Tempo turns 42 years old today, a remarkable feat for a tabloid that continues to carry its mission at the time when newspapers face extreme competition from other means and platforms of communication, including social media.
On July 12, 1982, Tempo was launched as a 12-page English-language tabloid of the Manila Bulletin following an extensive, multi-media advertising campaign.
It immediately made a big leap upon its birth as all of the 80,000 copies of its maiden issue featuring a banner story about the death of a Mandaluyong beauty queen were sold out.
Envisioned to capture “news in a flash,” Tempo has adhered to its original premise of presenting news in an easy, readable manner – written short, simple but substantial.
Then and now, it has attracted a legion of readers through its stories with strong emphasis on human interest in three main sections – News, Sports, and Entertainment.
Tempo popularized the “sidebar,” a companion piece to a headline story that reveals more details about the subject of the news.
The paper, in its initial years, solely relied on street sales to keep it afloat, but it later accepted advertisements due to widespread demand from advertisers.
From its original format, Tempo increased its pages to 16 in full color on March 23, 1999 as Manila Bulletin further modernized its printing.
The paper’s design had also undergone a series of transformations through the years. In March 2020, just days before the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic hit the world, the paper came out with its new look — clean, decent and easier to read – making it distinct from other tabloids in the market.
For more than four decades of existence, Tempo had survived the challenges that confronted the print media, including the Covid-19 pandemic that forced many of the paper’s rivals to fold up.
Tempo’s success as a bearer of truth can be also attributed to its established “code of discipline” that its founding staff led by its very first editor, Recah Trinidad, passed on to the succeeding set of writers and editors.
In his first editorial, Trinidad compared the paper’s birth to “Lighting A Candle,” emphasizing the journalists’ role in searching for truth and writing about it.
Indeed, Tempo, from its phenomenal beginning up to this digital age, has lived up to its commitment to responsible journalism.
Today, aside from its physical copy, Tempo can be read in its digital form or e-paper, on its online website, and on its Facebook page for sports and entertainment fans to enjoy.
Reaching this milestone, however, is impossible without our loyal readers, supporters and advertisers; and for this, we are so grateful for your patronage and trust.
