KNOW THY NEWSPAPERThe Inquirer Advantage

First issue of PDI, December 9, 1985

• The Philippine Daily Inquirer, popularly known as the Inquirer, is the most widely read broadsheet newspaper in the Philippines, with a daily circulation of 260,000 copies. It is one of the Philippines' newspapers of record. It is a member of the Asia News Network.

• was founded on December 9, 1985– Eugenia Apostol– Max Solivén– together with Betty Go-Belmonte– during the last days of the regime of the Philippine

dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, becoming one of the first private newspapers to be established under the Marcos regime.

• Mr. and Mrs. Special Edition• Philippine Inquirer• budget of one million pesos and enjoyed a

daily circulation of 30,000 copies in its early days.

• The newspaper was also instrumental then in documenting the campaign of Corazon Aquino during the 1986 presidential elections and in turn the 1986 People Power Revolution.

• Its slogan, Balanced News, Fearless Views, was incorporated to the newspaper in January, 1986 after a slogan-making contest held during the first month of the Inquirer's existence.

• In 1990, the Inquirer took the lead from the Manila Bulletin to become the Philippines' largest newspaper in terms of circulation. It appointed its current editor-in-chief, Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc, on June 14, 1991. After transferring headquarters four times, the Inquirer moved to its current headquarters in Makati City in 1995.

• During the administration of president Joseph Estrada, the president criticized the Inquirer for "bias, malice and fabrication" against him—this charge to the Inquirer was denied. In 1999, several government organizations, pro-Estrada businesses, and movie producers simultaneously pulled their advertisements from the Inquirer. The presidential palace was widely implicated in the advertising boycott.

• In 2007, according to the survey conducted by AGB Nielsen, the Inquirer is the most widely-read newspaper in the Philippines. The Manila Bulletin and the Philippine Star followed as the second and the third most-widely read papers, respectively.

FILIPINO OF THE YEAR

• The Inquirer annually names a Filipino of the Year, honoring a living Filipino who has made the most positive impact on the life of the nation.– 1991: Raymundo Punongbayan– 1992: Haydee Yorac– 1994: Overseas Filipino Workers– 2000: Hilario Davide, Jr.– 2001: Supreme Court of the Philippines

– 2002: Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo– 2003: Manny Pacquiao– 2004: Fernando Poe, Jr.– 2005: The Filipino Athlete– 2006: Antonio Meloto, Gawad Kalinga founder– 2007: Ed Panlilio– 2008: Manny Pacquiao

FILIPINO OF THE YEAR AWARDEES

• Newspapering is a business – a business for a few successful publishers but a big gamble for the rest who discover soon enough that the venture requires pouring barrels of money into a bottomless pit.

• Newspapers are actually political weapons or business tools.

• Inquirer reporters is that they cover their beats without a list of sacred cows tucked into their subconscious. They report the news as far as their best judgment perceives it, without having to worry about hurting some big shot or a special friend of the owners.

RAISON D’ÊTRE

• Means reason for being• A newspaper is nothing without its community

of readers.• A publication loses its raison d'être without its

public.

• The financier’s having primary control over his own publication explains, although not too convincingly, why many local newspapers are the way they are predominantly commercial in outlook, lacking in social conscience, or openly being wielded by the owners to protect or promote their political and economic interests.

• The Inquirer was at the forefront of the campaign to topple the dictator and in the process helped install President Aquino, but true to its commitment to good government, it has continued to expose and denounce mis-government.

• As administrations change, the Inquirer will keep its critical distance from whoever sits in the Palace.

• Every morning, unsuspecting readers pick up their newspaper without realizing that they are slowly being brainwashed or their minds being poisoned.

• If a tabloid owner finds it profitable to use the time-tested triad of sex-crime-scandal to sell more copies, he can stick to this formula with nobody being able to stop him or to influence him to shift to the higher pursuits of journalism.

• After all, it is his money, it is his paper. He sets his own agenda and fixes his own return to investment.

• A realistic response to the problem is to patronize only newspapers that have social conscience, to recognize journalists and media owners who consistently prove true to their calling, and to support press guilds that compel members to comply with their strict ethical codes.

• What we should demand of our newspapers is not cold objectivity but balance and fairness. If these qualities dominate mass media, the nation and the free flow of ideas that pump it with life are assured of healthy growth.

• That is why balance and fairness are among the rigid requirements of stories carried by the Inquirer. When objectivity is cast aside in Inquirer stories and our writers embark on interpretative writing, we insist that they provide the reader a balanced and a wider picture of events and their meaning.

• The pervasive effects of mass communications also require that aside from professional competence, journalists must have a high sense of duty, fairness and unimpeachable integrity.

• But journalists and media bosses must not only possess – but also project – integrity.

• The printed word, as said earlier, is an insidious instrument for bending the public mind. It should not be entrusted to just anybody.

KNOW THY NEWSPAPERThe Inquirer Advantage