead. That’s Christmas in September.

As difficult as it is to predict the circumstances months ahead, it’s perhaps useful to choose your cover prudently. For Golf Digest’s January issue, Tiger Woods and President Obama take the cover with a story titled, “10 Tips Obama Can Take From Tiger.” How about, “Stay faithful to your spouse.”?

The champion golfer has been the subject of public scrutiny after he crashed his vehicle outside his house that was allegedly brought about by accusations of an extra-marital affair with a cocktail waitress. Woods confirmed the rumors with a released statement saying, “I have let my family down and I regret those transgressions with all of my heart. I have not been true to my values and the behavior my family deserves.”

Private sexual text messages from Woods sent to the mistress have surfaced together with a recorded voicemail from someone people are claiming to be Woods.It’s definitely too late to release another cover.

This is a David Letterman Top 10 waiting to be written. I’m curious to see how circulation for this issue pans out.

The management copy of Entrepreneur’s December issue arrived the other day. I’m beginning to really like the direction our covers are going. After the November redesign issue, this is probably the most excited I’ve felt for an issue to arrive. It’s probably because this one contains my first cover feature—twelve glossy pages all to myself, ten stories on new markets. As an aspiring journalist, there is no greater thrill in the world than seeing your name in print. It’s like crack to me.

The issue also contains a really classy spread on our annual Entrepreneur 10 Awards that features the top ten entrepreneurs of the year. While surviving through what has since become a nightmare year for all business owners—big or small—is a feat in itself, coming out on top deserves some sort of recognition. The formal awarding will be on the 15th at The Loft in Makati.

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It’s like a publisher’s idea of an orgy.

Four of the biggest names in magazine publishing in the United States are joining forces to launch an online newsstand in what they’ve described as “iTunes for magazines.”

Time Inc., which has 21 titles like Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and People; Condé Nast, which holds 18 titles with popular ones like Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, Wired, and The New Yorker; Hearst which holds 15 titles including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, O (The Oprah Magazine), and Marie Claire; and Meredith which has 13 titles of its own, will be “equity partners” in the project that’s expected to launch in the next few months with other publishing companies expected to join the print orgy.

According to The New York Observer, “The company will prepare magazines that can work across multiple digital platforms, whether the iPhone, the BlackBerry or countless other digital devices.” The yet-to-be-named company will not, however, develop an e-book, but something similar to the music program iTunes, creating a store where you can buy new magazines.

Before you start hoarding your copies of Vanity Fair, Esquire, and other titles with Megan Fox or Robert Pattinson on the cover, rest assured that this venture doesn’t mark the end of the print version as they assure that they will still produce the print version, although–I have a feeling–in lesser quantities.

It isn’t a secret that the publishing industry in the United States is suffering from its own Great Depression with major newspaper and magazine titles closing down, as well as massive employee lay-offs. Gourmet, a popular food magazine published by Condé Nast for the past 50 years closed down early this year and was relegated to the web. Meanwhile, Time Inc. laid off 600 of its employees last year. More smaller and less popular titles have closed down due to a “steep drop in print advertising revenue, steadily declining circulation, and the migration of readers to free news online.”

With this attempt to rescue a stumbling industry, it is their (and perhaps mine, as well) earnest hope that this merge will bring in the print medium to a whole new, well, medium. I still like paper, though.

December issues come out this week. I’m giddy about seeing ours. In the foreign magazine section, Hearst Corp, big-time media company and magazine publisher, announced a few weeks ago that Esquire would launch a new “augmented reality” issue for release in December. And just the other week, they finally unveiled they’re newest invention that, while it promises some moments of pure fascination and awe, still begs the question, “What now?”

On the cover of Esquire’s December issue is the new Sherlock Holmes, Robert Downey Jr. in a three-piece suit, proudly showing the package between his legs. It is this device, along with a program you need to download off the Esquire website and a web cam, that enables the actor to literally jump off the cover. Awesome sh*t.

Once the AR program is installed, users will have to point the “marker” located at the bottom of the magazine towards the web cam to activate the feature. For the cover, Robert Downey Jr. does a song and dance, among other things. Inside, a fashion photo shoot changes the model’s clothes and the weather, depending on how you hold and rotate the magazine. Their monthly “Funny Joke from a Beautiful Woman” section has actress Gillian Jacobs tell another joke, and there’s an ad from Lexus, which reportedly shouldered the cost of the AR issue coming in at six figures according to Wall Street Journal.

Esquire’s Augmented Reality Issue: A Tour

While AR seems to be a huge leap in the print medium, attempting to tie in the web element of Esquire, Augmented Reality feels like another passing fancy. It’s a chore to download and install the AR program. And after viewing the few pages AR is featured in, you’re left with, well, a magazine. And no one buys one for AR and AR alone.

The tactile experience of holding a magazine is still a whole different experience. Augment it as you may want, in the end, it’s content that matters the most. And that’s what made and still makes Esquire one of the best men’s magazines in the world. And that’s why people still buy magazines. Great idea, but what now?

Still, if there’s one thing I’ll always like about Esquire, it’s their original content and the punk-ass attitude with which they present them. Only they can put “WTF?!” on their cover and get away with it.

While every magazine publisher, editor, writer, photographer, or art director may want to believe that people buy magazines based on the content they create, the sad (or better) truth is that, like all ordinary mortals, people buy magazines based on what they see on the cover.

In Entrepreneur, the cover, which up until last month, was always a graphic text-based cover, goes through the hands of a handful of people before it finally hits the stands. They check the blurbs, the brief intro’s that indicate what’s inside the magazine, and the total impact of the photo. And after the November redesign issue, the scrutiny has been more intense. It’s perfectly wrong to judge a book by it’s cover. There are a lot of good books with crappy covers. But for a magazine, that’s just fine.

Magazine Publishers of America recently released the year’s best magazine covers and the finalists that almost made it. US President Barack Obama’s Rolling Stone cover was named Magazine Cover of the Year. No surprise there. Now why isn’t Megan Fox’s numerous covers in any of the categories? She would’ve qualified for Magazine Cover of the Year, but would most probably win Most Delicious. Yes, there is such a category, reserved for food shots, but in her case, I’m sure there’s an exception.

June 2009

June 2009

May 2009

October 2009

But I digress. Now for the actual winners.

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After his appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel show, Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao makes it to the cover of TIME Magazine’s Asia edition, with his five-page feature story published in all editions. The magazine, to be released this weekend, comes just in time for his face-off with Puerto Rican boxer Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 14 (November 15, Sunday, in Manila). The “Jinkee” tattoo is a nice touch.

Other prominent Filipinos who made the cover of TIME Magazine were former President Corazon C. Aquino who appeared four times, including her Woman of the Year cover,

Ferdinand Marcos superimposed on the Philippine map and facing off with Cory Aquino during the snap elections,

Manuel Quezon, and a feisty-looking Ramon Magsaysay. So do you see where we’re going? After singing his version of Sometimes When We Touch on Jimmy Kimmel, the comedian-host calls Manny the “future president of the Philippines.”

The honesty’s too much.

Newspapers around the world are experiencing a recession of their own with major broadsheets closing down after decades of loyal service. Many titles in the United States have closed down or are facing imminent shutdown.

With the rise of the internet and cheaper broadband rates, more and more people are turning to the world wide web to get their daily fix for news and pop culture. What will happen with newspapers are completely obliterated? It’s a scenario that’s just too unthinkable to happen. One might think that the print medium is on its way out. However, magazines, are in a league of their own.

The Twenty Tweetable Truths About Magazines

Entrepreneur Philippines launches it’s redesign issue this November with Mang Inasal, Edgar Injap Sia II, on the cover. After a month of waiting, the management copy finally arrived this morning. In a word, it’s sexy.  The pages are thicker, the cover’s matte, and the whole look inside the magazine is more, ummm, kick-ass–not a magazine term, but it works.

The issue also has the first two articles I wrote for Entrepreneur. One on Eliz and Ethan Tour Services, a 24-hour travel agency, and what has been my most favorite (and delicious) assignment so far, El Buono’s 35-inch pan pizza. The issue also includes a recap of the ongoing battle within popular local coffee chain Figaro.

Mang Inasal has been expanding all throughout the Philippines with an energy that I can only describe as furious imperialism. Meet the real Mang Insal, Edgar “Injap” Sia II.

Darren Palanisamy of Eliz and Ethan Tour Services.

After this shoot, I brought a whole pizza up to the Summit office for everyone to devour. When I came back from an event the pizza was still there and everyone was full. Love this shoot. Love this pizza.

All is not well with your favorite coffee company.When business goes bad, it can really get ugly.

The November issue hits your favorite newsstands and magazine shops next week. Pick one up for P125. View the e-mag here.