Type of site News site Editor David Moran | Available in Spanish Website www.lapatilla.com | |
Owner Alberto Federico Ravell Slogan(s) Noticias, Información e Investigación sobre Venezuela y el mundo. | ||
La Patilla is a news website that was founded by Alberto Federico Ravell, co-founder and former CEO of Globovisión, in 2010. The website is based out of Venezuela and according to Alexa, it is one of the top 700 websites visited in the world and among the top visited in Venezuela. It is also one of top visited news websites in Venezuela, ranked more popular than El Universal, Globovisión and El Nacional. La Patilla has hundreds of thousands of visitors reading daily. It has been described as having an anti-Bolivarian government stance.
Contents
History
La Patilla was created by co-founder and former CEO of Globovisión, Alberto Federico Ravell. In 2010, the majority shareholders of the television station asked for the resignation of the directors of Globovision which included Ravell. On 11 June 2010, Ravell then created the news website, La Patilla.
Reception
In 2015, La Patilla was one of the most popular websites in Venezuela, more popular than Twitter and any other news website. The only websites that were more popular in Venezuela were YouTube, Amazon, Google and Facebook. According to media protection organizations, Venezuelans "have been forced to find alternatives as newspapers and broadcasters struggle with state efforts to control coverage", with a growing trend of Venezuelans using online news media to bypass government censors. Journalists and press-freedom advocates also state that news websites like La Patilla "have helped fill a gap" since those linked to the Venezuelan government had purchased media organizations in Venezuela, such as El Universal, Globovisión and Ultimas Noticias. In an article by The Wall Street Journal discussing the rising popularity of news websites in Venezuela, La Patilla CEO Alberto Federico Ravell stated that, "The editorial line of La Patilla is to call it like it is ... We don't need paper. We don't need a broadcasting license. There's little they can do to squeeze us."
Demographics
La Patilla is primarily visited by those who are college educated or are currently being collegiately educated. One of the primary browsing locations for users is at school.
Blockage by Venezuelan Government
On 17 May 2012, La Patilla was covering violent clashes occurring at a Venezuelan prison, La Planta, through a live stream video feed. However, visitors of La Patilla reported that the website was experiencing "irregularities" and thought it was just technical problems. Later it was discovered that La Patilla was blocked by the government-run CANTV. CANTV blocked La Patilla's original IP address and after La Patilla changed its IP address, CANTV blocked it again. Readers of La Patilla criticized the blockage by CANTV saying it was a "violation of their right to information". Readers also assumed the blockage by the government was due to the coverage of the prison clashes. David Moran, editor of La Patilla stated that "Censorship has been multidimensional against us".