Type Daily newspaper Owner(s) Miguel Henrique Otero Headquarters Caracas
Venezuela | Format Broadsheet Founded 1943 | |
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Publisher C.A. Editorial El Nacional | ||
El Nacional is a Venezuelan publishing company under the name C.A. Editorial El Nacional, most widely known for its El Nacional newspaper and website. It, along with Últimas Noticias and El Universal, are the most widely read and circulated daily national newspapers in the country, and it has an average of more than 80,000 papers distributed daily and 170,000 copies on weekends. It has traditionally had a center-left ideology, but has recently moved to the center. The paper supported the candidacy of Hugo Chavez in 1998. Current editor and proprietor Miguel Henrique Otero founded the Movimiento 2D opposition movement, which supports the opposition electoral coalition Mesa de la Unidad Democrática.
Contents
Contributors and owners
El Nacional was founded in August 1943 in Caracas by Miguel Otero Vizcarrondo and is directed by Chief Editorial Officer Miguel Henrique Otero, grandson of the founder, and by Chief Executive Officer Manuel Sucre.
The newspaper's first director was poet Antonio Arráiz (1903–1962). In the newspaper have contributed many of the most recognized Venezuelan writers. Arturo Úslar Pietri, one of the most important intellectuals of the country and its director, wrote for more than fifty years in an opinion column in the newspaper. Former editors include José Ramón Medina and Miguel Otero Silva.
In 1961 an advertising boycott in opposition to the paper's leftist views (its then editor, Miguel Otero Silva, had been a member of the Communist Party of Venezuela) nearly forced the paper into bankruptcy.
Editorial position and management
Historically, the newspaper received criticism by the governments under the AD and COPEI parties for it had tended to support the political beliefs of the moderate left and the middle class.
In late 2007 editor and proprietor Miguel Henrique Otero founded the Movimiento 2D opposition movement, which supported the opposition electoral coalition Mesa de la Unidad Democrática in the September 2010 parliamentary election.