59

THE ROAD is harrowing and fraught with hardship borne of the social environment that was shifting towards the digital media; and a lack of foresight that resulted in mediocrity and incompetence. A complacency that had neither a reason, a backbone nor a foundation, The Ilocos Times soldiered on—running in circles like a headless chicken. It could have crumbled under its smug weight; but just as collapse became almost imminent; a new blood was transfused and the recovery from near-death to comatose to once again alive and kicking, was not only challenging but more so, breathtaking.

And now as it turns 59, The Ilocos Times continues to bring the news and other pertinent information to Ilocanos and Ilocano-speaking peoples all over the world. And for this, we thank our loyal subscribers, our generous advertisers, our very vocal readers, and, above all, the Almighty for always showing us the way. For without all of you, we could have succumbed to oblivion.

And as we take our first step towards our 60^th year, we vow to work harder, persevere stronger and dig deeper so we could continue to meet all of your expectations of us.

Being the oldest running paper in this side of the country is no longer good enough; we would now strive to better ourselves more. All of these just so we could deserve all the support you have given us.

…And counting

SOME MAY say that The Ilocos Times’ best years have long been gone. The scathing opinions and sharp witted-columns may have taken a temporary—albeit quite long—leave of absence, but as we move to year 60, our prodigious columnists are all ready to return in full force to once again torment public officials who are not doing what they are supposed to be doing—and doing what they are not expected to do.

Add to this, new features on the paper that would focus on investigative journalism to really get to the truth of all issues; feature stories that would bring the rich and famous closer to all of us; and a section that would be devoted to our budding campus journalists.

And as we also move towards digital media, The Ilocos Times have moved on with the time, complete with its own Facebook and Twitter accounts. The failed website still stings though as The Ilocos Times digital edition had since transferred to The Ilocos Times blog (http://theilocostimes.blogspot.com), and which is now having hundreds of views daily.

We may still be adjusting to the call of the times and the trend of the future, but rest assured that we will—in time—be up to date with all that is happening and changing around us as we move to reach another 59 years of existence.