EDITORIAL - Evolution and trust

With one more year added to the history of our newspaper, The FREEMAN marks its 107th anniversary today. Our theme for this year’s celebration is "EVOLUTION: Cebu's news source. Trusted then. Trusted now."

As far as evolution goes, we couldn’t have survived all these years without changing. In fact it’s a law of nature to adapt or perish, to evolve or become extinct.

While before we were just limited to printed editions --as well as the occasional EXTRA editions when some news developments just can’t wait for the next day-- we eventually branched out into digital content. When before our printed format only allowed us to report news the day after, now we strive to report the news as it happens real-time.

But changing to adapt to a new normal isn’t always comfortable. Most of the time changing even involves pain. There were many things we had to learn the hard way. We had to learn new rules. We had to realize that the situation was no longer the same as before.

Most of all we had to change and fit in a world that was quickly leaving the printed format behind. We had to adapt to a public that was turning more to dubious sources instead of legitimate ones when it comes to getting the news. We had to evolve to counter sources of fake news that sought to spread misinformation or --even outright lies-- with no thought of the resulting consequences and chaos.

In a world that’s awash with so much information, some of which may not be true, and not to mention the speed at which such information now move, trust in a news source is easy to lose and something difficult to get back.

But as far as trust goes, we still have it. This as evidenced by those who still read our printed edition and those who now follow our digital edition.

This goes without saying that we wouldn’t have survived all these years without the trust of our loyal readers and followers.

We will continue to evolve to meet the demands of our readers and followers as well as to preserve the trust they still have in us. Thank you for your trust in us yesterday. Thank you for your trust in us today.