In October 1995, for example, the Manila Bulletin ran daily news stories and opinion articles criticizing the sale of the Manila Hotel to a Malaysian consortium. The newspaper asserted that the hotel was part of the national patrimony and should be sold to a Filipino company. As a result, former President Fidel V Ramos intervened by asking his aides to work out a compromise with the Malaysians, and the Supreme Court of the Philippines, in a controversial decision, decided in favor of the owner of the ownership, Don Emilio Yap, who is also the owner of the Liwayway Publishing Inc., the Manila International Port Terminal, among other businesses.
The case demonstrates how newspaper owners have abused their powers by using the news and opinion pages of their newspapers to campaign for their business interests. Newspaper owners have put the profitability of their business enterprise over that of their newspapers' duty to report without fear and favor. It would be simpler, however, to say that newspapers are merely mouthpieces of their owners.
On the other hand, some editors manage to strike out a relationship where newspaper owners have a hand in drafting editorial policies but leave the newsroom decisions to professional journalists. In other newspapers, editors accept the rules set by owners and dutifully execute orders to highlight or stop a news story. Sometimes, no rules are laid down, but there is an unspoken understanding that critical stories about the owners and their friends will be toned down, buried in the inside pages, or not printed at all.
In “Media Ownership and Control in the Philippines,” Coronel explained that from the day President Ferdinand Edralin Marcos declared martial law in 1972 to the time he fled Malacañang in 1986, newspapers were the buttresses of his dictatorship. Marcos controlled newspapers by imposing strict government control and by limiting the ownership to his cronies and relatives.
In the late 1980s, a new structure of newspaper ownership had emerged and the system of newspaper control that Marcos had established was dismantled overnight. The economics of operating newspaper organizations geared toward a mass market meant that print media ownership would be limited to small elite who could afford them: large, influential and often competing business houses that also controlled key sectors of the Philippine economy.
The profile of newspaper ownership followed the changing face of Philippine business. The trend began in 1984 when Don Emilio Yap took over the Manila Bulletin in a series of controversial corporate maneuvers that followed the death of the Manila Bulletin publisher Hans Menzi. In 1986, Betty Go-Belmonte broke away from the PDI to set up the Philippine Star. In 1988, John Gokongwei Jr. purchased the Manila Times from the Roceses. In 1991, the Yuchengcos bought the Manila Standard from the Elizaldes, but later sold it to the Sorianos. In 1996, the Yuchengcos sold their shares to the Razons. These tycoons have diversified business empires that include airline; real state; holding firms; telecommunication; banking and finance; hotels, recreation, and other services; mining, oil exploration, and manufacturing; among others.
ROLE AND CONSUMPTION
Newspaper consumption primarily boils in the urban areas of the country and newspaper readership is most substantial in urban markets that account 20 percent of the population as of 2006. Across areas, the National Capital Region contributes the highest with 44 percent of any newspaper read yesterday. Interestingly, rural areas do not project strong figures for tabloid and broadsheet readership, an indication that it is still an area for growth in terms of increasing the reading public.
Consumption has profiling skews. Among the higher scale A, B, and C readers, broadsheets are more popular, garnering readership of 35 percent as of 2004. Tabloids cater to the lower scale D and E readers, whose readership is 21 percent versus A, B, and C market's 10 percent. Detailing readership by preference, Filipinos lean on front page and local news, driven by the metropolis.
Due to personality and selectivity preferences, reading audiences have defined readership ratings for national broadsheets in the newspaper industry. In 2004, for rural and urban readers, the PDI ranked first. In 2006, Manila Bulletin slightly pushed the PDI back in matter of decimal number points with 3.44 versus 3.29. Bulgar has been the consistent number one tabloid newspaper across rural and urban area markets, followed by Abante.
Indeed, tabloids and broadsheets made big waves in the newspaper industry. From several perspectives, newspapers, in particular, have played an essential role in moderation, societal dialogue, media competition, the Philippine press, and corporate and social responsibility.
