As a reporter for the Gokongwei-owned Manila Occasions, I began anticipating what she would put on to the newsroom, particularly when she had a particular assembly or occasion to attend. She was essentially the most trendy political journalist, my part editor then identified to me. It was only a matter of time earlier than our sister publication, a shiny style journal, was to line her up for his or her collection of options on achievers with model.
Instantly, I conjured up a picture of our power-dressing information editor coming to work for her pictorial and interview. As a substitute, she sat at her desk in a cushty pink collared shirt and denims. I used to be like… why? Why, of all days, did you determine to put on one thing “easy”?
Glenda Gloria’s energy, nonetheless, didn’t want any loudspeaker — on this case, a loud getup — to be proclaimed. (She is going to cringe on the phrase “energy,” however, no matter, that is my e-newsletter!) That, I found once I turned a reporter straight beneath her in MT and within the investigative journal Newsbreak, and proceed to have a ringside view of now as managing editor of Rappler.
You develop into a journalist to serve the individuals. From that Preview function within the mid-Nineteen Nineties to her latest highlight as Esquire’s Journalist of the 12 months 2025, Glenda’s raison d’etre for us within the enterprise of knowledge and communication has not modified. Journalism in conduct, enterprise, and format could also be quick evolving, however its core, function, and mission stays: to serve the individuals.
That’s a giant thought, you’d say. It’s — and it’s what Glenda’s quiet work in varied capacities through the years has been clear about. It’s the massive thought, the noble information, in how she’s led newsrooms and mentored these beneath her.
These exterior our newsroom will assume they know her from her “massive” title as government editor of Rappler, the Philippines’ main digital media firm. She units the imaginative and prescient for Rappler’s three pillars: journalism, group, and know-how. She’s the one who makes positive the enterprise aspect is sustainable.
We who work intently together with her respect her — actually are studying from her — on these elements of her job. However what has actually taught and formed us is Glenda’s instance and private contact.
She’s battle-scarred within the discipline, so we now have no proper to query the knowledge of shoe-leather reporting. We can not sniff on the scoops and investigations she has damaged and the books and research she’s written. We can’t be strolling round so happy with ourselves and our judgment of our work and relevance clouded by the noise and bubbles of the web world.
She has a eager eye for skills, regardless of how uncooked, and nurtures them. She entrusts you with assignments with a view of how you’ll develop in them. She corrects you whenever you take the unsuitable turns however doesn’t dwell in your errors or let these errors outline you. She dumps books and well-curated articles and podcasts on you. She terrifies you when her massive eyes develop into greater with out her saying a phrase. Come to think about it, in the event you don’t flourish as she does that and with the best way she does that, then it’s already your fault.
And she or he writes elegantly. Ideas are clear, arguments are sharp with out screaming, rebuke is stinging with out being preachy. So it challenges us to not simply include strong analysis and groundbreaking findings — we now have to inform the story with a voice that’s distinctly ours, a voice that claims there’s an individual who went to those locations, spoke to individuals, pored over these paperwork, and sifted these items of knowledge with service to communities and nation in thoughts.
You don’t need to take my phrase for it — however these testimonies from a few of our reporters and managers ought to put to relaxation any of your doubts.
Jodesz Gavilan, Lead Editorial Researcher
Ma’am Glenda has taught us younger journalists numerous classes through the years, however the one which has stayed with me essentially the most is her fixed reminder to learn, to learn extensively, to learn deeply, and to learn typically. As a result of sturdy writing begins with a well-fed thoughts. I’ve at all times liked studying and folks generally query how I discover the time, and their feedback make me uneasy, as in the event that they assume I’m neglecting my work. However then there may be Ma’am Glenda, our personal boss, encouraging us to learn extra and reminding us that curiosity and studying aren’t distractions from the job however important components of it.
John Sitchon, Multimedia Reporter
It was September 21, 2023, when Miss Glenda came over the Rappler Cebu bureau for a discussion board led by ladies journalists. We had dinner, and in our dialog, she would ask these questions on our tradition: how a puso (hanging rice) is made, the ingenuity of the piso water and Wi-Fi machine, and the distinctive struggles of girls journalists in Cebu. The way in which she spoke of these items — she has a approach of constructing you interested by issues which have at all times been there, issues that wouldn’t usually appeal to consideration, issues that, when unraveled, evoke a way of pleasure and pleasure. I believe that’s how each individual searching for a profession in journalism must be. I wish to assume that’s what most of my friends which might be my age aspire to develop into sooner or later.
Jairo Bolledo, Multimedia Reporter
Generosity is the best factor I discovered from Ma’am Glenda. She is beneficiant to budding journos — educating us sensible experiences to navigate the loopy world of journalism. She by no means fails to information us on work on a particular story, why we have to look past what’s being stated. She is beneficiant to her sources and to the individuals who share their tales to her. As a lady of integrity, she protects these tales with compassion. Ma’am Glenda will acquire your respect not as a result of she calls for it, however as a result of she earned it main by instance as an excellent journalist.
Paterno Esmaquel II, Multimedia Reporter
Command and management however in an area of youthful freedom. That’s the Glenda Gloria model of newsroom administration, which I’ve grown to like — and hoped to emulate — in my 14 years at Rappler. Like a basic, she points battle plans with navy precision. However, like a mom, she trusts her kids — the reporters — to search out their approach and use their very own diskarte, even when they make errors. From her, I discovered to take calculated dangers, determine, and come clean with my selections, proper or unsuitable.
Within the Glenda Gloria Faculty of Journalism, the mortal sin is to not make the unsuitable judgment calls; it’s to make no determination in any respect. Ah, how she fumes at reporters who must ask editors for handholding from Level A to Z. It’s the best way she runs the newsroom and even ends her emails together with her favourite salutation: “Braveness on.”
Gelo Gonzales, Desk Editor
There’s a music I hearken to, and it describes a woman with a thoughts like a diamond, who is aware of what’s finest, who’s quick, thorough, sharp as a tack, who’s touring the power and choosing up slack. It has at all times jogged my memory of Ms. Glenda. The newsroom has been via stormy occasions, however her poise in main us via these at all times gave me the boldness that we’ll be alright. What I’ve discovered is, roll with the punches, keep curious, and do it quick and thorough.
Jee Geronimo, Habitable Cities Desk
In a high-pressure job like journalism, you want a relaxed soul that steadies the ship. Ms. Glenda has at all times been that form of chief — one who sees the forest for the bushes, who has the foresight to anticipate issues typically misplaced when individuals are within the thick of issues. I’ve labored together with her for 14 years now and but there’s nonetheless a lot to be taught from her.
Kaye Cabal, Head of Group Progress & Improvement
I’ll at all times treasure Ms. Glenda’s steerage and endurance. She was ever so gracious in educating us younger managers the much-needed composure and beauty beneath stress, and helped me keep in mind the worth of trying forward, pulling up, and seeing issues from totally different views. Over a decade of studying from one of many bravest ladies I do know, I can solely aspire to be half the chief she is.
Acor Arceo, Head of Information Operations
It’s each an absolute honor and a supply of utter consolation to have a mentor like Ms. Glenda — somebody who leads with knowledge, readability, and compassion. She brings out the most effective in individuals just because she leads by instance. From ANC to Rappler, I’ve seen how she deftly guides a newsroom, possessing each strategic imaginative and prescient and a mastery of the small print.
Let me finish with how our senior editor Isagani de Castro Jr. places it. That is one occasion the place nothing beats a cliché to sum up the message:
The most effective man for the job… is a lady. – Rappler.com
