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The Buenos Aires Herald, part of Argentina's history folds after more than 140 years

Wednesday, August 2nd 2017 - 07:59 UTC
Full article 31 comments
 “Herald's staff have been informed that the newspaper is closing,” the paper said,  along with a photo of the front page of its 140th anniversary edition “Herald's staff have been informed that the newspaper is closing,” the paper said, along with a photo of the front page of its 140th anniversary edition

The Buenos Aires Herald, a long established English-language newspaper lauded for its coverage of Argentina's 1976-1983 military dictatorship, will close after more than 140 years of publication, the newspaper said late on Monday.

 “Herald's staff have been informed that the newspaper is closing,” the paper said in a Twitter message, along with a photo of the front page of its 140th anniversary edition from last September.

The move comes less than a year after the paper, which once called itself the only English language daily in Latin America, switched to a weekly print edition, blaming tough economic conditions and a broad shift among readers to digital media.

The Buenos Aires Herald, closely associated with Argentina's British and, in later years, U.S. community, won praise for its coverage of the “disappeared” - people who were forcibly abducted, tortured and often murdered by the state during the dictatorship - when much of the country's media stayed silent.

The Herald is majority-owned by the Indalo Group conglomerate, which also owns local financial paper Ambito Financiero.

The Buenos Ayres Herald (the original spelling) was founded in 1876 by William Cathcart, an ageing Scot who had spent 50 years in “the Argentine.” It constituted of a single sheet with advertising on the front and mostly shipping coverage on the back (with the odd general news and community item thrown in).

A year later Cathcart sells the Herald to D.W. Lowe of the United States, who immediately discards the Cathcart principle of weekly publication in favor of daily news (or at least when there is enough news to fill the paper).

In 1913 Thomas Bell the Herald's editor-owner for over 30 years, is replaced as managing editor by Hugh Lancelot Lyall. Under Lyall, the Herald evolves from a sporadic daily to a newspaper which has appeared 360 times a year for the last eight decades almost without fail. His trenchant editorials become a defining trademark of the newspaper. In 1920 the Herald becomes a public company.

Five years later the newspaper is purchased by brothers Junius Julius (J.J.) and Claude Ronald Rugeroni whose family originally left Italy for Britain in the nationalist upheavals of the early 19th century and actually came as Englishmen rather than Italians. From the outset they work towards the modernization and expansion of the newspaper.

In 1968 sees important changes at the Herald - a controlling block of shares (largely corresponding to J.J. Rugeroni's) is purchased by the Evening Post Publishing Company of Charleston, South Carolina; a Rugeroni cousin (Robert) Basil (Hamilton) Thomson of Ramon writes fame becomes president of the company and Robert Cox becomes editor. The concept of “an Argentine newspaper in English” resurfaces and Cox was to give it flesh and blood.

In 1979 threats from the military government against his family finally force out Robert Cox, who leaves for the United States to become an editor at The Post and Courier in Charleston where he remains to this day. James Neilson takes over as editor and carries on from where Cox left off on the editorial front. Kenneth Rugeroni becomes president of the company.

During the Falklands conflict in 1982 the distributors' association the Herald's access to the newsstands as a “patriotic gesture,” thus forcing readers to come to the office to buy the newspaper. Despite this action, readers continue to use the Herald as a lens through which they view the world.

In 1998 Ruggeroni sells his shares in the paper to The Evening Post Publishing Company, which becomes sole owner of the Herald, and in 2007 The Evening Post Publishing Company sells the paper to Grupo 23. A year later Grupo 23 sells the newspaper to AmFin SA, which embarks on a program to modernize the paper.

Categories: Economy, Politics, Argentina.

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  • DemonTree

    @Tr0lListic_Approach
    “All right... all right... but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and public order... what have the Romans done for us?”

    Aug 02nd, 2017 - 09:24 pm +6
  • Marti Llazo

    pgerman seems confused once again. For most of the past 50 years the Herald was owned by Americans. Does pgerman understand the difference between the UK and the US? The paper went into serious decline after 2007 when it was bought by an argie and from there was run into the ground. For pgerman's edification, UK influence in Argenzuela declined following WWI, as US interests grew to displace the UK. The economic decline of Argentina matches the reduction of UK influence in the country. Not surprising, since it was UK markets, management, and technology that made Argentina's economy in the first place.

    Aug 02nd, 2017 - 02:15 pm +4
  • Clyde15

    You obviously don't know much about British history from the neolithic era- to the Roman era. Where do I start !

    You suggest that there was no fish -Britain is an island surrounded with fish in the various seas but we couldn't catch them ? Rotten meat ? The place was full of abundant game and cattle farming was practised..

    Fruits ? Have you never heard of apples, blaeberries and cloudberries

    Why did the Romans come if not to plunder our natural resources. Yes, they built military roads to join up their settlements but not for the native population's benefit.

    The only brick houses built were for wealthy romanised merchants or officials - timber or stone were used by local tribes. Neither did they live in holes in the ground.

    They Romans brought theatres -arenas where they could indulge their passion for murder as a sport.

    As for the locals, they had halls where poets,bards and musicians would entertain with stories and music.

    In about 3180 BC, Neolithic man was living in stone built dwellings in Skara Brae in the Orkneys. This predates the pyramids in Egypt

    The diet consisted of fresh beef, venison,salmon, sea fish, shellfish. Grains from oats or barley and berries. An early form of beer was also made. The Romans did not even exist then ! I think that living in Scotland, fresh water was never going to be a problem.

    Yes the Romans did bring in many new ideas but civilization was here long before they arrived. There were trade links with N.Europe and as far as the continent to the south.

    As usual you have shot from the hip without knowing much about the subject, basing it on your anti-British sentiments.

    Aug 03rd, 2017 - 11:10 am +4
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