In 1994, the first ever local website dedicated to serving news from the Philippines was launched by the Manila Bulletin. This was the first step done by any establishment in the country that embraced available modern technology to provide better service to Filipino readers globally.

Six years later, at the turn of the millennium, the Bulletin again became a pioneer in innovating news delivery by becoming the first local online newspaper to enable mobile internet service. At that time then, when the mobile service market in the country was starting to really pick up, the company already foresaw its capabilities for innovative news delivery.

The next couple of years saw technologies develop at an unprecedented rate. Information can now be accessed through a multitude of ways aside from the traditional trimedia of print, radio and television. These avenues were opened through the emergence of the World Wide Web, which really became the focal point of information exchange and development.

This made communication far easier and the world a lot smaller in so many ways than one.

With new internet applications and websites put up every day, the internet’s market has grown by leaps and bounds and its application becoming more specialized, catering to multifarious individual interests. Hence, the reason why the Manila Bulletin decided to take the next major step forward, starting with a re-design of its original website. By January of 2009, the Bulletin had started to offer a new and improved online edition.

The revamp was done holistically, covering the website’s functional and aesthetic values. In terms of function, the online edition can now provide, as Manila Bulletin Online Editor, Kris Lanot Lacaba describes it, “real-time updates of news developments.”

Aside from the availability of current news and information, the Manila Bulletin website’s accessibility was also vastly improved as news feeds could now be received through every possible gadget with connectivity to the internet or through mobile service equipment.

Also, the Bulletin has introduced its “online e-paper,” allowing one to read actual newspaper pages in the internet. Virtually all of the paper’s regular contents, including articles, photos, insert magazines and even advertisements can now be accessed and downloaded for free.

Through its online edition, The Manila Bulletin also aims to enhance interaction with its readers. According to Mr. Lacaba, with this upgraded service, “the paper hopes to allow readers more opportunities to interact with other readers and the people behind the Manila Bulletin through the site.” Apart from the usual availability of e-mail, the site also has interactive surveys which readers can participate in and make comments on some pages in the online edition.

In terms of design, the new Bulletin webpage features a cleaner, more streamlined lay-out which improves the visibility of online advertisements even as it sharpens the focus on the most important aspect of the site, the actual news.

Time changes everything, pictures fade, structures crumble and even life comes to an end. But through time, people have and will never get tired of educating themselves.  And for 110 years, the Manila Bulletin has been able to provide its readership and the general public vital material for enlightenment and a means to understand better the dynamics of the world they live in, that is, through reliable, timely and credible news and information.

The future holds a multitude of possibilities, but where it concerns news and news delivery, only one name has withstood the test of time - The Manila Bulletin.