From TV boss to content creator: Luchi Cruz-Valdes on staying relevant after her retirement
Veteran journalist Luchi Cruz-Valdes has shifted to content creation after retiring from the news television industry, but her heart and spirit for storytelling never changed.
Working in media was her childhood dream. While other kids were dreaming of becoming doctors, lawyers, or pilots, Luchi was certain about her interest in broadcasting. "As early as 6, I knew I wanted to be in TV news," The Generations Podcast Season 2 host told PhilSTAR L!fe. “People would ask me, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ I would say, ‘I want to be a broadcast journalist.’”
She took up Broadcast Communication at the University of the Philippines Diliman, which only strengthened her love for the craft. While she started as a market analyst for a multinational conglomerate after her graduation, the clarity of her ambition and calling became so sharp that she bypassed the usual years of entry-level grind in media.
"My first job in broadcasting was a news anchor. Diba! Swerte naman nun. I was 20, and I became the youngest anchor then. Dapat at least 21 man lang eh,” she recalled, sharing that she joined RPN 9 for Newswatch Filipino Edition.
She worked her way up and later navigated the shifting currents of every major network, including GMA-7, ABS-CBN, and TV5.
Through the years, her passion for her job only grew stronger. "After you’ve been a journalist for some time, you begin to understand issues that ordinary people don’t. You’re able to penetrate halls of power, and you have access to people who make the headlines. You begin to learn the system," she said. "The challenge to me, which I really loved, was putting all of that in terms that my viewers would understand. That, to me, was and still is my greatest strength."
‘Teacher’ in the newsroom
Luchi kept the same approach in mind when reviewing her staff's scripts, seeing what would work and what wouldn’t. Her ability to turn the complex into something more comprehensible earned her a nickname more enduring than "anchor" in the newsroom: "Teacher."
"I love teaching. That's the reason why they call me 'Teacher,'" she said with a smile. "That’s what journalism is about, too."
To this day, the nickname sticks among her colleagues-turned-friends, who are now making a mark in the industry in their own ways.
Broadcast journalist Karen Davila, who worked with Luchi at GMA-7 during the 90s and again at ABS-CBN in the early 2000s, described her former boss as a “strict but brilliant teacher with writing scripts and producing stories and documentaries.”
“I've learned a lot from her—professionally and spiritually. Luchi is a true friend to have, a compassionate mentor, and an inspiration for TV journalists like myself,” she told L!fe.
PhilSTAR L!fe publisher Sheila Paras, who had Luchi as her first boss when she started writing for GMA News in the 90s, also saw her as a good mentor. "[She] doesn’t mince words and points out what’s good and bad with the stories we produced. From her, I learned the importance of writing against video and making sure to always write with the audience in mind," she said.
“She’s passionate about the things she believes in, relentless in pursuing stories that make people feel something. It’s a gift,” added Paras.
From TV to social media
In September 2024, Luchi retired at 64 after serving as the chief of TV5's News and Public Affairs department for 15 years. But retirement, it turns out, is a relative term. For someone whose brain has been wired for the news cycle for decades, the idea of "doing nothing" was more frightening than stepping into something new.
So, she entered the world of content creation, sharing videos of her interviews under Usapang Real with Luchi on YouTube.
“I really quit at the right time. I don’t regret it. I really don’t,” she mused, noting that it's a period when many people are already moving toward social media. “At least kahit papaano, nakahabol ako ng konti sa content ng YouTube.”
Transitioning to the online world, however, meant learning a new set of rules where the audience's attention span is measured in minutes rather than segments. “Parang wala tayong patience sa long discussions and wala tayong patience sa technical, very complex issues. Manonood lang sila for three minutes and move on,” she observed.
Luchi went on to talk about how social media content now seems saturated. “I find everyone’s doing the same thing and we’re all running after the same people,” she said.
But, as part of her legacy, her audience demands the political fire they’ve grown accustomed to. "Ngayon, nahihirapan ako kasi lahat ng mga nag-viral ko na [videos] with one million [views], lahat political. I think that’s the expectation of people when it comes to me,” she said. “I think the only edge I have, really, is politicians, pero am I ready to be bashed like crazy? I don’t know.”
While she paved the way for many people, she now finds herself learning from the younger generation, like how they handle bashing with a shrug. “I grew up with a lot of hiya. These kids, they say, 'Criticize me all you want, I don’t care.' I need to learn that.”
She also maintains a conscious effort to stay connected with the masses and updated on what’s trending now.
“Ang dami kong hindi alam sa mga bata. I need to learn about them. I know BINI, and I know that their hit song is Salamin, Salamin, but I don’t know how it goes!” she said with a laugh. “I know BTS, I know their songs, but if you ask me about other stuff, wala na.”
"Gusto kong magpakamasa, para ‘pag nakikipag-usap ako sa kanila sa vlog ko, alam ko [kung ano ang sinasabi nila]. ‘Yun, dun ako kulang, and I intend to learn as much as I can," she said. "Thank God for social media, nalalaman ko, ‘Ah, ito na ang pinagkakaguluhan ngayon.”
“It’s really the journalist in me,” she said of her commitment to continuous learning.
On her sunset years
Looking back, her most profound takeaway from decades spent in the media industry is the impermanence of it all—"that fortunes really rise and fall, and nobody stays up there forever."
"It’s really an illusion in a way, so just be excellent where you can be," she mused. "You know, the bigness will come as long as you treat every story in the best possible way—that’s all you can really do. There has to be that kind of spirit of really doing it the best possible way, hopefully no one else will do it better than you do."
At this point in her life, her next steps have become more grounded, and there's a refreshing candor in how she shared them.
Luchi now finds her peace in solitude and spirituality. "On the personal side, I look forward to being a grandmother. I don’t want to get married anymore. Hindi na talaga. Ayoko na. I’m at peace. I love being alone." (Her husband Lito Valdes died on May 8, 2016. They have three children together.) As a Christian, she also devotes her time to discipleship groups and occasional talks at the church.
"I don’t even know how long I have left to live. Sabi nga nila, 'Tomorrow is never promised.' You just live each day at a time," she said.
Still, her fire for what she does remains unquenched. For as long as she is "sharp enough" and the "brain rot" is kept at bay, she will continue to ask the questions that others cannot.
"I’ve done my time; I think I’ve given my contributions. So right now, I’ll just make money out of it the way I want to. It’s honest money anyway," she shared. "I want to know more about the people I admire, so I try to get them, interview them."
"Nobody wants to be home sick and super irrelevant. Ako, parang feeling ko, wait, kasama pa ako sa conversation—kaya ko pa 'yan. I still have much to, if not say, ask," she said, consistent with how she referred to herself in her social media pages: "a retired journalist but never-ever-retiring storyteller."
Luchi Cruz-Valdes is hosting the second season of The Generations Podcast—a conversation about how different age groups see the world and why it matters—along with PhilSTAR L!fe's Gen Z columnist Angel Martinez and content creator and artist Raco Ruiz. Catch it on YouTube and Spotify on April 22.
