Philippine Star: The Paper You Read From Cover To Cover

The paper you read from cover to cover- that's one of the many taglines used by the Philippine Star.

This is true since the paper is loaded with information and news that people will actually read and simply not dismiss. If the other paper's back are loaded with advertisements, the last sections of this newspaper is loaded with content that will surely appeal to those who loves to read and to those who are really looking for information.

This newspaper is considered as one of the major players in the industry in the country and the other broadsheets in the country are the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Manila Bulletin. To be exact there are around 14 broadsheets in circulation and only two of these are in Filipino- the Kabayan and the Numero Uno. Based on some surveys, the Philippine Star is included in the list with the most number of copies in circulation.

Here is a listing of these major broadsheets and its circulation in numbers:

. Manila Bulletin. Based on some records this broadsheet has a circulation of 280,000 copies during weekdays and 300,000 during Sundays

. Philippine Daily Inquirer. This broadsheet declares around 260,000 copies during weekdays and another 280,000 during Sundays

. The Philippine Star is said to circulate 271,687 copies

The circulation numbers of these broadsheets should have changed by now in reaction to market needs and the wants of the readers. Tabloids on the other hand a higher circulation since these tabloids are the ones preferred by the readers who belong to the C, D and E income brackets. These tabloids are printed at less cost too. But for the A and B classes, the listed three broadsheets which include the Philippine Star are their newspapers of choice.

The paper is owned by the PhilSTAR Daily, Inc and the paper was started on July 28, 1986. The paper was founded by three veteran journalists of that time, Maximo Soliven, Betty Go-Belmonte and Art Borjal. And this broadsheet boasts of an established circulation in Hong Kong and in Saudi Arabia. Based on the latest results released by the Neilsen Media Index for the first quarter of 2008, this newspaper is considered as the most read broadsheet in Metro Manila. According to the said survey the paper has a Monday to Saturday readership of 47.4 percent and this figure posted by the paper is an improvement from its figures posted in 2007. For the last semester of 2007, the Media Index also showed the Philippine Star as the number one broadsheet for the A, B and C income classes and for that same time period the paper has a readership of 47.3 percent. This figure was again up from the 35.7 percent it registered for 2006.

Philippine Star leads in readership, advertising revenue

If in terms of readership the paper is leading the way, it can be said that in terms of advertisements the paper is leading the way too. In a survey that was conducted by the Nielsen Media Research for the Print Advertising Information Service, it was found out that the Star took the bulk of advertising expenditure among the many Philippine broadsheets.

The company reported that the paper notched 2.97 billion pesos worth of advertising and this was followed by the Philippine Daily Inquirer which got 2.68 billion and the two is followed by the Manila Bulletin which got 1.35 billion pesos.

The paper has four major sections, the News, the Lifestyle features, the Business features and their other features and sections. The News section of the paper will include the headlines and the opinion pages. This section will also include its popular Opinion page which aggregates the opinions of readers.

The paper is the first one to harness the power of the SMS technology. The technology is used to solicit the views and the opinions of the readers and a whole page is devoted to their opinions. This style was then copied by other tabloids and broadsheets in the market. The Philippine Star is also known for another first- this time it was the first broadsheet in the country that ventured into the social networking site called Facebook.com. This is an application added to its Supreme section- a Saturday youth culture section.