DOMINICAN REPUBLIC NEWSPAPER

The oldest and most trusted newspaper in the Dominican Republic is the Listín Diario. Two successful merchants founded the Listin Diario on August 1, 1889. Arturo Pellerano Alfau and Julian Atiles had to keep the public updated about the arriving and departing vessels in the Dominican ports. To fulfill their duty, they created a one-page newspaper called Listín Diario Marítimo, which was printed in Santo Domingo.
Throughout its existence, the newspaper has known hardship, and when needed it has bravely fought for its country’s well-being and independence. The newspaper covered many important regional developments such as Cuban Independence from 1894 to 1898 and the rise of dictator Rafael Leónidas Trujillo in the first half of the twentieth century. During the struggle for Cuban independence, Listín Diario published letters from the Dominican general Maximo Gomez, who fought on the side of the Cubans. During the American invasion from 1916 to 1924, the Listín Diario showed a robust opposition to the intervention by publishing news articles, columns and opinions of Dominican patriots.

Founding father Arturo Pellerano Alfau was editor of the newspaper until he died, in the early 1930s. Pellerano was arrested several times for publishing unwanted material. Pellerano remained a merchant and journalist all of his life, but he also found the time to produce an impressive offspring. He married twice, and had seven children with each one of his wives. With such a large offspring, it is hardly a coincidence that the husband of one of his daughters, Nelly Pellerano Lopez-Penha, later led the newspaper he had always lived for. The Listín Diario had big financial problems under the rule of General Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, and only in 1963 it began to recover from this hardship.

Founder: Arturo Pellerano

Ricart Vidal, together with other relatives of Pellerano, revived the newspaper in 1963. He was publisher of Listín Diario from 1963 to 1984, when he retired. Rogelio Pellerano was publisher of the Dominican newspaper from then on until 1993, when he died. Ricart Vidal, when he took over in 1963, hired Rafael Herrera Cabral as editor. Herrera Cabral was earlier editor of El Caribe, the biggest daily Dominican newspaper at the time, which was founded in Santo Domingo de Guzman in 1948. Herrera is supposed to have been the most important editor of Listín Diario. He served the paper from 1963 until he died in 1994.

Listín Diario´s current editor is Miguel Franjul and its current publisher is Ramón Báez Romano. Lately, unfortunately the newspaper has been involved in a couple of scandals. It was taken over by the Banco Intercontinental, one of the banks that caused a big scandal in the Dominican Republic in 2003. The paper was abused for political purposes in the 2004 elections, as the government of President Hipólito Mejía seized it. It has been returned to the bank’s president Ramón Báez Figueroa, but it still remains in troubled water.

Listín Diario’s Arturo Pellerano Alfau has become an icon in Dominican Republican history. In 2005, an exposition was organized to honor the country’s icons, have a look at www.protagonistas.org
Read the Listín Diario online (in Spanish): www.listin.com.do
Read El Caribe online (in Spanish): www.elcaribe.com.do
Read El Nacional online (in Spanish): www.elnacional.com.do

Contact Listín Diario here:
Editora Listin Diario.
Paseo de los Periodistas #52.
Santo Domingo, R.D.
Tel:(809)686-6688

(For information in Spanish go to http://www.infoamerica.org/diarios/listin_do_1.htm )