Philippine Daily Inquirer

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Philippine Daily Inquirer
Balanced News, Fearless Views
PDI news logo.svg
Philippine Daily Inquirer Front Page (December 11, 2019).jpg
Front page from December 11, 2019
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Philippine Daily Inquirer, Inc.
Founder(s)Eugenia D. Apostol, Betty Go Belmonte, Max Soliven
PublisherJuliet L. Javellana
PresidentRudyard Arbolado
EditorJoseph Voltaire Contreras
Opinion editorGilbert Cadiz
Sports editorFrancis Ochoa
Founded9 December 1985; 36 years ago (1985-12-09)
(13,424 issues)
Political alignmentCentre-left
LanguageEnglish
Headquarters1098 Chino Roces Ave. cor Yague and Mascardo Sts. 1204, Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines
CityMakati
CountryPhilippines
Readershipover 50%
ISSN0116-0443
Websiteinquirer.net

The Philippine Daily Inquirer, popularly known as the Inquirer, is an English-language newspaper in the Philippines. Founded in 1985, it is often regarded as the Philippines' newspaper of record.[1][2] The newspaper is the most awarded broadsheet in the Philippines and the multimedia group, called The Inquirer Group, reaches 54 million people across several platforms.[3]

History[edit]

The Philippine Daily Inquirer was founded on 9 December 1985 by publisher Eugenia Apóstol, columnist 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.[4]

The Inquirer succeeded the weekly Philippine Inquirer,[4] created in 1985 by Apostol to cover the trial of 25 soldiers accused of complicity in the assassination of opposition leader Benigno Aquino Jr. at the Manila International Airport on August 21, 1983. Apostol also published the Mr. & Ms. Special Edition, a weekly tabloid opposed to the Marcos regime.[4]

Beltran years (1985–89)[edit]

As the successor to the previous Mr. & Ms. Special Edition and the weekly Philippine Inquirer, it was founded on a budget of P1 million and enjoyed a daily circulation of 30,000 in its early days. The new daily was housed in the dilapidated one-story Star Building on 13th and Railroad streets in Port Area, Manila. It was put out by 40 editors, reporters, correspondents, photographers and other editorial employees working in a 100 square meter newsroom. Columnist Louie Beltran was named its editor-in-chief.

The newspaper was instrumental 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.[4] In this period, the newspaper reached a high circulation of 500,000 copies a day.

In July 1986, questions about finances and a divergence of priorities caused a rift among the founders that led Belmonte, Soliven, and Art Borjal's split from the Inquirer to establish The Philippine Star.[5] As Belmonte owned the Star Building where the Inquirer was headquartered, the newspaper amicably transferred to the Soliven-owned BF Condominium on Aduana Street, Intramuros.[5]

Pascual years (1989–91)[edit]

In February 1987, Federico D. Pascual, former assistant managing editor of the Daily Express, was named executive editor of Inquirer and was appointed editor-in-chief two years later.[4] It was during his term in 1990 that the Inquirer took the lead from the Manila Bulletin to become the Philippines' largest newspaper in terms of circulation.

However, in July 1990, the Inquirer headquarters in Intramuros was damaged by the 1990 Luzon earthquake. On January 5, 1991, the newspaper transferred to the YIC building along United Nations Avenue and Romualdez Street in Malate.

Jimenez-Magsanoc years (1991–2015)[edit]

PDI logo prior to the 2016 relaunch
Letty Jimenez Magsanoc, Inquirer's editor-in-chief from 1991 until her death in 2015.

Inquirer's longest-serving and first woman editor-in-chief, the late Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc,[6] was appointed on June 14, 1991. She was a former columnist and editor of the Panorama Sunday magazine of Bulletin Today (now Manila Bulletin) who was sacked for writing articles poking fun at Marcos. She edited Mr & Ms Special Edition until the fall of the Marcos regime. She was also the first editor-in-chief of Sunday Inquirer Magazine.[7]

Under her term, in 1995, the Inquirer moved to its current headquarters in Makati after transferring headquarters four times.

Then-President Joseph Estrada accused the Inquirer of "bias, malice, and fabrication" against him, charges that the newspaper denied. In 1999, several government organizations, pro-Estrada businesses, and movie producers simultaneously pulled their advertisements from the Inquirer in a boycott that lasted for five months.[8] Malacañang Palace was widely implicated in the advertising boycott, which publisher Isagani Yambot denounced as an attack on the freedom of the press.[8]

In 2017, according to the survey conducted by AGB Nielsen, the Inquirer was 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.[9] Magsanoc died on December 24, 2015, at St. Luke's Medical Center in Taguig.[7][10] A month after her death, Jimenez-Magsanoc was recognized as the Filipino of the Year 2015 by the Inquirer.

Nolasco years (2016–2018)[edit]

On February 2, 2016, the Inquirer appointed its managing editor Jose Ma. Nolasco as the executive editor, the new top position of the newspaper, replacing the traditional editor-in-chief position used by the Inquirer for more than three decades.[11]

Readership[edit]

According to the company's website the newspaper has over 2.7 million nationwide readers daily, it enjoys a market share of over 50% and tops the readership surveys.[12]

Reputation[edit]

At least two opinion pieces cite the Daily Inquirer as the Philippines' newspaper of record, but as an opportunity for criticism: The Manila Times criticized it for "publish[ing] ... vapid, unthinking positions" which it called "reprehensible, at best";[13] GMA News, in 2014, noted it as a "de facto paper of record", followed by "This distinguished history only makes it more painful to say that the paper is starting to suck".[14]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Philippine Daily Inquirer -- Inquirer.Net". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved June 6, 2022.
  2. ^ "Philippines | RSF". rsf.org. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
  3. ^ "Philippine Daily Inquirer focuses on 5 priorities to reach goal of 100,000 digital subscribers". International News Media Association (INMA). Retrieved August 25, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d e "History". The Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
  5. ^ a b Yu, Doreen (July 28, 2011). "The beginnings of The Philippine Star". The Philippine Star. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
  6. ^ "Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc: Stars of Asia-Opinion Shapers". Sheridan Prasso. July 3, 2000. Retrieved May 18, 2014.
  7. ^ a b Nery, John (November 25, 2015). "Magsanoc, who led the Inquirer for 24 years, writes 30". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved December 25, 2015.
  8. ^ a b Balana, Cynthia D. (March 4, 2012). "Isagani Yambot: PDI grammar cop, pillar of free press, friend". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  9. ^ "The STAR is NCR's no. 1 newspaper". The Philippine Star. December 8, 2017. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  10. ^ "Inquirer editor in chief Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc dies". Rappler. December 24, 2015. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  11. ^ "Nolasco appointed PDI executive editor". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved February 3, 2016.
  12. ^ "Philippine Daily Inquirer". philippinedailyinquirerplus.pressreader.com. Retrieved June 6, 2022.
  13. ^ "Actor-politicians and understanding the vote of the poor". The Manila Times. July 6, 2014. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
  14. ^ Claudio, Leloy (May 7, 2014). "Reform the country's 'paper of record". GMA News. Retrieved April 25, 2018.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Philippine Daily Inquirer.
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