I’M happy to announce that we’ve hired our first multimedia reporter, who will focus on taking video clips for INQUIRER.net and working on all the exciting stuff we have in store for you from our Editorial department’s multimedia division, which we only set up this year when I got my new position as gaming and multimedia editor.

It took longer than we expected, and INQUIRER.net editor in chief JV Rufino, executive editor Leo Magno and I found ourselves agreeing that we needed someone young, someone who lived and breathed blogs and online video sites such as YouTube but who at the same time was very much grounded in the tenets of journalism. It was difficult to get someone because the position demanded a person who could be both the reporter and cameraman, someone who could be comfortable in front of and behind the camera. And it had to be someone who didn’t think of video in terms of TV, but instead belonged to the YouTube generation.

I’ll save my thoughts on the challenges reporters face in the age of citizen journalism, and the need for everyone to learn to become a multimedia journalist or risk becoming obsolete for a future blog post.

Today, I’d like to welcome Erika Tapalla to the INQUIRER.net team. You’ll see more of Erika and her work in the days ahead.

And speaking of citizen journalists, here’s the latest episode of The Newsmaker Podcast, our news and current affairs podcast hosted by Leo Magno. You can check out the audio podcast here.

In this episode, Solomon Dador, who uses the nickname Disney, recounts where he was during the Glorietta 2 mall blast in Makati City and how the photos this ordinary citizen took and uploaded to his website had an extraordinary impact on people and even news agencies all over the world.

And here’s the vidcast — the video was taken by Erika.

AS you may have noticed, we now have a spiffy new blog box on the INQUIRER.net homepage… and the sites of our sister company Hinge Inquirer Publications have joined our blog network.

It’s another example of the convergence between the different members of the Inquirer Group of Publications, and our role as the online home of this growing family

So say hello to HIP, Mobile Philippines, GAME! Magazine, FB World, SME Insight and Golf Digest on INQUIRER.net.

UPDATE: The Multimedia section of the Glorietta Blast site is already up. Here’s a screenshot of the Flash interactive map that Justin Calingasan of our Tech team developed.

IT’S another tragedy, and sometimes it really gets disheartening to be the messenger who brings you the bad news. But it’s a job that somebody has to do.

Our Glorietta Blast Special Site is already up to give you all the latest developments on this tragedy.

You could also check out my Breaking News story on some of the bloggers who covered the Makati blast.

Here’s an interesting postscript: one of the bloggers I cited in my Blog Addicts entry and the Breaking News story apparently has been getting a lot of comments from visitors who stumbled upon his Multiply site via INQUIRER.net.

The blogger, whose nickname is Disney, gave INQUIRER.net permission to use his photos, some of which you can now see on our homepage as of this writing.

I believe you’ll see even more of this kind of convergence between mainstream media and bloggers/citizen journalists. Thanks again, Disney.

WE interviewed new Commission on Information and Communications Technology chairman Ray Anthony Roxas-Chua III for The Newsmaker Podcast right after his first media briefing.

INQUIRER.net executive editor Leo Magno was the host while I recorded the podcast on Mikaela, my MacBook Pro, using GarageBand. Assisting us were our two reporters who also covered the media briefing, Lawrence Casiraya and Alex Villafania.

Check out the audio podcast.

We also did a vidcast for our iVDO video channel. Check it out.

Got comments and suggestions? E-mail us at newsmaker@inquirer.net

WHY just create an audio podcast when you could also offer a vidcast?

That’s just what we did with this vidcast version of The Newsmaker Podcast, INQUIRER.net’s news and current affairs podcast.

Check it out.

You may also download an iPod-ready M4V video file from here.

For more videos from INQUIRER.net and our partners, visit iVDO.