MALAYA

Malaya
By: Stephanie Chan, Ria Gamboa and Vero Zamesa

Technical Details:

Malaya’s business and editorial address is located at #371 Bonifacio Drive, Port Areas, Manila, Philippines. Its contact numbers are #339-3324 for the central desk, #339-3327 for the business line, #339-3325 for sports, #339-3326 for the lifestyle, entertainment and weekend lines. The current website for Malaya is http://www.malaya.com.ph.

The key editors of Malaya are as follows:
- Editor-in-chief: Mr. Joy de los Reyes;
- Executive Editor: Mr. Enrique Romualdez;
- Managing Editor: Ms. Teresa Molina

Currently, Malaya does not have an associate editor. With this, one may assume that the designated task of an associate editor has been overlooked and/or not being taken care of. As our interviewee, Ms. Gina Benco (currently a news reporter and Malacanang correspondent for the said newspaper) explains, the editor-in-chief “stands as the head of the editorial board, oversees the lay-out of each page and opens the editorial page of each issue”. According to Answers.com, an editorial board is “a group of editors, usually at a print publication, who dictates the tone and direction of that the publication’s editorial will take”. As the editor-in-chief, every article must go through the hands of Mr. Joy de los Reyes, and he has the final say on the layout of each page.

An executive editor, on the other hand, helps in the editing process. He/She also holds advisory functions with the publisher and editor-in-chief. Apart from that, Ms Benco says that Mr. Romuladez also, “closes the opinion editorial page and the overseas page”. He is also the editor which handles the page one of each newspaper issue.

Ms. Teresa Molina, as the managing editor, “handles the trafficking of reporters whenever they are on the field”. Ms. Benco also claims that “the managing editor sometimes shares delegated tasks with the news editor when it comes to editing and finally, has the summary of each story submitted”.

Currently, Malaya has about 21 editorial reporters and 5 business reporters. At present, there are 12 full-time reporters, 1 reporter under-probation (meaning he/she needs to fulfill 6 months and then the editorial board will decide if he/she is qualified enough to become a part of their roster of full-time reporters), 1 airport correspondent (who is a photo journalist) and 7 provincial correspondents which delivers general news. The business reporters make an average of about 7-9 pages of business news.

When the topic ventured towards the compensation of full-time employees and reporters of the newspaper, certain aloofness could be seen in the face of our interviewee. Pressed about the issue, Ms. Benco safely says, “tanungin niyo na lang yung mga tao sa admin para siguradong pwedeng ilabas”. When we went to the said office, they just simply said that they cannot release any amount for the company’s sake. They just said that the full-time reporters have a salary just above the minimum wage.

With regards to government-guaranteed benefits, Ms. Benco says that the usual benefits given to private and public business entities are also applicable to them. These include 13th month pay, Christmas bonus and rice subsidies. Another benefit that Malaya employees acquire is the benefits agreed upon by the said newspaper company and CPA union under the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

For the correspondents of Malaya, there is no actual number given to us by Ms. Benco since she was not entirely sure of the number of correspondents Malaya currently has. But like any other print media, correspondents are paid not just by the submission of their work, but by their published works. Malaya also has about 11 columnists, at present. These columnists are scheduled. For instance, one columnist can be tasked to have one column for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Some columnists have just one day as their schedule.

History:

Malaya has been in the newspaper business for a long time already. It was founded in the year 1981 by Jose Burgos Jr. It used to be a “tagalog” newspaper until they shifted and used the English language to deliver news in 1983, the same time its sister publication got closed due to Marcos’ regime. During the Martial law (1983-1986), Malaya was at the forefront of delivering credible news to the Filipino people. It became the strong “underground” paper during the regime, and the publication did not stop releasing strong accusations against the present administration. Examples of such were advertisements of possibly boycotting the snap elections called upon by late president Ferdinand Marcos.

By the end of the Martial law, the ownership of Malaya was bought and handed to Amado Jake Macaset, a veteran journalist who also happened to be the newspaper’s business editor.

Circulation:

According to Ms. Benco, the average newspaper printed during the week amounts to about 150,000 copies. Although for Sunday they do not release any issue, they have business sections all throughout Mondays thru Saturdays. The average percentage of returned newspapers round up to about 25%. Pass on readers estimate from 5-6. Editorial deadlines of Malaya, according to Ms. Benco, is from 8-9 pm.

Production Information:

Malaya’s printing is done thru its sister publication, Abante. According to Ms. Alforque, the page measurements of Malaya is the same with that of other broadsheets such as Manila Bulletin, Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Philippine Star. But recently, she says, “We’ve been discerning and planning to change the measurement of the newspaper. We plan to pattern it with the Wall Street Journal paper measurements. It’s gonna be a bit longer but thinner in width.”

Malaya does not undergo through the process of proofreading. The newspaper is also highly technical when it comes to the lay-out, and uses computer programs to be more efficient and up-to-date.

Printing of Malaya starts at 9:00am-10:30 pm for sections A and B, and 11:00 pm is the start of the dispatching. The type of press they use is the print speed. We asked Ms. Alforque to expound on the said type of press but she was unfortunately not too aware of the system it follows.

Advertising:

Ms. Luz Mercado, an advertising staff of Malaya says that Malaya’s advertisements starts at Php22.00 per line. Usual advertisers are Tanduay Distillers and Fortune Tobacco. These said products are scheduled to release advertisements on Mondays and Fridays only.