Folha de S. Paulo

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Folha de S.Paulo

The October 22, 2006 front page of Folha de S.Paulo.
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Broadsheet
Owner	Grupo Folha
Editor	Otavio Frias Filho
Founded	1921
Political alignment	Liberal
Headquarters	Al. Barão de Limeira, 425 São Paulo, Brazil
Circulation	299,427
Official website	www.folha.com.br

Folha de S.Paulo is a Portuguese language newspaper published in São Paulo. It is Brazil's largest in circulation since 2006, and reflects the development of the media in Brazil.^[1]. The newspaper has been under the sole ownership of the Brazilian Frias de Oliveira family since 1962.

Folha de S.Paulo played a major role during the many events that occurred in Brazilian society while under the period of the dictatorship. With the return of Freedom of the press, the paper became an important channel for public expression. Folha de S.Paulo also had an important role during the impeachment of President Fernando Collor de Mello in 1992.^[2] Today, Folha de S.Paulo is a very important paper nationally, and very influential among the media in Brazil.^[1] Folha de S.Paulo presents a broad selection of news, with many in depth articles, on a variety of subjects. It combines this with full color illustrations that provide visual appeal (e.g. graphics, charts, and photographs).

[edit] History

Founded on February 19, 1921 by Olival Costa and Pedro Cunha as Folha da Noite (English: Evening paper), Folha de S. Paulo was bought on 1962 by businessmen Octavio Frias de Oliveira and Carlos Caldeira Filho. On 1925, a morning edition (Folha da Manhã) was released, while an afternoon edition (Folha da Tarde) came in 24 years later. These three separate editions, finally merged in 1960, giving birth to Folha de S. Paulo.

In 1930 it supported presidential candidate Júlio Prestes, therefore being pillaged and closed on October 24, 1930, when the 1930 Revolution triumphed. At that time, Folha de S. Paulo had on its staff the famous cartoonist Lelis Viana, popularly known as Juca Pato (Juca, the Duck), a figure which always criticized the Liberal Alliance of Getúlio Vargas. The newspaper resumed operations in 1931 with new owners and a new editorial line toward the support of agriculture.

Unlike its main rival, O Estado de S. Paulo, which was even censored and intervened, Folha de S. Paulo initially supported the 1964 coup d'état against João Goulart and the military regime that followed until the government of Ernesto Geisel. In the early 1970s, this stance has led to a series of attacks against vehicles delivering Folha de S. Paulo, which were burned down by leftist resistance groups. According to Elio Gaspari, currently a columnist for Folha de S. Paulo, "cars of the company were borrowed to the DOI, which used them as coverage to transport prisoners".^[3]

The rising of a renewed and engaged writing team, featuring prominent names such as Cláudio Abramo, Boris Casoy, Clóvis Rossi, and Jânio de Freitas, led a change in the editorial line of the newspaper, which in the 1980s was marked by immediate support to the Diretas Já movement. In the late 1980s, the newspaper was a pioneer in Brazil in the installation of computers in its newsroom. Later the newspaper dared to hire an ombudsman, something quite unusual for a major Brazilian newspaper then. It was so groundbreaking for its time that led to many clashes between then ombudsman Caio Tulio Costa, and Paulo Francis, which eventually moved to rival O Estado de S. Paulo. Since the 1980s, Folha de S. Paulo was also an early adopter of graphics and tables that explain, in a didactic manner, the details of breaking news and the context of the same.

In early 1990s, the newspaper began to invest in developing new products and supplements, such as Revista da Folha (Folha Magazine), Folhateen, and TV Folha. Marketed by a major advertising campaign, in which staff director Matins Suzuki Jr. himself announced the new features of the newspapers, Folha de S. Paulo went on to lead sales in São Paulo, surpassing O Estado de S. Paulo. A graphical reform in the mid-1990s and the launch of gifts such as the Atlas Folha and dictionaries strengthened the newspaper's leadership. In October 1996, a Sunday edition of Folha de S. Paulo sold as much as 489,000 copies in newstands alone.

However, over a decade later, the scenario is quite adverse for the newspaper. Data from the Checked Circulation Institute (Instituto Verificador de Circulação - IVC) shows that Folha de S. Paulo ended the first trimester of 2009 selling a daily average of 298,351 copies, while in early 2000, that average was of 429,476 copies, which represents a decline of almost 50% in sales, although it remains the best-selling newspaper in the country.

[edit] Grupo Folha

After acquiring several other companies, the Folha Group became second only to the Organizações Globo media conglomerate in Brazil. Eventually the empire was passed on to Frias' children, Luiz and Otavio, which became president and editor of the newspaper, respectively. Today, the newspaper has an online edition, titled FolhaOnline, hosted on Latin America's largest Internet Service Provider, Universo Online, which is also part of the Folha conglomerate.^[4]

[edit] "Ditabranda" scandal

Protest against Folha de S. Paulo's usage of the term "ditabranda" at Grupo Folha headquarters. The banner, a reference to the famous photo of Vladimir Herzog hanged after torture, says: "The military dictatorship in Brazil according to Folha de S. Paulo".

On February 17, 2009, an editorial criticizing the Hugo Chávez administration in Venezuela referred to the Brazilian military dictatorship as a "ditabranda". Since Folha de S. Paulo has the largest circulation in the country, reactions to the usage of the term were almost immediate.^[5]

Among the first people to condemn the usage of the term were the newspaper's own readers and University of São Paulo professors Maria Victória Benevides and Fábio Konder Comparato. The newspaper answered that it "respects the opinion of readers that disagree with the usage of the term in the editorial to refer to the Brazilian military regime". It, however, tried to debunk the letters sent by Benevides and Comparto, because they supposedly "have not until this day expressed their repudiation to left-wing dictatorships, such as the one still in power in Cuba". According to Folha de S. Paulo, their indignation was "cynical and deceitful".^[6]

The newspaper was heavily criticized on the internet and by other media outlets, such as small left-wing magazines Fórum,^[7] Caros Amigos (which published a cover story on the usage of the term),^[8] and Carta Capital.^[9] None of these critiques, however, had as much visibility as a news story titled "The ditabranda scandal" run by Rede Record on its Domingo Espetacular Sunday newsmagazine. It accused the Grupo Folha of mantaining liaisons with the dictatorship's repressive bodies. Folha de S. Paulo repeled itself from the accusations, which made Record run the story once again in its flagship newsprogram Jornal da Record and post it on its official YouTube channel.^[10]

[edit] See also

• Grupo Folha

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Folha Online
• Folha de S.Paulo (printed version)
• English transations of Folha articles available at nonprofit WorldMeets.US

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