Manila Bulletin
The Manila Bulletin, flagship English daily of the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation, is the second oldest newspaper in the country, surviving multiple administrations, and remaining among the top broadsheets covering political and local news, and sections for foreign, business, lifestyle, sports, and entertainment news.
In the Q2 2023 Consumer and Media View survey of Nielsen, the Bulletin ranked as the leading national broadsheet in the country with a 3.9% audience share. It is the leading broadsheet published seven days a week in Metro Manila (6.77%), Balance Luzon (3.18%), and Mindanao (2.43%), except in the whole Visayas region. Manila Bulletin also ranked 6th among all television, radio and print outlets that Filipinos access weekly based on the 2023 Digital News Report on the Philippine media landscape of Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
Previously, the newspaper was known for its extensive advertising section, which included classifieds and boxed ads, that had almost the same number of pages as the editorial section especially on Sundays.
In an Oct. 18, 2023 interview, Herminio B. Coloma, Jr., executive vice president and publisher of Manila Bulletin, acknowledged that the emergence of social media has impacted advertisements in the broadsheet. For example, the newspaper receives a few job advertisements because readers, in particular the jobseekers, can just search for vacancies online.
Coloma said many advertisers who used to publish display ads have also shifted their focus to public relation events, except for a few industries like those in real estate and automotive selling that still prefer to advertise their products in newspapers. Meanwhile, he said that Manila Bulletin is getting more advertisements from government offices that are required to publish public notices such as auction of properties.
What started as a four-page shipping journal called the “Daily Bulletin” on Feb. 2,1900 by an American teacher, is also the oldest English newspaper in the Far East. In 1907, it changed its name to Manila Daily Bulletin, and became a general newspaper with a tabloid format in 1912. From 1972, it became known as Bulletin Today, until the daily broadsheet settled with Manila Bulletin for its identity in 1986. Today, Manila Bulletin also has an online portal.
BGen. Hanz M. Menzi, long-time military aide of former president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., transferred ownership of the Bulletin to philanthropist and businessman Dr. Emilio T. Yap in 1982.
Its owner/publisher, later taking on the corporate name Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation, is the first newspaper company listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange in 1990, with Emilio sitting as chairman of the board of directors from 1984 until his demise in 2014. His son, Basilio C. Yap, took over the reins of the company.
The Yap family, through the family-owned U.S Automotive Co., Inc. (54.20%) and USAUTOCO Inc. (23.34%), is the ultimate beneficial owner of the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation. The Menzi Trust Fund, Inc. (8.42%) is the third top shareholder of the company as of September 2023.
Audience Share
3.90%
Ownership Type
Private
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Paid content
Media Companies / Groups
Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation
Ownership Structure
Manila Bulletin is owned by Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation. As of September 2023, the top three shareholders of Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation are the U.S Automotive Co., Inc (54.20%), USAUTOCO Inc. (23.34%) and the Menzi Trust Fund, Inc. (8.42%).
Voting Rights
Every stockholder entitled to vote shall be entitled to one vote for each share of stock. Stockholders are also given the option to vote via online (in absentia) or through their duly authorized attorney or a proxy.
Individual Owner
Group / Individual Owner
Menzi Trust Fund, Inc.
Menzi Trust Fund, Inc. is a trust company that oversees the assets and investments of the late Manila Bulletin publisher/owner Hans Menzi and its Foundation. According to its general information sheet, the foundation’s primary purpose is to “to promote, carry on, conduct and encourage the advancement and development of education, scientific research and training . . . Scholarships.” It also owns stocks in BDO (00.01%).
PCD Nominee Corporation
The Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation did not disclose who are the holder/s of the 5.11% shares entered into the PCD Nominee Corporation, which is a financial holding corporation that holds legal title to immobilized shares lodged in the Philippine Central Depository, Inc. system and operates as a subsidiary of Philippine Central Depository.
General Information
Founding Year
1900
Affiliated Interests Founder
was a teacher from Illinois, U.S. He was a soldier under the First Colorado U.S. Volunteers during the Spanish-American war (1898) and the Philippine-American war (1899 to 1902).
was the first editor of Manila Bulletin. No further information available about him.
Affiliated Interests Ceo
is the president of Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation. He is the first grandson of the company’s late former chairman and his namesake Emilio T. Yap and the nephew of the incumbent chairman Basilio C. Yap. He holds various positions in the Yap family’s conglomerate as the vice chairman/president of the Bulletin’s ultimate parent company US Automotive Co., Inc., and its subsidiaries USAUTOCO, Inc., Manila Prince Hotel Corporation, Cocusphil Development Corporation. He also serves as a board director of Centro Escolar University and vice chairman of Philtrust Bank and Manila Hotel.
Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief
Manila Bulletin has yet to appoint a new editor-in-chief since the retirement of Loreto Cabañes in July 2023. Executive editors Vicente Edgardo C. Bartilad and Cecilia C. Colmenares oversee the integrated development of news, features and editorial content.
was announced as a new executive editor of the Manila Bulletin in July 2023. He was the paper’s former editor-in-chief and assistant editor-in-chief.
has been an executive editor of the Manila Bulletin since May 2013. Prior to this post, she was editor of the newspaper’s special sections such as motoring, property, health and science. She was also the founding editor of the Bulletin’s Cruising, a monthly glossy magazine on motor travel. Before working for Manila Bulletin, she served as the founding editor-in-chief of “The Visayan Times”, the first daily community newspaper of Negros Occidental, and editor of “Iwag” (light), a community newspaper on developmental journalism. She is currently a trustee of the Society of Philippine Motoring Journalists (SPMJ).
Affiliated Interests other important people
currently sits as executive vice president, is a member of the board of directors and is the compliance officer of the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation. He has held these multiple positions since 2016, and was also named publisher in May 2021.
The businessman-educator served under three Philippine presidents — Corazon Aquino (1986 - 1992), Joseph Estrada (1998 - 2001), and Benigno Aquino III (2010 - 2016). He held several positions during the first Aquino administration (head of the Presidential Management Staff, deputy executive secretary, and undersecretary for the Departments of Transportation and Agrarian Reform). He was again appointed as transportation undersecretary during the Estrada administration. Coloma later served as communications secretary and presidential spokesperson during the second Aquino presidency.
As an educator, he served as dean for executive education, and program director for development management at the Asian Institute of Management, and as the sixth president of the University of Makati from 1996 to 1999. A member of the Rotary Philippines, Coloma serves as editor-in-chief of the organization’s monthly magazine.
was the 20th chief justice of the Philippine Supreme Court from 1998 to 2005, has been serving as an independent director and one of three vice chairpersons of Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation since March 2011.
He has held various positions in government, notably as a commissioner of the 1986 Constitutional Commission which drafted the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines and chairperson of the Commission on Elections from 1988 to 1990.
At present, he is a board director at Philtrust Bank and independent director at the Megawide Construction Corporation. He chairs the Chief Justice Claudio Teehankee Memorial Foundation, Inc., Heart of Francis Foundation Inc., and Kompass Credit and Financing Corporation.
He is also a trustee of Knights of Columbus of the Philippines Foundation, Inc.; Knights of Columbus Fr. George J. Willmann, SJ Charities, Inc., and University of San Carlos (Cebu). Davide is supreme commander emeritus and a member of the Council of Elders of the Knights of Rizal. He is also a member of the Association of Retired Justices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, serving as its president from 2010 to June 2020.
who was elected as vice chairman and independent director of Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation in July 2011, was a senator from 1987 to 1998.
He has held several government portfolios, including budget secretary (1986 - 1987); finance secretary (January - June 2001); executive secretary (June 2001 - August 2004); and foreign affairs secretary (2004 - 2011).
In December 2022, Romulo was replaced by former associate justice Dante Tiñga as chairman of the Development Bank of the Philippines, which he occupied since 2017.
an independent director at the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation since July 2017, was a legislative representative of Pangasinan’s 4th district from 2010 to 2016. She is the chairperson of the INA Foundation, Inc., director of Sampaguita Pictures, Inc., and independent director of Philtrust Bank.
an independent director of Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation since September 2020, is a former member of the Monetary Board of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) from 2014 to 2020. He has served various positions in the BSP including deputy governor and general counsel from 2010 to 2013 and general counsel from 2000 to 2010. He is currently a private sector representative in the Philippine Deposit Insurance Corporation since 2021, and is a senior counsel at Divina Law Office since 2020.
a retired police chief superintendent and former regional police director, is the vice president for administration of the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation. He joined the company in 2014.
Contact
Manila Bulletin Building, Muralla corner Recoletos Streets., Intramuros, Manila, Philippines
Telephone: 8527-8121
Website: mb.com.ph
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing Data
Market Share
Missing Data
Further Information
Meta Data
Audience share is based on Consumer & Media View survey for newspapers under Nielsen’s Philippine Media Landscape Report for Quarter 2 of 2023.
Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation’s annual report 2022 did not provide a breakdown for operating profit and advertising revenue per each of its newspapers and magazines.
The list of shareholders of the Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation is obtained from its Nov. 14, 2023 quarterly report submitted to the Philippine Stock Exchange. The shares owned by the Yap family only comprise those owned by its members and companies.
Conversion rate on Oct. 17, 2023: PhP56.836 per US$1.
Sources
Media Landscape Report for Quarter 2, 2023, available upon purchase from Nielsen Company (US), LLC
Personal interview with Manila Bulletin publisher Herminio B. Coloma Jr., 18 October 2023
