MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) – In its desperate attempt to stop the bleeding from its declining viewership, Maria Ressa’s Rappler is launching what it is calling a “Plus” membership program that would supposedly give its readers access to exclusive, biased news content. What this subscription would cost is still subject to determination.

Not to be outdone, rival The Adobo Chronicles  is launching its own subscription program whereby viewers who sign up will receive news alerts — for free!  The news site is calling it the “Minus” membership program, hoping that it will lure Rappler Plus members to shift to to the AdoboChron free subscription.

Asked about the name “Minus” membership, the AdoboChron publisher said the concept is that every subscriber leaving Rappler (hence, the ‘minus’ sign) will result in an additional (“plus” sign) subscriber for AdobChron.

So it seems that Rappler’s program should be called “minus” and AdoboChron’s program, “plus.”