The flag of the no. 1 most read tabloid in the Visayas and Mindanao has a new look.
But the change which readers see in the top corner of Bandera’s red and yellow logo is more than ceremonial flag-waving.
Ten years ago, a bold decision was made to clean up the pages and get off the bandwagon of sex and violence that gave street tabloids a dirty name.
Bandera today is a far cry from its original format that was “for men only”.
Under the new ownership of the Inquirer Group, which acquired Bandera in 2001, the small tabloid with big dreams has been surprising readers with its innovations and widening its appeal to families and female readers.
Its menu of “balita, buenas, chika” delivered in Tagalog and English hits the spot.
The daily mix of news, advice and opinion columns, showbiz and entertainment with Lotto-Karera results has made Bandera a cozy companion of readers in the C to E market.
The 16-page paper is the only tabloid being printed in four locations – Laguna, Makati, Cebu and Davao – which ensures early copies on the street, reaching readers across the country.
There are several new twists to this credible but fun national tabloid.
Since November 2010, Metro Manila and Luzon readers have been enjoying a weekend edition called “Klik Bandera”, which gives cover-to-cover entertainment news and “feel good” features especially for women. In the Synovate Media Atlas survey for 2010-2011, Klik-Bandera has appeared in the readership chart which shows that it is attracting a following in Metro Manila with only five months since it saw print.
Not to be left out are the tabloid’s loyal male followers. This month, Bandera improved its popular Swerte section. In one handy page, avid followers of lotto and horse racing get tips, game results, and the inside track for karera, along with the daily horoscope.
The synergy of the Inquirer and Bandera is behind every issue’s goal to carry out a mandate to uplift the quality of the paper and through it, the lives of thousands of readers in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
“You get real stories, not sleaze,” said publisher Eileen Mangubat.
If readers noticed that news about Kris Aquino’s love life is as fresh as coverage of Senate hearings on corruption, it’s because Bandera reinforces its pool of writers with the Inquirer News Service, which draws stories filed daily by reporters and correspondents of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and its affiliates across the country.
Through all the changes, Bandera never lost its mass appeal. It did this by keeping its tried-and-true advice columns, crossword puzzles, birthday greeting corner and interactive reader promos. It also introduced new habits, like a daily gospel commentary of Fr. Dan de los Angeles.
Readers in the province especially appreciate help they get in their queries to “Action Line” where government agencies like SSS, GSIS, POEA and OWWA answer their problems.
Who reads Bandera?
AC Nielsen Media research in its 2010 survey said Bandera is read by an almost equal proportion of male and female followers with 60% belonging to a more mature, adult set of readers and more than 40% belonging to a younger age group. Majority of Bandera’s readers are blue collar workers, housewives, micro-entrepreneurs and those seeking employment. Most of them have finished high school while more than a third have reached college or completed college.
But numbers alone can’t tell the story of readership loyalty as well as the feedback of Erlinda, a housewife from San Mateo, Rizal province.
Erlinda calls Bandera her “companion” for many years, more so when it began carrying more showbiz news and advice columns. Erlinda used to walk to the newsstand and leaf through the pages, ignoring the stares of bystanders who wondered what a woman was doing with a “macho” paper in her hands.
Gone are the days, she said, when she had to “smuggle” a copy of Bandera into her home and keep its raunchy content away from the eyes of three young sons.
Erlinda got a new high four years ago, when she hit a winning lotto combination based on a random Bandera lotto tip. It didn’t make her a millionnaire, but it was a windfall for the part-time labandera.
Early last year, Bandera introduced a mobile alert service where lotto and karera aficionados can subscribe to daily alerts of lotto and karera results and tips. In just twelve months, Bandera has captured a total of 8,327 lotto subscribers like Erlinda or five times more than last year with an average of 117,000 transactions daily or fifty six times more than last year.
In the Internet age, Bandera is in the thick of finding new platforms to reach more readers.
To reach out to homesick Filipinos abroad, Bandera launched its online edition www.bandera.ph in 2009. The site today registers a growing volume of unique visitors. Bandera is also on Facebook and maintains its own blog.
On the airwaves, Bandera has a voice in Radyo Inquirer where its tough-talking columnist Ramon Tulfo and entertainment editor Ervin Santiago, engage readers in 990 AM radio.
As it explores more ways to meet the changing needs of readers, the tabloid with a heart for the masa is sure of one thing: only good surprises can come out of the Inquirer-Bandera team-up.
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