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 Editorials | Issues | February 2007 
The Rise and Fall of a Great Mexican Newspaper
 Michael Werbowski - PVNN
| | 'Mussolini' by Diego Rivera, New York Workers School, NY, USA. 1933 |
On a mid November day in 2006, a cleaning lady found the lifeless corpse of the journalist Jose Manuel Nava's bloodied body in his Mexico City flat located on Warsaw Street in the colonia Juarez district of the capital.
He died, according to police reports, from a savage knife attack by an unknown assailant. This occurred a week after he published a book very critical of the outgoing President Fox and some members of Mexico's business elite.
The mysterious murder of the journalist and its unclear motive ended another chapter in the long, glorious, and at times sordid, saga of what was, historically speaking; one of Mexico's most famed newspapers: "El Excelsior." The newspaper's downfall, its history - and Nava's - seem somehow inextricably linked. In a way, both the man and the newspaper as an institution shared a common fate.
In his book, "El Asalto Final" (The Final Assault,) launched nearly week before he died, Nava writes: "An internal betrayal, big money and the complicity of Vincente Fox's government caused the collapse of the newspaper, which since the fall of Regino Diaz Redondo (1) for five years, has struggled to survive to maintain a source of employment for the 1,400 members of the cooperative." (2)
THE OLD EXCELSIOR SELLS OUT AND THE NEW EXCELSIOR IS BORN
These incendiary charges were made by a man who was associated with the paper's history for over 25 years. He covered wars, was a former "El Excelsior" Washington correspondent of 22 years, and finally "was named" its editor in chief in 2004.
Nava left after the daily ceased to be owned by its employees and was sold to private interests for the first time in its 87 year history. The veteran and highly respected reporter hinted that there were improprieties surrounding the newspaper's operations. This surely irked some powerful people in Mexico.
The book's premise is this: The internal corruption, fraud and infighting which reigned within the newspaper for years was made worse by interference from "outsiders" and the complicity of certain members of the editorial who systematically and deliberately sabotaged the newspaper. This hastened the demise of the daily.
EL EXCELSIOR: FROM A TROUBLED PAST TO AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
Despite being mired in internal strife and uncertainty for nearly a decade, the newspaper was finally sold in 2004. Before that, it was burdened with huge debts and falling circulation for years.
Official sponsorship, such a government ads placed in "its" newspaper by the ruling PRI party, dried up when the new PAN presidency assumed power. The publication survived throughout the 1990s by mortgaging its headquarters, considered prime real estate to its creditors.
For years, this venerable institution of Mexican journalism teetered on the verge of bankruptcy, hardly managing to pay its 1,400 staff members known as the "collective," before being sold to Olegario Vazquez Rana at the height of its ongoing financial crisis.
A wealthy business tycoon who owns a chain of luxury hotels and a private hospital in Mexico City, Rana supposedly made attempts in "backroom" deals with the editor at the time to purchase the newspaper in 2000. The deal fell through after the proposal was voted down by the collective and its members at an emergency assembly meeting in October of the same year.
The failed attempt to sell the paper to outside interests, in addition to allegations of fraud against its former editorial director, Regino Diaz Redondo, resulted in his sudden departure.
2000 ELECTION: A PRELUDE TO THE DOWNFALL OF AN INSTITUTION IN MEXICAN JOURNALISM
During the 2000 presidential campaign, the newspaper was less than favorable in its portrayal of the eventual winner, Vicente Fox of the PAN party. Historically, El Excelsior was closely linked to the ruling party, PRI, and the editor at the time openly favored the PRI's man, Francisco Labastida. (3)
On the 7th of June, the paper published names of "presumed" generous financial backers of the Vincente Fox campaign. On the list were names of major foreign multinational corporations, known as "Los Amigos de Fox" or Fox's friends, which "have every possibility of being major supporters of Fox's presidential bid." (4)
This apparently riled the winning candidate. The origin of the list of names was questionable. In the end, the newspaper was unable to prove the authenticity of neither its source nor the alleged links between contributors to the PAN party candidate.
Whatever the merits or veracity of these claims may have been, two things were certain: El Excelsior made many enemies among Mexico's future ruling class when they needed them most, and secondly, from then on the daily was in constant crisis mode throughout President Fox's six year term in office.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF EL EXCELSIOR
El Excelsior was founded on the 18th of March 1917 by Rafael Alduncin and located on La Esquina de la Información (the information corner) Bucareli and El Paseo de la Reforma in the heart of the Mexican capital.
In its glorious heyday, from August 1968 until July 1976, the daily was known as the best tradition of Mexican journalism of its time, largely due to its editorial director, Julio Scherer Garcia, whom many of his generation personified as the "El Excelsior Myth." In Scherer's words, journalism is "a problem of balance and counterbalance... an acrobatic art with networks of protection." (5)
Scherer's rise to journalistic fame was partly from his editorial stewardship of the daily during the notorious events of October 2nd, 1968. That day, government troops massacred hundred of student protestors at La Plaza de Tres Culturas in Mexico City.
While at the newspaper's helm and despite government interference, El Excelsior reporters meticulously documented the events, days before and after the tragedy. The newspaper, once known as the "Le Monde of Mexico," distinguished itself from other newspapers because of its editorial excellence during this crisis period.
Very high caliber reporting, matched by an array of prestigious collaborators and columnists such as Elena Poniatowska, Julio Cortazar, Carlos Monsivais and Enrique Krauze made it a superb read.
Back then, El Excelsior's reporters enjoyed unprecedented access to the circles of power, thanks mainly to Sherer's charisma and the close interpersonal ties he established with Mexico's presidents. These insiders' views from Los Pinos, the President's official residence, were reflected in the excellent editorial content and interviews which appeared in the daily.
Julio Scherer Garcia was knocked off from his editorial perch on July 8th, 1967. By then, the newspaper had fallen out of favor with the powers that be. It was considered "troublesome" and "was effectively silenced by government directed employees (within the paper) and its editor, Julio Scherer Garcia, was ousted along with most of the independent reporting staff." (6) This, as it turned out almost 25 years later, was not the first, nor the last, time the paper fell victim to internal dissent and skullduggery.
The firings at the editorial were apparently due to the critical stance El Excelsior took in its reporting about Mexican foreign policy, the government's repression of trade unions, and other issues which embarrassed the country's leadership and President Luis Echeverria. (7)
In a communiqué published in the wake of the forced resignations and published in the newspaper, the new leadership of the newspaper's cooperative and staff explained that Scherer and his colleagues left after a "democratically" made decision, and without any interference or pressure whatsoever from outside forces.
Still today, it is believed by many in Mexican media and intellectual circles that the editor's sudden dismissal was fomented by the President himself.
Regino Diaz Redondo was appointed to succeed Scherer, and from then on ran, or rather ruled over, the newspaper. Under his reign in the 1980's the newspaper's reputation for editorial excellence was maintained. However, his authoritarian style, and rumors of financial mismanagement over the years, inevitably led to chronic debts and discontent among the newspaper's reporters and staff.
The newspaper was, and still is, no stranger to behind the scenes intrigues and Machiavellian maneuvers at the "mythical newspaper." During my International "internship" at El Excelsior in 2000, the year was a turbulent period in the newspaper's history.
Its director, after accusation of embezzling money from the employees' pension fund, was ousted in a manner even more humiliating than his famed predecessor. A colleague of mine at the foreign desk succumbed to a heart attack from the stressful working conditions at the time.
The atmosphere at the newspaper was dreadfully grim and tense... In attendance at one of the many Excelsior assembly meetings on the top floor of the newspaper, I witnessed a raucous meetings, in which fellow journalist hurled slurs and accusations of theft and fraud at each other.
As the future and fate of the newspaper was being deliberated, unable to enter the newspaper, I stood across the street and watched as loyalists of the former and disgraced editor - Director Redondo attempted to forcefully regain control of the newspaper by forcing their way into the building. They were tear gassed by security forces outside the newspaper's entrance.
All this bad news made for excellent copy, and El Excelsior's rivals, who seemed to revel in covering every step of the paper's internal hemorrhaging until the final sale occurred in 2004. The newspaper was reborn like a phoenix from its ashes as "El Nuevo Excelsior" in that year.
It remains to be seen if it will prosper under its new owner and publisher, Olegario Vazquez Rana, but editorially and critically speaking, it bears little resemblance to it former mythical self. As for Jose Manual Nava*, the books and articles he left behind are a testament to an era of El Excelsior's former glory.
* This article is dedicated to the memory of the Mexican journalist Jose Manuel Nava.
Notes:
(1) El Excelsior Editorial director from July 1976 to October 2000.
(2)The Newspaper was founded as a "cooperative" and in theory was collectively owned by its entire staff of reporter and employees.
(3) "Uno Mas Uno," another Mexican daily also closely aligned to the PRI party, suffered a similar fate after Fox's 2000 election. It saw its circulation fall and was mired in financial woes during the Fox years.
(4) La Palabra.com November 2000
(5) "Un Mito Llamado Excelsior," Etcetera, July 2001
(6) From the 1980 coha.org press release archives
(7) Ibid |
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