Manila Bulletin was founded in 1900 by Carlson Taylor as a shipping journal. In 1957, the newspaper was acquired by Swiss expatriate named Hans Menzi. On occasion the editorial policy of the Manila Bulletin has met objection from civil authorities. During World War II the newspaper's editor, Roy Anthony Cutaran Bennett, was imprisoned and tortured by the Japanese for his statements opposing the militarist expansion of the Japanese Empire. The Manila Bulletin survived the martial law era of President Ferdinand Marcos as an alleged propaganda tool. Following the Menzi's death in 1984, Chinese Filipinobusiness mogulEmilio Yap became the new chairman of the Bulletin. Yap was invited by Menzi to become a shareholder in 1961. The company has been listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange since 1990, and had revenues of approximately US$45 million in 2004. Besides its flagship it publishes two other daily tabloids, Tempo and Balita, as well as nine magazines such as the Philippine Panorama, Bannawag, Liwayway, Bisaya and a host of other journals in English, Tagalog, Cebuano and other Philippine languages. It also publishes a number of lifestyle magazines such as Wedding Essentials, Style Weekend, GARAGE Magazine, Agriculture Magazine, Digital Gen, Going Places and Animal Scene. The editorial is also featured in its sister papers Tempo and Balita. To further enhance its image as a newspaper which presents positive news articles, the Bulletin recently introduced a new marketing tagline, "There's good news here". In 2015, they adopted the marketing tagline "Be Fully Informed" which is still being used throughout 2016. In addition, it maintains the oldest news website in the Philippines. To date, it is the largest subscriber to the Philippine News Agency among newspapers. On December 22, 2007, survey results by Nielsen Media Research's Nielsen Media Index Study, covering the whole year of 2007, showed that the Philippine Daily Inquirer was the choice of 53% "of those who said they had read a broadsheet", with 1.3 million readers. The Manila Bulletin came second with 47%, while the Philippine Star was third with 42%. Nielsen survey also showed that the Sunday Inquirer Magazine led in its category, with 39% readership, Panorama came in second with 35%, and Starweek was third with 12%. Latest Q2 2016 Nielsen Consumer and Media View results put Manila Bulletin, with 48% share of the total Broadsheet market, as the most read Broadsheet in the Philippines. Philippine Daily Inquirer comes in second at 38%, followed by Philippine Star at 14%. Manila Bulletin also had the most number of loyal readers with 42% of its readers not reading any other broadsheet title.
MB Online Chinese Edition
On June 2020, Manila Bulletin unveiled its Chinese-language online edition, thus becoming the first major Philippine print news outlet to have an online Chinese edition that would cater to the Filipino-Chinese population and the Chinese diaspora in the Philippines.
Controversy
On June 5, 2008, a Filipino blogger sued the Bulletin for copyright infringement. The photo blogger had discovered that photos that he had taken and posted online had been used by the Manila Bulletin in the "Travel & Tourism" section of its March 21, 2007 issue. Apparently, the photographs had been altered and used by the newspaper without the original photographer's consent and without attribution or compensation. A month later, the newspaper filed a counter-suit against the blogger claiming "exemplary and moral damages". The Manila Bulletin claimed that its use of the photographs constituted fair use.
