Printing press on F. Torres Street, Sta. Cruz, Manila.

Thousands of years have passed since man began any written records of existence. From cave drawings during the prehistoric ages to carved stone tablets, time has been a witness to the evolution of man and our capacity and need to express ourselves and make our mark in history.

It was only a matter of time before people’s need to be informed grew proportionally with the necessity to keep records. Over the centuries, two world wars and the emergence of the world-wide web, gathering and delivering information globally has gone way beyond any layman’s comprehension.

The Manila Bulletin, established as the longest running newspaper publication in the country, has gone through over a century of experience in terms of news making. In exactly 110 years in print media, the Bulletin has constantly adapted to its readers’ growing need to be informed about what is happening with the world around them.

In its efforts to constantly improve and keep in step with all modern modes in the delivery of news, the Manila Bulletin has embraced the advent of technology and its application in disseminating information.

As the first media outlet to put up a web site dedicated to delivering news from and about the Philippines,

The Manila Bulletin recognized early on that the future of information will continue to develop in sophistication and must be delivered within the widest reach possible. This includes reaching out not only to local readers but to a global audience as well.

The company’s long tenure as one of the pillars of Philippine journalism has made it a pioneer in most aspects of the print media industry.

The paper has traveled quite a long road to where it is at today and at this juncture, we take a look at where and how it all started.

Early Years
The Manila Bulletin published its first issue on February 2, 1900, at a time when the country was a witness to the birth of 24 different news publications.

Today, all but the Bulletin along with the Manila Times has ceased to operate. Funded by Carson Taylor, a teacher from Illinois who served in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War, the Daily Bulletin, as it was then called, was oriented to cater to the shipping market. Its main purpose “was to give the public accurate and reliable shipping and commercial information and nothing else.”

The Daily Bulletin distributed its issues for free. By 1904, it had established its niche in the market and the publication, then, commenced to be offered on a subscription basis. Two years later, in 1906, the publication began printing four 10”x12” pages and changed its name from The Daily Bulletin to The Manila Daily Bulletin. A half dozen years later, in 1912, the paper, now with a six-column tabloid format comprised of eight pages and under the editorship of William Crozier, entered the general newspaper field.

Another six years later, in 1918, the Bulletin once again changed its appearance.

It took on a more conservative format identical to the New York Times. Now a standard eight-column size in look, the paper utilized typeface column heads for its pages. It also began to feature foreign news sourced, originally, from cable flashes.

The Second World War
Over the years, the Bulletin flourished.

It was known to have pioneered provincial news coverage, an endeavor that continued until the Second World War forced the publication’s operations to a halt and eventually, its closure.

The Bulletin continued to run news during the early days of the war until the Japanese invaders put an end to its publication. On the night of January 2, 1942, a Japanese consular official, along with a group of soldiers, strode into the Bulletin newsroom and ordered the paper’s closure. The next day, the newspaper’s plant was shut and sealed, “BY ORDER OF THE IMPERIAL JAPANESE GOVERNMENT.”

Then editor Roy C. Bennet was detained by the Japanese and jailed in Fort Santiago. After 13 months, he was confined in an internment camp situated within the University of Sto. Tomas. The paper was kept closed all throughout the Japanese occupation.

In 1945, after three months of continuous skirmishes between the Japanese and American forces during the Battle of Liberation in Manila, the Bulletin’s plant and offices were completely destroyed. All, destroyed, along with the physical structure, were the paper’s pre-war news and data files.

Resurgence of the Bulletin
After the war ended in 1946, the Bulletin lost no time in reorganizing the paper. With the help of some oldtime staffers and assistance from Roces Publication owner, Don Ramon Roces, the paper quickly regained its stature as the“exponent of Philippine progress.”

The war razed to the ground the Bulletin’s original building along Evangelista Street. Its owners moved its headquarters to Florentino Torres Street where it stayed until 1956. That year, the paper’s plant and offices were transferred to the Shurdut Building within the walled City of Intramuros.

The following year, Bulletin’s management changed hands, with founder Carson Taylor announcing its sale on July 13, 1957. The Bulletin Publishing Company was bought by Philippine corporation, Menzi & Co., Inc.  Taylor also handed over his responsibilities to the Bulletin’s new publisher, Swiss-Filipino industrialist Hans M. Menzi.

Under Menzi’s ownership, the Bulletin underwent significant changes and additions in terms of covered news. Aside from broadening local and foreign news, the publication also added a special feature sections designed to appeal to various age groups. The “Human Interest” page and the “Page for the Young at Heart” were included daily in the Bulletin to lend a soft, featurized man-on-the-street touch to the paper. All these efforts were all done to enhance the company’s drive to increase circulation and to make the Bulletin a more acceptable street-selling paper.

By April of 1965, the company decided to round out the Bulletin’s weekly coverage, then previously limited to six-days a week, by coming out with a Sunday issue. The paper’s readership, hence, had a copy of the Bulletin every single day of the week.

To further beef up the contents of its Sunday issue, the Bulletin debuted with the PANORAMA Sunday Magazine on August 4, 1968. The magazine featured sections which include Human Interest, Weekend Pictorial and News Reviews. It found its niche and steadily drew the interest of both readers and advertisers as well.

On June 1971, an independent survey done by the Asia Research organization called the Bulletin the “most reliable and unbiased newspaper” at that point in the time. This reinforced the claim in the Manila Daily Bulletin’s front page, which reads: THE PHILIPPINES’ MOST TRUSTED NEWSPAPER.

Martial Law
The declaration of Martial Law (Proclamation 1080) by then President Ferdinand E. Marcos in September, 1972 saw the closure of most of the major media firms in the country. This included the Manila Daily Bulletin amongst all other newspaper publications.

Its disruption in operations at that point was a major blow for the company as it came at a time when the paper had already established firmly its position in the market.

However, along with a few other selected newspapers, the Bulletin was eventually granted permission by President Ferdinand Marcos to resume publication, although under a different name. After two months of closure, the President approved the Bulletin’s change of name and said “This is it, Bulletin Today depicts the New Society.” Thus the paper resumed operations on November 22, 1972, its first issue since being shutdown by Marcos’ martial law government, as The Bulletin Today.

Following the Philippine Daily Express and the Times Journal, which have gained permission to publish earlier, the company had a tough time re-introducing its product to the readers.

But with careful planning and the retention of the word “Bulletin” in its new name, the outfit quickly gained back its clientele, reaching the top after only a year of resuming operations.

Beefing up Production
After re-establishing its position as the top Philippine newspaper nationwide, The Bulletin had a situation to address, that is, how to cope with increasing demands for the paper. In order to suffice for the number of copies needed to be produced, the Bulletin arranged for the purchase of printing presses. In addition, to house the purchased machines, the company also bought a 1.2 hectare lot within Intramuros.

The lot was bounded by Muralla, Recoletos, and Cabildo streets, and was supposed to accommodate both plant and office buildings.

By 1977, the construction of the new building was complete. And by April of that year, the Bulletin’s consolidated operations started at the new site. Once they did, management assessed that production was still marginally supplying the pages needed to be printed. Faced with this state of affairs, the newspaper’s Board of Directors and stockholders agreed to a five-year plan to upgrade printing facilities. This was done by acquiring another set of new line presses, along with other such related equipment that enabled mechanized counting, stacking and bundling of copies and a conversion to a semi-offset printing process.

After such improvements were installed, the revamped Bulletin was ready to face the challenges of newsmaking in the 1980’s. On March 12, 1986, the Bulletin Today finally changed its name to the present, The Manila Bulletin.