THE JOURNEY ENDS… AND CONTINUES
In order to understand the present and define the future, one must look to the past. But if we must look to the past, what do we use to look into it? This, however, is not the end of the journey for The STAR. As we continue delivering the news to Filipinos around the world, join us in our continuing journey to 30 more years and beyond.
NEWSPAPERS like The Philippine STAR are just one of the primary sources that can be relied upon to serve as a record of significant events in history. Imagine if these issues can also help a nation make sense of its past so it can understand the present and create the future.
“Since its first publication on July 28, 1986, The STAR has already headlined countless significant events that defined our country and the world. Its daily issues have helped a nation make sense of current events. As we celebrate our 30th anniversary this year, we thought of a fitting tribute to the paper’s three decades of delivering truthful news and upholding journalistic excellence. With this in mind, the #Journeyto30 series was born,” says Ana Marie Pamintuan, editor-in-chief of The STAR.
Executing the retrospective series wasn’t easy. The initial idea was to have it run on a daily basis, from January 1, 2016 to our anniversary. Given that this will be a daunting task for the writer and the archives, it was eventually agreed to release each article on Sundays, from January 3 to July 24, 2016 or 30 Sundays in total.
Coincidentally, the series’ run corresponded to The STAR’s age. Hence, it was decided that one headline would be chosen for each year, from a shortlist of different news events for that year. VP for Operations Tammy Mendoza, editor-in-chief Ana Marie Pamintuan and the author was tasked with choosing the “Headline of the Year”.
Initially, the plan was to present each headline in a chronological manner. That was easy if we weren’t planning on helping our readers make sense of the past. Eventually, these were randomly presented as we decided to align the chosen Headline of the Year to whichever current event that had a major impact on the state of the nation.
On Sunday, July 24, after 30 articles and seven months of research and writing, we’ve completed our journey of bridging our readers with the past to help them make sense of current events. Let us look back once more at the 30 headlines that defined the nation and the world for the past 30 years. ◆