BAGUIO CITY – Dismissed as the mere, “new kid” round the corner by doyens entrenched in the Fourth Estate, Baguio Herald Express just shrugged it off, instead painstakingly slogged a long arduous path that began 8 years ago, now having transformed into a humble youngster trudging hurdles in the field of journalism, charting challenges ahead by holding a credo, “We deliver balanced news that matters to you,” for Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Region 01 and adjoining region doorsteps, as well.
Herald Express’s journey from infancy was fraught with uncertainty, but the kid’s founding fathers made dead sure their offspring grow to be worthy of the name – Herald Express.
Herald Express’s founding fathers have all reasons to believe they penciled – and will continue – a right path from the birth pains of Herald Express.
Herald Express was born in 2014. The editorial in the December 11, 2022 issue of Herald Express said, “We were not spared from the birth pains of putting up the news organization. The founders used their passion for the profession and resilience to hurdle the challenges faced over the past eight years of our operation. We had our ups and downs, but used these as vehicles to try to move on to greater heights and gain the trust and confidence of our readers and viewers.”
Despite ambivalence experienced, the editorial noted,” We would like to remain humble as we achieve our goals. We will accept constructive criticism as part of improving our service and operation. We will adapt, innovate and create balanced news as to continue to serve our readers in our journey together to achieve greater heights with, because we cannot do this alone.”
By adapting and innovating, Herald Express takes the course of delivering a year-end report, which it started two years ago, for readers to grasp in a nutshell accomplishment or failures as 2022 writes finis to its last chapter.
A year-end report, periodically accomplished by government offices and private entities, serves as a communication tool providing to the public information on activities carried out and services provided and serves to compare actual service delivery with forecasted delivery service.
For the year 2022, Herald Express, a broadsheet with a minimum of 16 pages and 20 pages during times of peak information breaks, produced a total of 2,296 news articles from January to December 18, 2022.
A print media, Herald Express utilizes a combination of words and pictures to convey the news, utilizing the wisdom “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
For the same year, a total of 411 photos earned their niches in the pages of the weekly newspaper, portraying stories clearly without needing readers to read a story first.
With the development of Information Technology, integration an inevitable trend, Herald Express took the road to coalesce traditional media and social media in the delivery of its service by satisfying users’ reading and viewing habits.
Regular photo contributions emanate from the regional offices, provincial offices, Local Government Units and the private sector, aside from photos produced by Herald Express staff.
On close inspection, the paper produces weekly, a minimum of 40 articles to a maximum of 60, with the median at 50, depending on how much space is available, since in a broadsheet, space is very important for accommodation of advertising needs as demanded by both the public and private sectors. .
The last week of this December cannot be included because, by happenstance, the last December week issue will hit the streets on January 1 and as a matter of work rules, Herald Express staff should have already submitted their work not later than December 29.
However, inspecting the weekly data, it is safe to assume, even basing on the weekly minimum, that by the end of December, Herald Express would have produced 2,300 or more articles, aside from the news pictorials, based on forecasted delivery service.
Bulk of the news articles were crafted by HENT. HENT refers to the Herald Express News Team. Heading the HENT team is Dexter See, con-current member of the editorial board and one of the newspaper’s founders. He also leads in the penning of news articles.
A closer look at the 2022 data showed a monthly minimum of 137 to a maximum of 260 straight news, new features, editorials, columns, sports news and “Quiz Whiz” were prepared by Herald Express, fully satisfying the basic sections of a newspaper that are important to the reading public.
Herewith can be gleaned the topics covered by the paper for this receding year:
Breaking down the number of times subject topics appeared on the pages of Herald Express important for the reading public, the area of education took the limelight at 290, followed by Local Government Unit (LGU) concerns, 200 times and, health, 155 times.
What followed closely were agriculture, 131 times; achievements/awards/founding anniversaries, festivals/recognition, at 126 times, and environment; at 112 times.
Business, banking, trade and finance were featured 110 times, economy and development, 69; Indigenous People’s concerns (to include culture and tradition) at 62 times and; road and other public infrastructure development/rehabilitation, 64 times.
Police, anti-drug and civil security concerns, 57 times; electricity/energy/power generation, 54 times; public service initiative/intervention and outreach, 48 times
Tourism (to include agri and eco-tourism) at 44 times; politics, 40 times; Geriatrics/gender mainstreaming/Persons with Disabilities at 38 times; mining (to include small-scale mining) at 38 times.
Fashion and lifestyle at 34 times; transportation/motor vehicle and drivers concerns, 27 times; legal and adjudication, 22 times, and fire and safety/ disaster management, mitigation and response at 20 times. .
Labor issues and concern, 19 times; Autonomy, 15 times; child/youth development, 15 times, and; Information Technology, 12 times; sanitation/ecological solid waste management, 12 times; barangay matters, 14 times and population issues, 10 times.
Studying the reason why education continued to spot the limelight, this year-end report discovered that readers, students, educators/teachers and other contributors have found a home in a section of Herald Express where they can readily ventilate intelligently their views, concerns, poems, activities and aspirations. The section in the newspaper is called “Timek ti Umili.”
Contributors delved most on education regarding health, particularly the pandemic that struck. Local Government Units got second in the news because of the surge in the activities of government units in hammering home security measures on the pandemic.
Health came third because for the year 2022, the pandemic problem was not completely tamed and health authorities still strove to control the problem with the help of the LGUs.
Political news shaped up during the ending days of the first quarter of 2020, lasting well into the second quarter of the year.
Tourism, which before always hugged the limelight, took a nosedive because of the pandemic. It was only during the last days of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth quarter that tourism started to perk up.
Electricity/energy/power distribution became hot news by the middle of the year 2022 because of the meddling of the National Electrification Administration (NEA) into the affairs of Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO).
Timek ti Umili also became an important tool for teachers to publish their works, a pre-requisite, among others, by the Department of Education (DepEd) needed for advancement of careers particularly of public school teachers.
On the other hand, students found a venue in the section to publish their views, aspirations, experiences in life and what they dream to become, often putting these into poems.
While still on the other hand, various sectors in the community found Timek ti Umili the place where they, too, can contribute and share their experiences on success or failure, to serve as inspiration to others.
Studying all areas covered by Herald Express, it was a surprising revelation that by the end of the first quarter of 2022, it was only the Office of the Vice-Mayor of Baguio City which successfully submitted for public knowledge its 2021 accomplishment report.
During the third quarter of the year 2022 also saw an entry of the column “Nutrition Facts,” completing the column section of Herald Express.
The column, “Punto Legal,” continues to inform the public on purely legal matters while “SSS: Serbisyong Sulit Na Sulit,” regularly updates Social Security System (SSS) members.
Throughout the year 2022, Daily Laborer column alternated by dishing out different themes as well as news features on agriculture, environment, culture and tradition, tourism and economy.
