MANILA — The editorial offices of The Philippine Daily Inquirer did not have an elevator, the unofficial rationale being that any reporter no longer nimble enough to make the three-flight climb would have to give way to younger staff. In recent years, the number of editors wheezing up the stairs forced the management to reconsider. The veteran editors now ride a sleek elevator to work alongside the new, bright-eyed idealists, who use social media to direct younger readers to the paper’s website.

But a much more fundamental change is taking place at The Philippine Daily Inquirer. The blue masthead will stay the same, but the tenor of the paper will soon be completely different.

The Inquirer has held every Filipino president to account since 1985, when it was founded under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Today it’s the only national broadsheet that is consistently critical of President Rodrigo Duterte and his violent administration. But the Duterte administration’s allies are now forcing the paper’s owners to sell it to a businessman close to the president who supports his war on drugs. The consequences for journalism in the Philippines will be disastrous.

In March, Mr. Duterte lashed out at the paper, as well as a television station, ABS-CBN. “I’m not trying to scare you, but one day karma will catch up with you,” the president said. No one, except perhaps Mr. Duterte, expected a reckoning to come so quickly.