Baguio Midland Courier to halt operations after 77 years

AN ICONIC media enterprise in the country closes down after 77 years of existence. One of the oldest newspapers in the Philippines and a leading publication in Northern Luzon, the Baguio Midland Courier announced that it would cease its operations on July 22, 2024, citing the “unprecedented challenges” confronting the print media worldwide. 

Its Facebook statement on June 30 read: “The decision to cease publication was a difficult one and the management deeply regrets any impact this may have on our esteemed readers, newsboys, supporters, contributors, and advertisers.” 

The Baguio Midland Courier also said it will release three issues before it shuts down, inviting advertisers and supporters to be part of these editions on July 7, 17, and 21. The newsweekly has been published by the Hamada Printers and Publishers Corp. which is owned by one of the oldest families of Baguio. 

Baguio’s unrivaled publication was born after the end of World War 2. Publishing its first issue on April 28, 1947, founding editor and lawyer Sinai Hamada introduced the newspaper to the community: “We are born. This, we announce humbly. We enter the fourth estate with no misgivings about our mission, believing we have one, or of our destiny, granting we have any. We aim to go somewhere, quite resolutely, but we do not beat our breasts saying so. As is plain, the place of publication of this newspaper is the City of Baguio.” The declaration is carried in the paper’s ‘About Us’ section, along with its four-point program that he presented at its founding, resolving to be “fair, fearless, friendly, and free.” 

The Baguio Midland Courier started as a four-page weekly with 200 copies and has since served as a steadfast source of news for the people of the city, including anyone else wanting to keep in touch with the highland capital. By 1963, its rate of circulation claimed 7,500 sold copies in Baguio City and the Cordilleras and in the course of time has remained the highest among regional newspapers in the North.

In 2007, on its 60th anniversary, Midland entered the digital age – launching its website, expanding its reach nationally and everywhere else in the world through the Internet. It has never missed a publication date since it was first launched, keeping to its schedule through the Martial Law period, amid other political turmoil and natural disasters. 

Of Japanese and Ibaloy descent, its founder Sinai Hamada, the son of Ryukichi Hamada and Josefa Cariño, graduated from Baguio City National High School and completed degrees in Law and Journalism from the University of the Philippines in 1937. He conceived the idea of starting a newspaper in 1946, just about a year after the country’s liberation from Japanese occupation. 

During the pandemic in May 2022, it’s current publisher and general manager, Gloria Antoinette Hamada, sensed the imminent threat to the enterprise; expressing her sadness and anxiety about the impact of the health crisis on the paper in her column. “This new challenge was like no other because it caused death,” Gloria said. She described how the decline in advertising forced the company to retrench some of its employees. 

The column also told the story of how their family ran the publication and how it was part of her childhood. “There were press nights that I recall, Uncle Sinai would doze off in front of his typewriter, fingers still on the keys and when awoke, continued his typing like he didn’t miss a thing. Uncle Sinai was not only the Midland founder but also its first editor-in-chief,” she said.

She described how the Baguio Midland Courier served its community in times of disaster. In the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption, a community benefited from the donations and named their village Barangay Midland Courier. CMFR’s monitor of the Abra earthquake in 2022 noted the value of the community press such as the Baguio Midland Courier, to assist afflicted communities with information about public hotlines and available sources of relief and assistance. 

In 2017, the Baguio Midland Courier was named to the Hall of Fame of the Philippine Press Institute (PPI). The community newspaper received several awards from PPI, such as the Best Edited Weekly Newspaper five times, the Best Editorial Page seven times, and the Best in Science and Environment Reporting three times.

Baguio folk mourn the loss of the paper, describing the closure as “an end of an era.” They added their experiences in writing and reading, describing the newspaper as a weekly ritual, enhancing their morning coffee experience. On another level, the newspaper connects the community, promoting shared values, and the solidarity that makes individuals a living community. 

The Baguio Midland Courier in the statement has expressed the hope for its readers to “stay connected” as they are “hopeful that new opportunities will arise” for them to continue their mission; resolving to be “fair, fearless, friendly, and free” whatever platform provides the opportunity.