AMID A HARVEST OF AWARDS, YOUR SUPPORT COUNTS MOST
TTHANK YOU, EVERYONE. YOUR LOVE AND SUPPORT IS OUR MOST IMPORTANT TROPHY.
HE pandemic tested the media industry, forcing newsrooms around the world to overhaul the way they do their job while following strict health protocols in order to survive a deadly infection.
The Businessmirror, the country’s premier national business daily, was tested like everyone else, and survived, even continuing to live up to its promise to provide a broader look at today’s business.
In November 2021, the business broadsheet was recognized as the “Business News Source of the Year” for 2020 by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (Ejap), the country’s premier organization of business reporters, editors and wire agencies. It was a 4-peat for BM, having gotten the same honors for the years 2017, 2018 and 2019.
And, as in the past Ejap awards, it also swept half of the individual categories, with its seasoned reporters adjudged as best in their respective coverages.
Earlier in 2021, the Businessmirror was given the Pro Patria Award by the Rotary Club of Manila, for “its commitment of valuable resources for the protection of free expression and its resilience in disseminating fair and truthful information resulting in an informed and enlightened citizenry.”
It was just the latest recognition from the prestigious Rotary Club, which named it “Business Newspaper of the Year” for 2018-2019, and again in 2020. In all, it has received six top Rotary journalism awards in its short 16-year existence.
The Businessmirror has also consistently reaped top awards in the Brightleaf Journalism Awards for Agriculture and the Philippine Agricultural Journalists-san Miguel Corp. (PAJ-SMC) Binhi Awards, also for the best in agriculture journalism.
The Businessmirror was also repeatedly adjudged the leading daily in biotechnology journalism, a recognition bestowed by the Jose G. Burgos Jr. Biotechnology Journalism Awards.
The “broader look” mantra also drew recognition from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) which named the Businessmirror, at its first awards rites in 2018, as the inaugural “Data Champion.”
In the first “Bantog Science for the People” awards for media from the Department of Science and Technology, the Businessmirror got the top award for the Institution category for Print; and the grand prize in the individual category for science journalist Stephanie Tumampos.
In 2018, Environment Reporter Jonathan Mayuga received the Luntiang Aligato award from the Climate Reality Project, a nonprofit organization founded by Nobel Laureate and former US Vice President Al Gore.
The Broader Look at biodiversity was also recognized. It was named among the Asean Champions of Biodiversity, for the Media Category, by the Asean Centre for Biodiversity.
The Broader Look also extended to the paper’s corporate social responsibility. It organized and staged the first-ever recognition rites for the best of the Philippines’s friends in the world, with the “MISSION PHILIPPINES: The Businessmirror Envoys & Expats Awards.” The initiative won a Gold Anvil in 2019.
Distinguished institutions in government have also repeatedly recognized the Businessmirror’s role in spreading the word about the work they do—information that shines a light on good governance and committed public service to uplift people’s hopes. Most notably, these are the Social Security System and PAG-IBIG Fund.
Sixteen years, two of them in a pandemic, have tested the promise of a Broader Look. But they are also a measure of the unstinting support of friends—advertisers and news sources alike—and readers who continue to believe in that promise.