Gold Star Daily turns 26 today

By NORA SORIÑO
GSD- Iligan bureau chief

THE Mindanao Gold Star Daily, Cagayan de Oro’s longest running daily that pioneered regional newspapering in this part of the country, celebrates its anniversary today without much fanfare but with a renewed commitment and more determination to set the local news agenda, something that it has been doing in the last 26 years. Executives and editors of the paper said this year’s anniversary serves as a reminder to them that the newspaper exists mainly to ensure a well-informed citizenry.

“We will not lose track of this purpose. Our purpose has always been to inform people about the things that are taking place in and outside our backyard,” said Ernesto Chu, the founder and president emeritus of the Mindanao Gold Star Daily Corp..

Gold Star, the oldest and the premier newspaper in the region, has humble beginnings. The company started with a six-page daily published at a small building owned by the Chu family on Pabayo St. in July 1989. There were attempts by other groups before that to start a daily paper in the city but the publications were short lived––not until Chu dared to prove that a daily newspaper in Cagayan de Oro in the ’80s can be self-sustaining and survive on its own without subsidy or political backing.

The paper started with a lean staff in 1989, and slowly climbed its way up until a breakthrough in 1991 when it made another bold step by expanding outside Cagayan de Oro––first in Iligan City, and then to Malaybalay, Bukidnon, and Gingoog cities in Region 10. Seeing initial success, the media company further ventured on to Butuan City, the two Surigao and Agusan provinces, and later on, other key areas across Mindanao. “We managed to make it on our own, and we will see to it that the paper will continue doing that,” said Chu, a Cagayanon.

Chu urged the newspaper’s staff to be diligent, accurate, and remain unbiased. He said Gold Star Daily’s strength has always been its commitment to serve no one but its readers––and paired with sound marketing and relatively good circulation, the revenues followed.

Chu said he was grateful to the Cagayanon and Mindanaoan readers who have made Gold Star Daily a part of their daily lives, and to the advertisers who made it possible for the paper to stay afloat, and subsequently expand. The paper’s editors said they would not lose track of the newspaper’s responsibility, and would go back to the basics. “As we celebrate our 26th anniversary, there won’t be empty talk and slogans that mean nothing. We entertain no delusions about who and what we are, and are clear about why we are here and about what we intend to do. We are a 26-year-old daily newspaper published in Cagayan de Oro, and not some celestial body approximately 152 million kilometers from Mindanao. We will continue telling people what they need to know the best way we can, and as accurately as possible so that they could make informed decisions,” said Herbie Gomez, the paper’s editor-in-chief. “The reading public cannot be underestimated. They want substance. That we will keep in mind.”