MANILA, Philippines?Klik Bandera, a weekend tabloid for women readers, published its maiden issue on Saturday.

The 12-pager, filled with entertaining, informative and mostly feel-good show-biz articles, is another product of Inquirer Publications Inc. (IPI). It comes out Saturdays and Sundays in Metro Manila, across Luzon and in key areas in Visayas and Mindanao.

The cleanup

?For three years now, we?ve been working on the concept of a tabloid that caters to women. We weren?t sure [if we should] create an entirely new brand or use Bandera for it. We were concerned that it might alienate our male readers,? said Imee Alcantara, Bandera vice president for operations.

IPI has published Bandera, its weekday tabloid, for nine years now. With another tabloid, Tumbok, it was acquired from the Gokongwei family in November 2001. ?Bandera had been part of an era when tabloids were full of sex and violence. When IPI bought it, the mandate was to clean it up. Little by little, bold pictures on its front page disappeared,? Imee said. ?For that alone, we lost the readers of the old Bandera.?

Klik Bandera editor Jimmy Alcantara pointed out, ?Women shy away from tabloids because of the content. Since our goal is to increase readership, we decided to court female readers. So we?re keeping the present Bandera format from Monday to Friday, and offering a lighter form for the weekend. This is also to give people a break from all the negative news they read during the week.?

Fashion, too

Apart from the regular offerings of columnists Cristy Fermin, Dinno Erece, Reggie Bonoan, Ervin Santiago and Jobert Sucaldito, Jimmy said, Klik will have features on cooking, fashion and local stars? homes.

??Di lang puro chismis (not all gossip),? Jimmy pointed out. ?We will have in-depth articles, like our story on actor Jake Cuenca that we called ?Evolution of Hot.? We traced Jake?s rise to stardom. Yesterday, we featured (stand-up comic and TV host) Vice Ganda.?

Interactive

Klik Bandera also has interactive sections, like ?Txt Tok,? ?Txt Tainment? and ?Listen to Me.? Imee explained, ?These sections are meant for readers who want to give feedback or comments addressed to their favorite celebrities. They can also ask questions that we will try to answer.?

Jimmy said survey questions will also be a regular item. ?For example, we ask the readers, ?Who do you think is the hottest male actor today?? Later on, we will also have fashion pictorials and visits to the sets of the latest movies and TV shows.?

There?s the hilarious advice column, ?Ask mo si Manang,? where even male readers can ask about ?anything under the sun.? ?Heart to Heart? is a serialized novel by Gilda Olvidado. ?The series finishes in a few months,? said Imee. ?Right now, we?re running her ?Fools of Paradise.??

Breaking news

?We?ve devoted the first eight pages to show biz,? Imee said. ?We have a spread that?s full of current show-biz scoops and blind items. For male readers who want to be updated about goings-on in sports, we have Barry Pascua?s column, ?Lucky Shot.? Another page is reserved for breaking news.?

Klik Bandera, priced at P10, has the look and feel of a magazine.

?We want readers to think there?s no need to buy magazines, which cost about P100 or more. We are offering an inexpensive weekend paper filled with fresh show-biz chika.?

(E-mail mcruz@inquirer.com.ph.)