Going for the Positive Spin

Two broadsheets are born amid Cha-cha debate
Going for the Positive Spin
by By Don Gil K. Carreon

Pundits worldwide may be mourning what they expect to be the end of the print medium, but two new kids on the block have joined the crowded Philippine broadsheet market anyway.

The Philippine Chronicle and The Philippine Gazette released their maiden issues on Sept. 11 and 21, respectively, apparently bullish about the chances of making a profit despite declining newspaper readership and stiff competition from publications mostly swimming in red ink.

Edgar Movido, president of the Chronicle, believes there is still room for one more broadsheet that can deliver the news that people have been looking for.

“People today pay much to get information but only a little of that is spent for newspapers,” he told PJR Reports.

Movido thinks people are tired of the “negative reporting that most papers offer” so his publication will deliver the hard news with a positive spin. “Instead of contributing to demoralization, we want our readers to have hope,” he added.

Raul Lambino, one of the owners of the weekly Philippine Gazette but more popularly known as the spokesman of Charter-change advocate Sigaw ng Bayan, says he ventured into the newspaper business because  a feasibility study  by his group showed that “there is a slight chance for the business to succeed.” He sees the money as coming, not from readers, but from advertisers.

The Chronicle and the Gazette have brought the number of national broadsheets in the country to 11, with two newspapers in Metro Manila specializing in business.

Grim scenario
Making their presence felt on dates notorious in Philippine history because of links to the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos (his birthday was Sept. 11 while martial law was declared Sept. 21), the two newspapers could not have come at a worse time.

In a statement last July, the Magazine Dealers Association of the Philippines said newspaper readership in the country has been declining by 10 percent annually. This claim was confirmed in the same month by a Nielsen Media Research study which showed that Filipinos have been getting their news mostly from radio and television.

According to the August issue of PJR Reports, the combined circulation of national daily broadsheets and tabloids is some 7 million. The figure, which took into consideration pass-on readership, is considered low for a country with a population of 76.5 million.

Some members of the media have responded to the challenge of the market and the apparent reluctance of the public to pay for the news. At least two big publications have printed free editions which draw strength from advertisers. These are the Philippine Daily Inquirer which puts out the Inquirer Libre and the Manila Standard Today’s  Standard Xpress,  which had its first issue last Oct. 16.

In 1999, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism’s report, “Lords of the Press” said that only four of the country’s national broadsheets   were making money. The continued operation of the rest of the pack served another purpose: as a tool to influence government and protect their owners.

Interlocking interests
Almost all media in the country are owned by big businessmen with interlocking interests that deal with government. Are the two new entrants an exception?

With an authorized capital stock of P10 million, the Chronicle was incorporated only last Oct. 13 under the name Philippine Chronicle Media Corp. It has two major stockholders: Noel M. Cariño and Jose C. Singson Jr., brother of Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson.

Cariño, a former partner of publicist Dante Ang in The Manila Times, is one of the founders and board member of the real estate development company Fil-Estate Land Inc.  Singson, on the other hand, is president and chief executive officer of BCS Holdings Realty and Development Corp. The other shareholders in the Chronicle are Movido and his brother Roy, Ramon Villavi-cencio, Rodolfo Datoc, and Lorenzo Benitez.

The Gazette’s ownership structure appears to be just as, if not more, controversial as the Chronicle’s because of the stockholders’ links with the Cha-Cha advocacy group. Lambino and his wife Marilyn both hold a 20-percent stake in the company which has an authorized capital stock of P2.5 million. The rest of the shareholders in the Gazette are Allan F.R. Maligpas; Lambino’s children, Mark Ronald and Mary Rhauline; Peter Anthony Rafanan; Ericson Albano; and Fred Lumba, who each have a 10-percent share in the company.

Before it was circulated nationally, the Gazette was known as the Northern Gazette, a weekly community paper based in Baguio City in 2001. It was circulated in Regions I and II and the Cordillera Administrative Region and was managed then by Maligpas, who served as publisher and editor in chief. The paper was renamed The Philippine Gazette on Aug. 3 after it was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the corporate name Philippine Gazette Publications and Development Inc.

With his acquisition of the biggest share in the company, Lambino assumed the position of publisher while Maligpas was retained as editor in chief. But with the Gazette barely a few weeks old, Maligpas died. He was replaced by Rafanan.

Cha-cha paper?
Interestingly, the Gazette’s online version was launched February and plans for the introduction of its broadsheet counterpart started that same month. It was also at that time when the Cha-cha movement was making controversial headlines with strong support from no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Lambino claims that he does not meddle in the imple-mentation of the paper’s editorial policies, but the paper’s reportage reflects his biases. In the Gazette’s seven issues, six of the main stories focused on the use of people’s initiative in amending the Constitution. Other related stories were given prominence. The Gazette’s columnists promoted Cha-cha and some were critical of those who opposed the initiative.

Lambino does not deny that the Gazette’s coverage has been helpful in the information drive for his advocacy but quickly downplays this. He says the paper is still primarily distributed in Luzon and has a circulation of only 10,000 copies.

If the Gazette has helped Cha-cha, the paper is apparently supported also by the people behind the initiative. The advertisers who have been lured by the paper are Cha-cha advocates, public officials, and government offices such as the Commission on Elections and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

As practical businessmen, Lambino and the other stockholders of the Gazette have given the paper six months to turn a profit.

“We were advised that six months is enough to determine whether the paper will be profitable or not,” says Lambino. “If the paper is not profitable after that time, then it will only lead to losses for us.”

With the people’s initiative calling for Cha-cha killed at the Supreme Court and a few more months to go before the self-imposed deadline to make money, the Gazette wants to work on improving the quality of reporting in its pages. Being a weekly is a disadvantage since dailies and television deliver news faster. The Gazette has a police news section even though it comes out only once a week.

Unlike the Gazette, the people behind the Chronicle are not giving the paper any deadline to make a profit. Movido says that publishing a newspaper is a public service. But he hastens to add that the paper will try to capture a slice of the market by targeting the youth. How the paper will achieve this mission is not clear. Movido merely volunteers the analysis of some advertisers that the Chronicle will be competitive.

With more newspapers to choose from, readers would theoretically have more information available to them. They could choose from a wider assortment of news and points of view and therefore be able to make more intelligent decisions.

But journalists—and readers—know that this is not necessarily so. When a newspaper becomes a political or business tool, it may end up benefiting no one—not the readers and not even those who have invested money in it.

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