BusinessMirror celebrates its fifth anniversary as the No. 1 daily business newspaper in the country

They don’t just read newspapers like the BusinessMirror; they savor it, allowing the words to drip like honey on white bread, enriching a broad view of Philippine business.

This is exactly how the paper was conceived five years ago, after several months of dry runs and focused-group discussions.

The old hands of Philippine journalism and the young bloods in business reporting consciously simplified the otherwise complex jargon that at times accompanied stories on markets, the economy and other business concerns.

The BusinessMirror devoted ample space to sports and lifestyle, motoring and gadgets, science and technology—news and information equally savored by those doing business.

The paper helped stoke the fire of entrepreneurship and encouraged small businesses, scientists, technologists and midsized investors.

At the same time, those seasoned in the ways of the market discovered that another credible source of information and opinion helped rather than befuddled an already crowded media industry.

The market responded by returning the respect the paper bestowed on the reading public.

Awards and citations

Months before it turned a year old, the BusinessMirror’s story on labor-management relations in a globalized era won an award in the 17th Jaime V. Ongpin Awards for Excellence in Journalism.

Three years later, the paper’s special report on the food riots and the desperation in poverty-stricken Haiti at the height of the global commodities crunch in 2008 received the prestigious United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Award for excellence in reporting on humanitarian and development affairs.

At the UNCA Awards Dinner at the UN Headquarters in New York, BusinessMirror publisher T. Anthony C. Cabangon received from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon a medal and cash prize on behalf of correspondent Imelda Abaño.

In his speech, Cabangon said the recognition from the UN vindicated the paper’s thrust to encourage people to always have a broader view of business.

A year later, in 2009, Abaño would again bring honor to the paper and Philippine journalism as she received the highest recognition during the Developing Asia Journalism Awards.

Of course, the market’s sweetest gesture was when the Rotary Club of Manila bequeathed to the BusinessMirror the Newspaper of the Year award for 2006, just as it completed its first year of publication.

It was a feat since the paper’s closest competitor was recognized only after more than a decade of existence.

An indication of the cutting-edge reportage of the BusinessMirror is the fact that several of its reporters have ruled some of the top categories in the prestigious Ejap Journalism Awards given out yearly by the Economic Journalists’ Association of the Philippines. The Ejap Awards gave recognition to the best reports in the fields of banking and finance, telecommunications, energy, trade and industry, and macroeconomics.

But it’s not just in business journalism where it excels.  The paper’s Motoring section, led by editor and veteran racer Popong Andolong, has won the grand prize (Best Motoring Section) for the three consecutive years (2007, 2008, 2009) that the Henry Ford Motoring Journalism Awards has been in existence.

The end result: According to the latest Synovate Media Atlas Philippines survey, the BusinessMirror is now the No. 1 daily businesss newspaper in the country, overtaking its rival, across all socioeconomic classes nationwide.

Credible news source

By not shortchanging the reading public, the BusinessMirror has further enhanced its reputation as a credible, incisive source of news and information, in the process, winning the respect and admiration of the captains of industry in the country.

In the end, according to the Sunday Call writing on The New York Times’ 50th anniversary, such reputation is a journal’s “real capital.”

Paraphrasing Sunday Call’s piece, in these days when the rise of so-called new media fuels the buzz of white noise and continuous sensationalist and gotcha journalism, the demand is greater for decent business writing. But, indeed, “one need not be dull to be respectable,” says the Sunday Call.

The BusinessMirror, in the past five years and in the next five years, would tread on the path guaranteed to make business journalism and the paper “very interesting.”  --Dennis D. Estopace