«El Comercio»: старейшая перуанская газета

Daily newspaper from Peru

El Comercio is a Peruvian newspaper based in Lima. Founded in 1839, it is the oldest newspaper in Peru and one of the oldest Spanish language papers in the world. It has a daily circulation of more than 120,000. It is considered a newspaper of record and one of the most influential media in Peru.

El Comercio began as a commercial, political and literary newspaper. Its first publication was on Saturday, May 4, 1839 by José Manuel Amunátegui y Muñoz (Chile, 1802 — Lima 1886) and Alejandro Villota (Buenos Aires, 1803 — Paris, 1861). It was originally a one sheet afternoon newspaper printed on both sides in tabloid format. The price of the first edition was one silver real. Its motto was "Order, freedom, knowledge." In total there were ten people who prepared the first issue. Printing was made on a handlebar "Scott" flatbed press, powered by a mule driven winch. Its first headquarters was the Casa de la Pila, located at Calle del Arzobispo No. 147 (current block 2 of Jr. Junín). Twenty four days later it moved to Calle de San Pedro No. 63 (current block 3 of the Jr. Ucayali), both in the Cercado de Lima. Between January 16, 1880 and October 23, 1884, El Comercio stopped publishing as a consequence of the closure ordered by Nicolás de Piérola and the subsequent occupation of Lima by the Chilean Army during the War of the Pacific. After Carranza's death in 1898, Miró Quesada acquired the shares and since then the Miró Quesada family has controlled the newspaper.

At the beginning of the 20th century, El Comercio would become the most influential newspaper in the country, whose Miró Quesada family was the most powerful at that time. On January 19, 1902, the newspaper inaugurated its first "Marinoni" electric rotary press and its new stereotyping workshop, based on the use of movable typographic characters which, in October 1904, was complemented with the entry into operation of the first linotypes that were used in Peru, being the third newspaper in South America to implement it. On January 21, 1917, a modern "Goss" rotary press was put into operation, with which thirty two page copies could be printed, and the printing workshops were expanded. By 1922, it reached 40 thousand editions. On May 4, 1924, the traditional headquarters were inaugurated in the same location on the corner of Jr. Lampa and jr. Miró Quesada (today Santa Rosa) in the historic center of Lima. On July 3, 1928, José Antonio Miró Quesada, by public deed, established a public limited company with his children called Empresa Editora El Comercio S. A. This is how his son Antonio Miró Quesada de la Guerra would later assume management of the newspaper, who, together with his wife, was murdered by an Aprista Party member on May 15, 1935, when they were walking to lunch at the National Club. He was later succeeded as director of El Comercio by several members of the Miró Quesada family. In the 1930s, Carlos Miró Quesada Laos served as director of the newspaper and was a proponent for fascism in Peru. On March 3, 1951, in response to competition from other newspapers and new media such as radio broadcasting, it was the first Peruvian newspaper to implement the use of the radio photo system Previously, cultural pages were published on Saturdays. On May 2, 1959, the last front page of the newspaper with advertisements was published. On May 4 of the same year (anniversary date), the first morning edition was published with a completely news cover and a renewed design that would remain for twenty four years. Despite this, the publishing company entered into conflict with its workers; amid accusations of difficult working conditions, some were fired. In 1962, El Comercio Gráfico was launched to replace the newspaper's evening edition. In July 1966, the "Hoe Colormatic" rotary press was inaugurated, releasing up to seventy thousand copies per hour and allowing the newspaper to publish color photographs. At the beginning of 1982, El Comercio began the progressive change of the old linotype editing systems and began to be designed using computers, a transition successfully completed on November 23, 1983 with the adoption of an electronic photocomposition system. On June 28, 1984, he inaugurated a large printing plant in the Pueblo Libre district on an area of eighteen thousand m2 with a new rotary offset press "M. A. N. Roland Lithomatic II" with the ability to print the journal completely in colour. Also in 1984, the “School Page” section was created, where journalistic articles by hundreds of schoolchildren from all over Peru began to be published. Although no longer in the printed version, the School Correspondents program continues with teaching and training in journalistic training topics for young schoolchildren. In the mid 1990s, a new computerised publishing and digital pre press system was implemented, in which it experimented with Infobanco, its subscription information service. In 1996 it was agreed to purchase 15% of Telefónica del Perú. On January 15, 1997, El Comercio launched its internet website. Between November 1999 and February 2000, the company underwent a restructuring to save costs of up to one million dollars annually.

In 1994, Ricardo Uceda resigned as editor in chief of Sí to form a special investigative team at El Comercio. As with Uceda's Sí reporting, the Comercio team focused on cases of governmental corruption. One their most notable successes came in 1998, when they exposed the misuse of state funds intended for the survivors of floods and mudslides induced by the 1997 98 El Niño event; the story resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of Civil Defence Chief General Homero Nureña. Barnhurst described El Comercio as "the most conservative newspaper" in Peru in a review of the media in the nation.