SubicTimes the first and only independent news website in the Subic Bay area recently broke the 1 million hit mark, making its present felt in the online community in just 4 months.

“The website went online around mid-July this year, it was actually July 16, our vision was to spread the news in the area and make the website a public information website,” SubicTimes Publisher David Bayarong and Chief Photographer said.

“It was actually my brothers (Anthony) idea, he was so frustrated because there was so many news around the area that was not being picked-up by national newspapers and since he did not have enough funds to publish a printed newspaper he decided to go online.” Bayarong added.

It was a shift from print to online for Anthony Bayarong who is also acting as the editor of the website.

“At first it was hard for me, when I was still managing a local newspaper here I got used to the process of making a weekly printed newspaper, I knew that it was not going to last since the printing cost and labor cost were high.” The older Bayarong (Anthony) said.

Anthony explained that he had sought different partners to fund a local newspaper but to no avail.

“All of them said it was so expensive to run a local newspaper and that’s true, you have to hire writers, editors, photographers, secretary plus the cost of printing and operating expenses which adds up and make anyone’s blood pressure shoot up ” he added.

He added that the 1 million hit mark only shows that a huge percent of the community in Olongapo, Subic and nearby province are already online.

“We have a lot of residents and families who has migrated to other countries and we (SubicTimes) think they have no access or have limit access to news and activities in their respective hometown, simple lang yan, kung taga Olongapo ka at nag migrate ka sa ibang bansa, natural lang sa ating mga pinoy na makibalita kung ano na ang nangyayari sa hometown natin and its now easy because they have to log on to www.subictimes.com and get the latest news in the area.” He added.

According to stats from the website, SubicTimes is being viewed in 47 countries around the globe, second to the Philippines is United States, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Canada and Great Britain to name a few.

So far www.subictimes.com has partnered with the oldest newspaper in the country, the Manila Times, the number one local paper in Pampanga, Sunstar Pampanga and BBC’s Rico Hizon website www.goodnewspilipins.com.