FOR 20 years, Sun.Star Davao has been operating as a daily local community newspaper in this part of the country, giving its readers only the best of the best content from local news, lifestyle features, entertainment, sports, columns and a whole lot more.
It has continued to strive for excellence, giving utmost importance to its partners for growth, including its people, readers and advertisers.
And each issue and this community paper and other products published by the company, such as the annual Davao Yearbook, are a collaborative efforts from all of its departments, each taking part to Sun.Star Davao's success.
As the anniversary celebration continues, here's a glimpse of each of the publication's department.
Marketing and circulation
Known as the "lifeblood" of a newspaper because its main task is to make sure that the paper is well-marketed and -circulated, Sun.Star Davao general manager Tessie A. Paña shared that their journey towards the transition of the trend from print to digital has been quite a challenge that they have embraced.
But she was quick to add that although some national papers have been affected with this change, Sun.Star Davao, as a community newspaper, stood strong along with the continuous economic progress of Davao City where a lot of sectors and big investors still want to get involved with.
"Through this digital boom, we have created new sources of revenue, presented unique contents and repackaged our marketing offers. We continue to innovate," she said.
As the company continues to publish daily newspapers, it also has a website and an e-paper version for its growing digital audience.
For marketing, Paña also bared that Sun.Star Davao continues to capture 70 percent of advertising market share in Davao City with its growing readership as shown by the recent survey conducted by Ateneo de Davao University.
The survey showed that Sun.Star Davao and Sun.Star Davao Superbalita reached 40.9% readership among other local newspapers in Davao.
As Sun.Star Davao goes "Up," she added that their future plans are still on coming up with more innovations that will suit its readers and the changing times.
The editorial
The producer of the newspaper's content, Sun.Star Davao editor-in-chief Stella A. Estremera said that as the department's leader, "the constant challenge is enabling the department to produce quality reports and stimulate the passion of the staff towards their tasks."
The department also has different sections: the field reporters, who are the ones going on field to get the news or feature materials; the editors, the ones who edits the reporter's articles; the layout artists, the ones who arrange the papers content and beautifies the paper; the proofreaders, the ones who make sure that the paper's content are text error free.
As a daily, the pressure is really in the editorial department especially in the afternoons wherein everyone is expected to submit their reports before the set deadline.
But despite the pressure, "creating good, highly productive citizens," is what Estremera said when asked on what has been their greatest achievement.
Fast forwarding for future plans, Estremera has vowed that the department will continue to pursue "to always be the best."
The production
The "all-nighter" department who makes sure that Sun.Star Davao's newspapers hit the streets first before others. Paña said the recent challenge is to produce colorful and quality printed paper to compete with what online contents can offer.
With this and in order to be able to keep up with the growing demand, Sun.Star Davao recently upgraded its printing machine.
Paña shared that the upgraded machine's speed is triple than the old one which means it can print more in a shorter period of time.
For future plans, other than the newly acquired machine, she said that they are continuously aligning the operations of the production department to the business strategy of the company.
The accounting
The department responsible for the company's finances, check and balancing profit and expenses, this department has a lot of math to deal with on a daily basis.
Sun.Star Davao's accounting supervisor Lovella Panio said that two of the challenges are in compromising existing systems and policies so as to provide assistance for various departments and strictness in budgeting funds.
"Our purpose is for accountability and our duty is to count up to the last centavo," she explained.
For their plans, Panio said that they will still continue to strive to manage all the lapses that they have seen and continue to "strengthen the company's internal control for the good of everyone."
Credit and collection
The department responsible for billing and collecting customers' payments, credit and collection supervisor Andrew Leo Ocot shared that some of the challenges are hitting the set collection period and dealing with account complications.
Patience is indeed important under this department as they have to constantly deal with different customers during their collection day and making sure that they are paying right.
Included in their future plans, according to Ocot are for the improvement of their terms policy and having "more trainings for collectors to improve skills and to learn strategies in collection."
The human resource
The last but not the least, when all the departments are under pressure and stress, the HR department comes to the rescue.
With its role to ensure the welfare of Sun.Star Davao employees, HR supervisor Vic L. Purgatorio said that other than dealing with hard-headed employees being a challenge, they still make sure that all of the employee benefits are provided for.
They also organize programs such as inter-department tournaments and team building to distress employees from work and encourage them to build more teamwork within the different departments.
Purgatorio also shared that they also take part in looking for community projects that the company can get involved in towards helping others like the current student scholar that Sun.Star Davao sends to school.
For their plans, he said that they will still continue to create more fun activities for the employees to participate. (KGL)