FILIPINO newspaper publishers and readers have expressed pain over the closure of Baguio Midland Courier, a leading community publication that is serving Baguio City and neighboring towns in the northern Luzon regions of the Philippines for the past 77 years.
On July 22, 2024, the newspaper will officially cease its operation, citing “worldwide trend that newspapers are facing unprecedented challenges.”
Founded in April 1947 by brothers Oseo and Sinai Hamada and their half-sister Cecilia Afable, the newspaper announced in late June that “the decision to cease publication was a difficult one, and the management deeply regrets any impact this may have on our esteemed readers, newsboys, supporters, contributors, and advertisers.”
“Baguio Midland Courier’s legacy cannot be forgotten: community journalism at its finest. Its long history of public service has made a significant dent to its readers and the entire community that value journalism as key component to enriching the lives of Cordillerans where it matters the most,” said Ariel Sebellino, executive director of the Philippine Press Institute (PPI), the national association of about 60 newspapers and considered as the oldest professional media organization in the country.
“The Philippine Press Institute has always recognized Baguio Midland Courier for raising the standards of journalism via its haul of accolades in the Institute’s long-standing Community Press Awards,” wrote Sebellino on July 19, as he lauded the “women and men who made Baguio Midland Courier truly a worthwhile reading experience.”
“Sad to hear this news. Community newspapers that fold up represent already marginalized voices in the national discourse,” added Joyce Pañares, managing editor of Manila Standard.
Danilo Arao, an associate professor at the Department of Journalism, College of Mass Communication, University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, said that the closure of Baguio Midland Courier “is a sad chapter in Philippine journalism, especially community journalism.”
“The introduction of new technologies (in this case the Internet) should result in convergence and complementation with the old (or legacy) media, not closure due to the changing media landscape,” Arao told Sunstar Philippines in an interview on July 19.
“Given the long history of this publication, we hope for its return in the future, mindful that what used to work in the print media should be reevaluated given the changing times. New technologies require new strategies in media management even if the age-old tenets of journalism remain qualitatively unchanged,” he added.
In her op-ed article for online news hub Mountain Beacon and republished by the Baguio Midland Courier on its Facebook page, writer-teacher LA Piluden expressed her sadness over the publication’s closure, saying: “Like many community newspapers, the Baguio Midland Courier is a keeper of public memory. Its closure, therefore, is not even about the print and digital divide. It’s about the end of collective memory. The postcolonial thinker Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o once said: ‘A people without memory are in danger of losing their soul.’”
“This danger of losing our soul is largely why the closure of the Baguio Midland Courier is unacceptable. At a time when cities are forced to engage in soulless enterprises, it is the community newspaper that keeps a community intact. To lose one of our celebrated memory-keepers is akin to losing our Baguio soul,” Piluden wrote on July 17.
In its 2024 report, the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said that the Philippine media “are extremely dynamic despite the government’s targeted attacks and constant harassment of journalists and media outlets regarded as overly critical, especially since 2016, when Rodrigo Duterte became president.”
In August 2020 alone, at least 11 newspapers across the Philippines have stopped printing temporarily and shifted to digital due to the financial problem aggravated by the pandemic, the Catholic news site UCA News reported. (Ronald O. Reyes/SunStar Philippines)
