By Bjorn Biel M. Beltran, Special Features and Content Assistant Editor
In business, trust means something different depending on who you ask. For consumers, it’s security, a mutually beneficial relationship with a company that provides you exactly with what you need without fail. For brands, it’s currency, the kind of goodwill that compounds over years and acts as a buffer for your missteps.
For BusinessWorld, 39 years old this year and staring down a media landscape reshaped by artificial intelligence (AI) and misinformation, trust is the core the whole institution is built around — the reason it has become the standard of Philippine business journalism since its foundation.
For President and CEO Miguel G. Belmonte, trust is the compass by which everything else is set.
“BusinessWorld’s legacy as a pioneer in business news is both a standard of excellence and a daily responsibility. To me, our history represents a trust built with generations of leaders, decision-makers, and readers who have relied on us for accurate, credible, and insightful business journalism,” he said. “That reputation is not just a badge of honor from our past — it is our guiding compass for the future.”
It’s a compass he’s had to recalibrate more than once. BusinessWorld has moved from a print-first institution serving subscribers “who read the morning paper over coffee” to one serving, in Mr. Belmonte’s words, “a dynamic, global community of decision-makers who consume information in real time across multiple touchpoints.”
A news outlet, after all, must change with the times. Editor-in-Chief Cathy Rose A. Garcia believes trust is something closer to an obligation, a debt that must be paid every day. She described the company’s foundational identity as the key to the institution’s longevity. That integrity, built over decades, endures despite disruption and a volatile media landscape.
“As one of the pioneers of business journalism in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, BusinessWorld has chronicled the development of the Philippine economy and the business community. Our founder, Raul L. Locsin, built BusinessWorld’s reputation for credible and independent business journalism, a legacy that our current president, Miguel G. Belmonte, continues to uphold,” Ms. Garcia said.
“We cannot rely on BusinessWorld’s reputation alone,” she said. “We have to earn our readers’ trust every day by producing stories that are accurate, relevant and objective.”
As she puts it, the core challenge of her role is holding onto what BusinessWorld has always stood for while still evolving for a new generation of readers, a balance she believes is more urgent than ever “at a time when misinformation and disinformation are rampant.”
It is an endeavor that needs continuous and consistent attention, and by no means comes easy. Describing her perspective as editorial head, Ms. Garcia says that not only do they have to translate business and economic news for readers beyond the country’s intelligentsia, they also have a responsibility to demystify such concepts for the broader audience.
“I’ve always believed that business and economic news should not be just for economists, executives or academics. But I’m also aware that business news can sometimes feel intimidating. The numbers and jargon can make it difficult for people to understand how these issues relate to their everyday lives,” she said.
“This is where BusinessWorld can make a difference — by helping readers understand not only what is happening in the economy, but also why it matters to them. For me, the challenge is to change the way BusinessWorld delivers journalism without compromising the journalism itself. We want to make our reporting more accessible and relatable without losing the depth and quality our readers expect from us.”
If trust is Mr. Belmonte’s compass and Ms. Garcia’s obligation, for Vice-President for Sales and Marketing Jay R. Sarmiento, it’s closer to a manual. It serves among the guiding principles that governs both what gets published and how the company runs.
“Since BusinessWorld holds a distinct and vital place in Philippine media, serving as a pillar of reliability for the country’s financial community and corporate sector, it enables businesses — from conglomerates to growing enterprises — to navigate risk, capitalize on opportunities thereby contributing to national development,” Ms. Sarmiento said.
“These core principles of accuracy, trust and credibility are also our guiding principles in the company’s day-to-day operations across news gathering and reporting, client engagements and negotiations, work ethics, employee policies and management.”
She emphasized how these values ripple through daily decisions, particularly in the face of changing media environments.
“BusinessWorld serves as the standard, the benchmark, for business journalism in the Philippines, proving that accuracy and trust remain as the most critical assets in staying relevant and cutting through the digital clutter and media noise,” she said.
“Ever since its inception in 1987, BusinessWorld is the most trusted name in the business community with its par excellence, in-depth reporting of business news. The brand has survived many media landscape transformations, but its reportage is still regarded as the most reliable business source. That’s why it has won so many ‘Business Paper of the Year’ awards,” Executive Vice-President Lucien C. Dy Tioco said for his part.
For Mr. Dy Tioco, trust is something closer to a track record: something measurable, cumulative, and already proven. It is the kind of record that matters more as economic times become more difficult and uncertain.
“The business climate has been very challenging especially during the past year, but this makes BusinessWorld more important as it has become the dependable source in helping organizations navigate through such crises as it is always committed to provide in-depth analyses and comprehensive coverage of the business climate,” he said.
On AI and the future
AI is perhaps one of the biggest disruptors that the business community has seen in decades. Looking ahead, Mr. Dy Tioco views the current AI transition less as a threat to that legacy than as its next chapter.
“As we are in the middle of yet another transformation with AI in the forefront, BusinessWorld is excited over the possibilities and opportunities that lay ahead, especially when BusinessWorld celebrates its 40th year in 2027,” he said. “It is something that the business community should look forward to.”
Ms. Garcia, owing to her position, offered a nuanced take on the topic. AI, for her, has real, practical value: transcribing interviews, sorting through documents and data, freeing reporters to spend more time in the field. But, she was equally clear about where the value stops.
“I think there has to be a balance between using AI and protecting the credibility that BusinessWorld has built over the years,” she said. “We shouldn’t allow speed or convenience to come at the expense of accuracy and trust.”
Human-led reporting, she said, is not going anywhere. Nor is the goal of BusinessWorld changing to prioritize more content simply because AI makes it possible.
“AI can assist reporters, but it can never replace the value of good, old-fashioned, boots-on-the-ground reporting. At BusinessWorld, quality will always be more important than quantity,” she said. “AI can help us produce better journalism, but ultimately, it’s our journalists — their reporting, judgment and expertise — who give BusinessWorld its value.”
Ms. Garcia’s stance on AI extends to how she thinks about the newsroom’s future. BusinessWorld’s approach to training young journalists is built around fundamentals, giving them the environment to hone their clear writing, interviewing, data literacy, sourcing, news judgment. As times change, even as the publication starts to accept a younger generation of journalists who are more comfortable experimenting with video, social media, data tools and AI, these goals remain the same.
“I don’t see preserving our standards and adapting to a changing audience as opposing goals,” she said. “The standards should remain high, but the storytelling has to evolve. We want our journalists to take the discipline and credibility associated with BusinessWorld and apply them to whatever form journalism takes next.”
Ms. Sarmiento believes BusinessWorld has been largely successful with this transition, in both preserving the outlet’s journalistic standards and embracing new formats to stay agile like digital platforms, video content and targeted events to align with evolving media consumption habits.
“While primarily catering to C-suite business leaders via print, BusinessWorld has successfully expanded its reach by leveraging digital and on-ground platforms. This multi-channel approach engages next-generation professionals, young entrepreneurs, and key decision-makers across generations,” she said.
AI simply is another tool, she added, and a highly effective and efficient one at that. BusinessWorld reporters and editors can use AI to free up time to dedicate more focus to human insight, nuanced context and in-depth analytical reporting. That is its true value.
“True business intelligence is what BusinessWorld uniquely provides: contextualized, actionable insights that empower strategic business decision-making,” she said.
Mr. Belmonte brings it all back to trust as the foundation that determines how the company is run, what technology it adopts and how, who it trains and what it teaches them, and what it still refuses to compromise on after 39 years of upheaval in the industry around it.
“AI completely changes the game for processing and sharing information. We view it as a tool that enhances what we already do, giving us the scale to crunch massive datasets and deliver better value to our readers,” Mr. Belmonte explained. “However, speed means nothing without trust. We have to ensure that fast data never replaces accurate, credible reporting.”
“At its core, BusinessWorld isn’t just a business news organization; it is an institution built on integrity. I cannot emphasize enough that trust and credibility are the ultimate competitive advantage we offer to our audience.”
