The Abante newspaper is owned and run by the Monica Publishing Corporation. All the offices are based in the Corporation’s present address at #167
Editorial Tel. No. 527-6722/527-3355 Fax 528-0147
Advertising Tel. No.527-4480/528-0146 loc. 24 Fax 527-3382
Circulation Tel. No. 527-9838/527-0578 Easycall: (141) 24650
The newspaper can also be accessed online at http://www.abante.com.ph/ for quick updates on the news, the different columns covered in the tabloid, as well as archives and contact information.
In Abante, the publisher is Allen A. Macasaet. The next would be the Managing Editor, Nick Quijano Jr. He is technically the editor-in-chief, the executive editor, and the managing editor all in one, but he prefers to keep his title of managing editor simply because the title “editor-in-chief” has a connotation of older age. Under him though, there are two assistant managing editors. The each of the two correspond to either Abante or Abante Tonite, since Mr. Quijano is in charge of both papers. There are also editors, one for each paper, for the News section, the Lifestyle section, the Sports section, the Entertainment section, and there are what are called the “City editors”.
Abante makes use of a lot of reporters, both full time and correspondents. For the full-time employees who have salaries and government-guaranteed benefits, there as many as 160 all in all. Among this number are reporters, photographers, proofreaders, and drivers of about 40 each in number. This does seem like a big number of reporters for one tabloid, but apparently in Abante, there is no distinguishing between an Abante reporter and an Abante Tonite reporter.
The newspaper also works with correspondents in different areas of the country. They are not considered as employees but are paid based on the works that they submit to the publication. Currently, there are 4-5 correspondents in Luzon and 3 in
Columnists in Abante are not usually categorized under full-time or guest, but they are usually contracted for a certain number of columns each week. There were a lot of the original people in the newspaper staff that were replaced for younger people who could measure up to the paper’s new standards when the ownership of the paper changed. Many of the have been replaced for a number of reasons: some have transferred to jobs in the States; others have died like Jess Sison, the former press secretary, and Oski Salazar; a few columnists left because of conflicts with the publisher, like Alex Magno. Mostly, the columnists are either senators, former press secretaries, or somewhere in the political field.
There are other columnists for entertainment (Eddie Troika), for sports (PJ Manata), and for television (Arnold Clavio). One famous icon who has a column in Abante is Manny Pacquiao. Mr. Quijano has this to say about the boxer:
“I have Manny Pacquiao; he writes. He really writes. He has his own laptop; he tries to make his deadline. I pay him Php 1000, he collects it. We got him, and he writes it. I think it really comes from the heart. He writes it in Tagalog. Not about sports but about himself, about boxing. … He always sends it, and he answers letters. He really answers them. He’s serious about his writing. He cares about his writing.”
The managing editor has a lot of positive things to say about the “pambansang kamao” that many people don’t know, such as his current studies for his masters. The boxing icon has his column three times a week, as do Cheese Escudero and Mar Roxas. Manny Villar also has a weekly column with the tabloid.
Abante was an old paper that started in 1986, after the Marcos regime. The corporation that owned it then, though, ran into some problems and ain 1988, the Monica Publishing Corporation bought the paper and expanded it to the 20 year old tabloid’s current status. The Monica Publishing Corp. was already publishing a weekly magazine for students at that time, but when the former owner of the paper sold the whole company, they took it up and a year later, also put up Abante Tonite.
From the old perception of tabloids, Abante had evolved. It covered all the big events as a tabloid, such as the gulf war, earthquakes, the Sanchez case, Erap, and now, Gloria. It’s a tabloid that is anchored in news encompassing all purposes. The paper used to have morally-questionable content, such as the “girly pictures” in front, but it has moved past that as a newspaper that uses the Philippine language as its medium.
Today, Abante has a pretty high circulation rate. Compared to broadsheets, which print no more than 50, 000 papers a day, Abante had almost double the circulation. There are approximately 100,000 copies produced on the average weekday, with an extra twenty thousand on weekends. This though is already a reduced number due to the problematic economy. There are certain troubles in the communication aspects in the way the people and most specially the youth absorb information. There is now internet and magazines, thus a reduction in the number of newspapers that are bought, the amount of television viewed, and radio listened to. Originally, the biggest circulation of Abante and Abante Tonite would even reach one million on a weekend around 8 to 9 years ago. On a weekday, each of the two newspapers would have an average of 250 to 300 thousand copies, but since the cost of living continues to rise, the circulation gets reduced.
The high cost of manufacturing the paper has a hand in the decreased circulation, but a significant change came around when 3 or 4 years earlier, Abante started having advertisers in the tabloid. They have everything from Smart and Globe, to food, and other things we see in large print. The paper which had once had a large circulation rate and no advertisers has now found the balance between that and having a small circulation rate with large advertising.
On the average, there are only fifteen to twenty percent of the produced copies that make it back to the publisher unsold. This makes quite a large circulation, especially compared to the broadsheet printing amount. According to industrial surveys, there are about 5-6 partial readers per paper too.
Abante used to come start production at 12 midnight and continued to be sold all the way up to 8 or 9 in the morning. Then at nine o’clock, it’s time for the production of Abante Tonite. By one in the afternoon, Tonite was already on the streets. Three or 4 years ago, though, the market changed. Now, the two papers are released almost simultaneous at around 6 or 8 AM. The big difference between the two papers recently is that Abante caters more to those outside the greater Metro Manila area, while Tonite has become the number one in the metro. Abante would sell more in Bataan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Pangasinan, Laguna, Batangas, and even in Visayas and
There have been relative technological advances in the publication of Abante. The page layout and typesetting are all done with the usual computer programs specified for the Abante tabloid. The articles and columns are edited in Microsoft Word; the pictures are edited in Photoshop; the layout is done in PageMaker. From the usual patterns that are simply filled out for each issue, a machine sends the information to a computer room, where it is double checked, then sent to the plate making machine, which produces the plate. It basically very primitive compared to printing presses outside the Philippines, but it gets the job done faster than it was before, especially using their web-fed offset printing.
Advertising rates in the Abante can be found online. There are the same rates and prices as those of the Abante Tonite. Comparatively, the rates for advertisers are pretty expensive, if you look at the rates that broadsheets have. The rates, taken from the Abante Tonite website, are the following:
ABANTE
MONICA PUBLISHING CORPORATION
#
Publisher:
Allen A. Macasaet
Managing Editor:
Nicolas V. Quijano Jr.
Board of Editors:
Raquel Dawal,
Neolita R. De Leon and Venus Tandoc
Advertising:
Ron Tamayo
Production:
Jorge Punzalan
Circulation:
Marcelino V. Minor
MIS Section:
Melchor G. Mandap,
Chito D. Cruz,
Eric A. Pabulayan, Jayson O. Roxas, Philip Tan III
Tel. (Editorial) 5276722/5273355. Fax: 5280147.
(Advertising) 5274480/5280146 loc. 24
Fax: 5273382.
Circulation office is at
Tel. 5279838/5270578. Easycall: (141) 24650.
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