A Journalist for 40 years, what gives(Part 2 of Part 3)
What did I gain as a writer for over 40 years? A ridiculous question. Would one believes that you gain bashing in social media where bitter cretins use the platform to gain prominence at your expense?
After graduating from college, I was assigned as Chief of the Philippines News Agency (PNA) bureau covering the Lanao provinces in 1983.
Three years later, in January1986, PNA assigned me in Cagayan de Oro City.
There were dozens of weekly newspapers in Cagayan de Oro City then.
Most, if not all, these weekly newspapers were “one man rule.”
Thus, the Publisher acts as Editor-in-Chief, Reporter, Marketing man, and Janitor of mostly home-based editorial offices.
Having used to community daily newspapers back in Cebu City then, the absence of a local daily newspaper in Cagayan de Oro City makes me wonder.
One day, an old acquaintance from Cebu happened to come to Cagayan de Oro City. The late Lito Meñez, a computer expert from IBM-Cebu has a thumb in newspaper publishing.
In Cagayan de Oro City, Meñez succeeded in convincing businessman Ernesto Chu, to invest in the daily newspaper. Meñez called a meeting for us three — Mr Chu, Meñez and Me.
During the meeting, I told Mr. Chu that a daily newspaper was ripe for the city at that time. Thus, Mr. Chu decided to put all things under his sleeves on the table as Publisher of the daily newspaper.
The masthead? I choose “Gold Star Daily” as the name of the newspaper. ” Gold Star” is a combination of “Gold,” which symbolizes Cagayan de Oro and “Star” to immortalize Sun Star Daily Cebu.
Before joining PNA in 1983, I was one of the pioneers of Sun Star Daily Cebu as a reporter/columnist when the paper went off the press in 1980. -0-
