The morning after Hidilyn Diaz won the Philippines' first ever Olympic gold medal, photos of newspaper frontpages shared space on social media timelines alongside the expected videos, memes and artwork.
People still turn to newsprint for freeze frames on events that matter to them. They get cut, pasted and clipped or folded nicely. They're easier to pull out, compared to scrolling down several years' worth of posts.
The Manila Bulletin simply headlined "GOLD" all in caps. The Philippine Star bannered "FINALLY, OLYMPIC GOLD" while The Philippine Daily Inquirer called it, "HEAVY LOAD LIFTED: DIAZ WINS FIRST PH OLYMPIC GOLD".
FROM SPIN.PH: Hidilyn Diaz gold a 'Stop the presses' moment for PH newspapers
Unlike on the internet or Facebook, newspaper headlines don't get updated or mangled for fake news. They also don't disappear into the newsfeed abyss. They're there forever, right or wrong.
When web journalism was starting in the Philippines in the early 2000s, then INQ7.net Editor-in-Chief JV Rufino said web copy had the "immediacy of broadcast and the authority of print". INQ7.net was the experiment of the Inquirer and GMA-7, until they parted ways in 2008.
Newspapers are tangible records of history. Frontpages with Hidilyn Diaz will have a special place in Filipino households, much like when Pia Wurtzbach broke a 40-year drought to win Miss Universe in 2015, or when the Inquirer turned yellow, literally, when former President Cory Aquino died in 2009.
The newspaper frontpage is a canvass by itself, one that requires a separate editor or editors. It's like a billboard that sells the entire paper to those who are not subscribed.
With greater control over layouts and photos, newspaper editors can now fill entire pages with photos.
