By Maira Magro
Today for the last time the printed version of Jornal do Brasil (JB), one of the oldest newspapers in the country, will be circulated. As of Wednesday, Sept. 1, the newspaper will be available only online.
With growing debts and a low circulation, the newspaper could no longer afford its operation costs. On its website, JB defended the change, arguing that it is a step toward a “better and more modern phase” and that it is more ecologically friendly, lessening the impact on trees that would have to be cut to keep circulating a print edition. However, the feeling was that the newspaper had "few possibilities of continuing to exist in the coming years," said Luciano Martins Costa, of the Press Observatory.
The online version will be produced by a team of 150 journalists and commercial and administrative personnel. The first 15 days access to the site will be free, and then it will begin charging $5.60 a month, according to El Mundo.
Founded 119 years ago in Ro de Janeiro, JB helped define the path of the Brazilian press, said Folha de Sao Paulo. Some of the country's top reporters have worked at the newspaper.
In 2001 JB brand was taken over by Docasnet, owned by businessman Nelson Tanure. The newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo pointed out that last year another publication taken over by Tanure, the Gazeta Mercantil, also ceased to operate.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
