Newspapering in Baguio and perhaps elsewhere around the globe will never be the same again.
This actually started two to three decades ago when provincial newsmen stopped sending typewritten articles fed through the telex machines of RCPI, PT&T and the Philippine News Agency for government news writers.
I remember the late Isidoro Chammag of the Bulletin Today (now Manila Bulletin) burning the phone lines at the National Media Production Center where I worked to dictate his article word-for-word to an encoder at the receiving line.
Also around that time, news photographers would have their 36 exposure films cut at mid portion inside a changing bag so they can develop the exposed film right away and send the print copy via couriers or Manila bound buses to a waiting personnel sent to receive by the news publication. A day’s coverage would usually see print the next day if the news item reaches the editor’s desk in Manila before cut-off time. For provincial publications such as the Baguio Midland Courier, the news deadline for contributors is usually Friday before 5 in the afternoon.
When I started working with the Philippine Information Agency after the EDSA Revolution as a government PIO, I submitted stories mostly captioned photographs. That’s why in every coverage, I take pictures repeatedly and type my captions in triplicates using onion skin and carbon paper.
When internet and personal computers became available by the mid ‘90s, news feeds were electronically mailed to network news desks which made news article sending a lot faster.
Though facsimile machines were already available as early as the late 80s, one has to make a follow up call to verify if the sent news article is readable and wasn’t garbled. Photos were likewise digitally scanned and sent thru email. I had my first email in 1995 and I was able to confirm my participation in the 1st Igorot International Consultations held in California using my artibaldo@yahoo.com.
Around that period, the use of personal computers with Microsoft’s MS-DOS or Windows became the emerging industry standard for publications.
I remember using a PC/XT 286 processor that was upgraded to 386 then to 486 DX. These computing dinosaurs precedes the Pentium Microprocessors of Intel.
Desktop Publishing:
With the PC’s programs such as Powerpoint, MS Publisher and Word, we were already able to combine texts, photos, graphics, and other visual elements in a layout or document based on ‘what you see is what you get’ or WYSIWYG.
To this writer, the 90s was also the period when I started to explore desktop softwares, paint programs and applications such as Adobe Pagemaker, Premiere and Photoshop.
When we started the community show “This is Baguio TV Show” for the Channel 11 of Nuvue Cable Vision in August 1993, we were still using analog video equipments such as VHS, S-VHS, Video-8 and Hi-8 for news gathering and edit shows with pro-sumer decks in what we call bare-bones-editing. We used the head-end office of the company which later became Skycable Baguio as our studio. With my training in UP Film Center, MOWELFUND and Japan on Video Production, I served as the Technical Director and later as alternate talk show host for Cordillera News Agency-TV’s Cordillera Skyline.
During the return of the legendary Benguet mummy Apo Anno in Nabalikong Buguias in May 1999, Reuters Chief Photographer Eric de Castro practically brought a portable laboratory with him all packed in pelican boxes that fit in their SUV. He processed his film onsite, scanned it and sent digitized photos of his coverage via a laptop connected to a portable satellite transmitter right from the school near the mummy’s cave where we were lodged.
At the turn of the century, field reporters and seasoned provincial correspondents were already required to go digital and use computers and laptops to send articles, news photos and even videos.
Our Cordillera News Agency team composed of Baboo Mondoñedo, Sonia Daoas, Domc Cimatu, Lilian Oliva, and myself were able to pull said talk show beyond Y2K with guest hosts like Steph Hamada, Jeff Ng and Vladimir Casabas often inviting Aurora Bautista for her yearly predictions and vibrations.
From 2001 to 2005, I gradually shifted to computer non-linear-editing using capture cards that digitized analog video signals into mpeg or mov file formats. Our talk shows were then recorded in computer hard drives and saved in DVD format. By 2006, we finally ceased our TV shows because social media was gaining ground as the source of news and information and the cable company was also showing signs of slowing down because of decreasing subscribers who turn to online news and social media.
After the Y2K rollover, many of us started to use digital cameras whether the handy point ‘n shoot type or the more classy and expensive type called DSLR or Digital Single Lens Reflex.
With the increasing installation of cellular sites in strategic areas of the Cordillera, News Correspondents were already able to send stories for print publications and live feeds for both radio and TV.
From the use of magnetic floppy discs in the 80s and 90s to compact disks or CD-DVDs at the turn of the century and later USB flash drives and today’s solid-state drive or SSDs, I too have accessed Google Drive and iCloud for data storage.
Writing -30-
On July 19, 2024, we went to the Baguio Midland Courier Editorial Office with a heavy heart to anticipate the usual “Friday Press Night” and say thank you to the writers and staff.
Three of them were my former communication students at the then Baguio Colleges Foundation now University of the Cordilleras.
My wife Helen together with Joseph Zambrano who recently retired from the Philippine Information Agency and his spouse Hiyasmin who works at the Mayor’s Office sneaked into the editorial room with flowers hoping to bring momentary joy and lighten up the dull mood of the soon to be closed publications office.
After 77 years in the publishing industry, the longest running community paper in Luzon or perhaps the country is closing for good.
We did not stay long knowing the emotions filled room of staff writers and editors were at its busiest or chaotic moment.
I decided not to capture the sight in photos for some reasons so I just snapped the glass cabinet laden with many plaques and citations from award giving bodies and recognized institutions. I remember doing a portrait shot of the late Cecile O Afable behind the same cabinet when it was still at the Kisad Road Office. Auntie Cecile called me her ‘bastard son’ which is actually an honor for one who belongs to the third generation of Baguio journalists.
My engagement with Baguio Midland Courier dates back to the early ‘80s during my college days. We had a junk shop then and my family was into buying and selling of scraps like metal, plastic, bottles, carton boards and paper. During semester breaks, I help my father do some chores like sacking, weighing and collecting paper trimmings from Hamada Publishing, the Gold Ore Printing Press and other print shops.
Today, I’m still into recycling and up-cycling. I collect media items like typewriters, rotary dial telephones and cameras etc. I’m glad to be part of BMC and thankful that my press releases as government information officer came out almost regularly until I retired when I turned 60.
To my generation in Baguio, there’s a saying “you’re not a true Baguio boy if you haven’t sold a newspaper, shined shoes, pushed a kariton or served a a baggage boy” so I sold few copies of ‘Midland’ on its last edition as I haven’t done when I was a kid because I opted to be a shoe shine boy. Back in the days, newsboys would go to the Hamada Publishing at Kisad Road with their earnings, buy copies at discounted rate and sell it at the city proper with a few cents of mark-up and their earnings assures them ticket money for movies and some for their snacks when in school.
I shined shoes because I was so fascinated with carpentry that I made my own shoe box and sitting stool. I realized too that perhaps I was cut to be a service provider rather than a businessman.
