The Manila Bulletin ( ), (also known as the Bulletin and was previously known as the Manila Daily Bulletin and the Bulletin Today) is the Philippines' largest broadsheet newspaper by circulation, followed by the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It bills itself as "The Nation's Leading Newspaper", which is its official slogan. Founded in 1900 as a shipping journal, it is the second-oldest Philippine newspaper, second only to The Manila Times.

It was originally owned by a Swiss expatriate named Hans Menzi. The Manila Bulletin survived the Martial law era of President Ferdinand Marcos for propaganda purposes.

The newspaper is owned by Filipino-Chinese business mogul Emilio Yap, who, aside from the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation (the paper's controlling company), also owns the Manila Hotel and Euro-Phil Laboratories. The company has been listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange since 1990, and had revenues of approximately US$45 million in 2004. Besides its flagship it publishes two other daily newspapers, Tempo and Balita, as well as nine magazines such as the Philippine Panorama, Bannawag, Liwayway, Bisaya and a host of other journals in English, Tagalog, Cebuano and other Philippine languages.

To further enhance its image as a newspaper which presents positive news articles, the Bulletin recently introduced a new marketing tagline "There's good news here".

In addition it maintains the oldest news web site in the Philippines.

On December 22, 2007, survey results by Nielsen Media Research "Nielsen Media Index Study (Enhanced Wave 2)," covering the whole year of 2007, showed that the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net) was the choice of 53% "of those who said they had read a broadsheet" with 1.3 million readers. Manila Bulletin came second with 47 % (1.17 million readers), while the Philippine Star was third with 42% (1.05 million readers). Nielsen survey also showed that the Sunday Inquirer Magazine, led in its category, with 39% readership, Panorama came in second with 35%, while Starweek was third with 12%.

Controversy

On June 5, 2008, a Filipino blogger sued the Bulletin for copyright infringement. The photo blogger had discovered that photos that he had taken and posted online had been used by the Manila Bulletin in its "Travel & Tourism" section of the March 21, 2007 issue. Apparently, the photographs had been altered and used by the newspaper without the original photographer's consent and without attribution or compensation. A month later, the newspaper filed a counter-suit against the blogger claiming "exemplary and moral damages". The Manila Bulletin claimed that its use (and alteration, creating derivative works) of the photographs constituted fair use.

References

1. Inquirer.net, Nielsen survey shows Inquirer is top newspaper

External links

• Manila Bulletin