The website of the Visayan DAILY STAR was established by the writer in November of 2001 after coming home from working in Manila, which included a stint as a website developer, and seeing a glaring need for the island’s biggest newspaper to get on the Internet. After convincing management that it was about time the newspaper joined the Internet revolution, most of the contents of the newspaper was converted into web format before it was put online.

The website slowly and steadily gained a loyal following despite having no advertising or marketing budget, relying entirely on word of mouth to get news to Negrenses from all over the world that their favorite newspaper was now available to them wherever they may be.

It is now arguably the most popular website in Negros, getting more than 5,500 visits, 75,000 hits and delivering approximately 850 Megabytes of data everyday. The top 5 users come from the United States, Canada, Philippines, United Kingdom and Norway.

In 2011, the Visayan DAILY STAR officially joined Facebook after Levi Trio, a reader who put up a Facebook page for it voluntarily turned it over to the DAILY STAR. It now displays an image of the front page and the Negros Oriental section everyday, and also posts an occasional poll on different topics and currently has 1,404 “likes” and growing.  The Visayan DAILY STAR also maintains a presence on the microblogging website Twitter (@visayanstar).

The website of the Visayan DAILY STAR provides a connection for Negrenses as well as those who have interests in Negros from all over the world as a familiar and credible source of news and opinions from the island that, on this day, will have served the community for 30 years and will, hopefully, continue serving and evolving for many more years to come.*

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