The challenges of transitioning from trad media to digital
THE most difficult thing for Anthony Taberna, more popularly known as Ka Tunying, about transitioning from mainstream media to Youtube was not only the technical aspects of vlogging.
The difficulty was not being in front of the camera but the reason for it: He needed to do it because he had to make up for the lost compensation after ABS-CBN lost its franchise. It was Taberna’s wife Rossel who prevailed upon him to start vlogging.
“It was like starting all over again,” said Taberna, who grew up in San Antonio, Nueva Ecija.
His Youtube channel (m.youtube.com/c/ Tuneinkaytunying) now has 145,000 subscribers. On Facebook, he has 1 million followers and 259,000 on Instagram.
By his own admission, Taberna is not really a techie but he’s not unfamiliar with technology either. He’s on Facebook and Instagram, of course, and he uses Binance (a cryptocurrency exchange), Waze and Google Maps.
As an entrepreneur, he’s seen the shift in the family’s eatery business, Ka Tunying’s Cafe, from onsite to online.
“We had to close 50 percent of our stores and lay off 30 percent of our employees. We are trying to get back on our feet by encouraging people to resell our products online. It hasn’t been difficult because consumers are now used to transacting online.”
During the online announcement of his being named the endorser of P.A. Alvarez Properties & Development Corp., Taberna talked about how it has always been his dream to be a homeowner.
He recalled the years when he and his siblings had to squeeze into rented spaces because it was all they could afford. In 2007, he finally purchased his own home, an old house in Novaliches.
After Taberna married Rossel and their finances started to improve, the family finally moved into where they live now.
“Ka Tunying is the best brand ambassador for the company,” said Romarico “Bing” Alvarez, chairman of P. A. Properties, which has developed 40 communities and constructed over 20,000 housing units since it started 26 years ago.
The company’s projects are in Laguna, Batangas, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga and Metro Manila.
Taberna said he, with the help of Outbox Media, has been trying hard to level-up in terms of content.
“Of course we want to have more young viewers but honestly, I think we still have much to do before that happens.”
Taberna, the fourth among seven children, was a Mass Communications scholar at New Era College. While studying, he worked at a radio station as a translator.
He eventually became a field reporter for ABSCBN and stayed with the network until a month before its closure.