SPECIAL REPORT Overview of Latin American press The pre-Internet boom Madrid, October 2013 BARCELONA BEIJING BOGOTÁ BUENOS AIRES LIMA LISBOA MADRID MÉXICO PANAMÁ QUITO RIO DE JANEIRO SÃO PAULO SANTO DOMINGO OVERVIEW OF LATIN AMERICAN PRESS THE PRE-INTERNET BOOM 1. INTRODUCTION 1.INTRODUCTION 2. WHAT DO PEOPLE READ IN LATIN AMERICA? Latin American press is currently thriving —growth in readers, advertising and circulation in most countries—, contrasting with the 3. GROWTH IN READERS crisis in other parts of the world, especially Europe and the USA. 4. CONSOLIDATION OF THE PUBLISHING GROUPS There are media more suited to the emerging social sectors —the 5. FUTURE OUTLOOK: LOSS OF lower middle classes— in content and price, alongside newspapers READERS AND DIGITAL CHALLENGE focusing on the interests of the higher social strata and the professional middle classes. LLORENTE & CUENCA These are times of general prosperity throughout the region, although there are already hints of the challenges that will appear in the near future and which have commenced in some countries such as Argentina: falling numbers of readers, sales and advertising as those readers shift from printed press to the digital press on Internet. This report analyses the following points: • The current situation of the printed press in Latin America, referring to the number of readers, characteristics, trends and degree of business concentration. • The short-term challenges facing the printed media as Internet advances. We shall try to explain first of all what people read in Latin America, why the number of people reading printed press is growing in most of these countries, the business structure in the media of this region and, finally, the future outlook for printed press in Latin America. 2 OVERVIEW OF LATIN AMERICAN PRESS THE PRE-INTERNET BOOM 2. WHAT DO PEOPLE READ and education. One of their IN LATIN AMERICA? characteristic features is that they present the contents One of the characteristic features in a clear, direct language, of the printed press in Latin often using jargon, bearing in America is its variety and widely mind their target public in the differing target publics with a broad middle-middle and low-middle spectrum of cultural education and classes. The front page is social levels, which in turn leads to colourful with large headlines, “The Popular Press a diversity of contents and forms containing news on crime & is, together with the of presentation. accidents, entertainment and free press, behind the show business. current surge Some 5 types of daily newspapers • The Regional Press is very of readers” can be distinguished in the region: the traditional press, popular important in the largest and press, regional press, specialist most decentralised countries, press and free press. since the major cities in the interior have enough critical • The Traditional Press is what is mass and volume of population, known as “the serious press”, especially in the working-class including large, long-standing districts, to maintain well- benchmark newspapers such established printed media as La Nación and Clarín in with large circulation. That is Argentina, El Mercurio in Chile, the case of countries such as El Comercio in Peru, O Estado in Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil or El Tiempo in Colombia, Brazil and Argentina. In along with others that have Ecuador, Quito and Guayaquil appeared on the scene during are the two poles where the the last half a century, such principal media are developed, as Reforma in Mexico, Prensa which actually operate as Libre in Guatemala or La national press. In contrast, Tercera in Chile. there is a large dispersion in countries such as Bolivia with • The Popular Press is, together small, provincial circulations. with the free press, behind the current surge of readers • The Specialist Press embraces and exists throughout the a large number of media, but entire region, from Mexico and two large categories stand out, Guatemala, through Peru and those dedicated to economic Brazil, to Argentina and Chile. information, addressed at a minority but with a high These newspapers are cheaper purchasing power, and sports and offer everyday, local press, which is much more news on the subjects and massive and popular. In areas of most interest for the fact in some countries, like working class and emerging Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, middle class: public services, the sports press is among the the health service, safety most widely read. 3 OVERVIEW OF LATIN AMERICAN PRESS THE PRE-INTERNET BOOM In the more socially and 7 in Mexico, these countries economically developed leading this new form of countries the economic press—. The most prominent media, although minority, are free newspaper is the Metro highly influential, as is the International —“Metro”—, case of Ámbito Financiero the largest newspaper in and El Cronista Comercial in Latin America, with almost Argentina —with 74,000 and 3 million daily readers in the 58,000 copies a day—, Valor in metropolitan areas of Mexico, “What can be observed Brazil, and El Financiero and Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, throughout the region is El Economista in Mexico with Guatemala and Colombia. a competition between 98,000 and 38,000 copies each. “serious” media and What can be observed throughout popular press” In this regard, certain weekly the region is a competition magazines have a huge impact between “serious” media and are very important, and popular press. According such as Veja in Brazil with a to SkyScraper Life, a forum of circulation of over 1 million multimedia information resources, copies, Qué Pasa and Capital which published the report “The in Chile, Brecha and Búsqueda 200 daily newspapers most widely in Uruguay, Semana in read in Latin America: average Colombia, Letras Libres and daily circulation in 2011”, the Nexos in Mexico and Caretas most read newspaper in the region in Peru. is the popular Peruvian newspaper Trome, followed in second place by • In recent years, since the Clarín in Buenos Aires with 348,239 late nineties, the free press a day; third was the popular Super has also developed with Noticia in Belo Horizonte with great success. 293,572; fourth Folha in Sao Paulo with 286,398; and fifth, another As pointed out by the popular newspaper, Nuestro Diario specialist in free press, Piet in Guatemala City with 270,097. Bakker, from Amsterdam University, this type of The first ten places are completed newspaper is the most recent with El Tiempo in Bogotá —6th with phenomenon in the world of 269,394—, Extra in Río de Janeiro printed press. Its circulation —7th with 265,018—, O Estado in grew by 140% from 1.2 million Sao Paulo —8th with 263,046—, O in 2005 to 2.8 million in 2010, Globo in Río de Janeiro —9th with reaching a total of 3.5 million 256,259— and La Prensa in Mexico newspapers distributed in City —10th with 244,299—. 2011 —a penetration of 1 newspaper for every 100 As may be observed in this inhabitants—. The number of classification, the popular free newspapers in the region newspapers —Trome, Super rose from just two in 1999 to Noticia, Nuestro Diario, Extra and 40 and currently stands at 37 La Prensa— and the traditional —8 in Argentina, 8 in Brazil and ones —Clarín, Folha, O Estado, 4 OVERVIEW OF LATIN AMERICAN PRESS THE PRE-INTERNET BOOM O Globo and El Tiempo— the markets are traditional and predominate on the market. popular press, with a few specific cases where specialist press Analysing the situation country is more important, especially by country, we observe that the sports newspapers, and even printed media predominating on regional press: COUNTRY MEANS SALES TYPE COUNTRY MEANS SALES TYPE Clarín 348,000 traditional press HONDURAS La Prensa 60,000 traditional press La Nación 162,000 traditional press Diario Popular 96,000 popular press La Voz del Interior regional daily La Prensa 244,000 popular press ARGENTINA 55,028 La Gaceta–Tucumán 53,925 regional daily El Gráfico 235,000 popular press Dario Deportivo Ole 49,625 sports daily El Norte 232,000 regional press La Capital–Rosario 39,175 regional daily El Informador 190,000 regional press El Día–La Plata 38,362 regional daily Record 180,000 specialist press Ovaciones 158,000 specialist press MEXICO Reforma 135,000 traditional press Extra 80,000 popular press La Jornada 107,000 traditional press Gente 78,000 popular press BOLIVIA El Economista 98,000 specialist press El Diario 45,000 traditional press El Universal 81,000 traditional press El Deber 28,000 traditional press Milenio 80,000 traditional press Excelsior 25,000 traditional press Folha 297,000 traditional press popular press Super Noticia 296,000 NICARAGUA La Prensa 42,000 traditional press Extra 265,000 popular press BRAZIL O Estado 263,000 traditional press traditional press El Siglo 66,000 popular press O Globo 256,000 PANAMA Zero Hora 188,000 popular press La Prensa 65,000 traditional press Últimas Noticias 39,000 traditional press El Mercurio 161,000 traditional press PARAGUAY Últimas Noticias 124,000 popular press ABC Color 39,000 traditional press CHILE La Cuarta 107,000 popular press La Tercera 98,000 traditional press Trome 560,000 popular press La Segunda 133,000 traditional press El Popular 215,000 popular press Correo 161,000 popular press Nuevo Ojo 151,000 popular press El Tiempo 269,000 traditional press PERU Líbero 106,000 sports daily Q’Hubo Medellín 121,000 popular press COLOMBIA El Comercio 100,000 traditional press El Espectador 58,000 traditional press Perú 21 100,000 traditional press El Espacio 48,000 popular press