Philippine Daily Inquirer - History

History

The Philippine Daily Inquirer was a daily newspaper founded on December 9, 1985 by publisher Eugenia Apóstol, columnist Max Solivén, together with Betty Go-Belmonte (wife of Speaker of House of the Representatives Feliciano "Sonny" Belmonte) during the last days of the regime of the Philippine dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, becoming one of the first private newspapers to be established under the Marcos regime.

The Inquirer succeeded the weekly Philippine Inquirer, created in 1985 by Apostol to cover the trial of 25 soldiers accused of complicity in the murder of opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. at the Manila International Airport on 21 August 1983. Apostol also published the Mr & Ms Special Edition, a weekly tabloid opposed to the Marcos regime.

As the successor to the previous Mr. and Mrs. Special Edition and the weekly Philippine Inquirer, it was founded on a budget of one million pesos and enjoyed a daily circulation of 30 000 in its early days. The newspaper was also instrumental then in documenting the campaign of Corazón Aquino during the 1986 presidential elections and in turn the 1986 People Power Revolution. Its slogan, Balanced News, Fearless Views, was incorporated to the newspaper in January 1986 after a slogan-making contest held during the first month of the Inquirer's existence. In 1990, the Inquirer took the lead from the Manila Bulletin to become the Philippines' largest newspaper in terms of circulation. Its current editor-in-chief, Letty Jimenez-Magsanoc, was appointed on June 14, 1991.

After transferring headquarters four times, the Inquirer moved to its current headquarters in Makati City in 1995. During the administration of president Joseph Estrada, the president criticized the Inquirer for "bias, malice and fabrication" against him—this charge to the newspaper was denied. In 1999, several government organizations, pro-Estrada businesses, and movie producers simultaneously pulled their advertisements from the Inquirer in a boycott that lasted for five months. The presidential palace was widely implicated in the advertising boycott, which was denounced by then publisher Isagani Yambot as an attack on the freedom of the press.

In 2007, according to the survey conducted by AGB Nielsen, the Inquirer is the most widely read newspaper in the Philippines. The Manila Bulletin and the Philippine Star followed as the second and the third most widely read papers, respectively.