As the Baguio Chronicle comes to its decade and a half anniversary, marking the latest milestone in our story of survival and service, we are ringing in the Christmas and the new year with a marked push beyond the borders of the newspaper.
For our dedicated readerbase, old and new alike—first of all, thank you for your support, patronage and most importantly, trust. Secondly, you may have noticed that we have started quite a few projects outside of the paper.
The most prominent ones are, of course, our new podcasts on social media, on our Facebook page and our YouTube channel video-on-demand repository, but we have also been exerting efforts to more regularly push and update our website (thebaguiochronicle.com).
The reason for this is that the era of the newspaper is in its waning years. While the venerable newspaper and print media format has reigned as a trusted institution for decades, the arrival of radio, then television, and then the Internet have since lowered the staying power of print.
For all the hard-hitting journalism that traditional print newspapers have put on the field, and for all the invaluable service of community journalism, the fact of the matter is that the Internet and social media have brought in the new age—a new age that has been drying up the water for print.
There is no escaping this—studies show a global trend away from print media in journalism, with declines in circulation and drastic drops in revenue reported across the globe. The United States, for instance, lost two newspapers a week for a two-odd year period between 2019 to 2022, even as trustworthy news becomes more vital than ever.
Community papers have had to find ways to face the shifting landscape across the board.
Here in the local scene, for instance, the Northern Dispatch transitioned to a fully online format in 2019, completely eschewing any print operations, and of course, this year was marked with the tragic end of the oldest, most established Baguio newspaper, the Baguio Midland Courier, after 77 years.
Here at the Baguio Chronicle, while times are difficult, we are committed to keep moving forward with the times. The efforts start here, with what we have—revitalizing our online presence, expanding to other platforms with new content styles that retain the Baguio Chronicle ethos, with a reinvigorated team.
As the year turns on its last legs, we thank you for sticking with us thus far, for our 15 years, and we ask that you continue to stick with us as we continue with our brand of trustworthy journalism and informing the public—because we have the right to know.
