A Financially Independent Newspaper: El Tiempo in Colombia, 1911-1940

Oscar Aponte

After a brief job interview with Eduardo Santos in 1925, the young journalist and later

President of Colombia, Alberto Lleras (1958-1962), joined El Tiempo, in his opinion the

most influential newspaper in the country by the 1920s. In his memoir, Lleras would

remember “the thundering roar of the press,” the “army of workers” who with “leather aprons

handled the type,” and the large room with the 6 or 7 linotypes that El Tiempo had by the

time. Besides the impressive facilities and technology, Lleras would highlight that his

monthly salary went up to COP$60, a salary that La República and El Espectador, where

Lleras previously had worked, could not afford to pay him. In fact, most of the journalists

based in Bogotá shared this opinion since El Tiempo was regarded as the best place to work

for a journalist, both for the newspaper’s political influence and economic resources.1

This opinion about El Tiempo was shared not only by politicians and businessman across the

country but also by historians of twentieth-century Colombia. How did El Tiempo achieve

such a position among Colombian newspapers in less than twenty years and hold it for a large

portion of the twentieth century? In this presentation, I explore the history of the first years

of operation of El Tiempo as a critical moment for understanding the subsequent influential

position that the newspaper held. While most of the historiography about the press in

Colombia underscores the political role played by El Tiempo and other newspapers, I shall

1
Alberto Lleras, Memorias (Bogotá: El Ancora Editores & Taurus, 2006), 216–18.

1
focus on El Tiempo as a business analyzing its finances, internal organization, and use of

technology.

Historians studying the press in Colombia have focused primarily on its political role

because, as Eduardo Posada-Carbó argues, newspapers in Colombia during the nineteenth

and twentieth century were fundamentally political.2 Although political goals remained

central, however, newspapers in early-twentieth-century Colombia were changing in a

number of directions. According to Ricardo Arias and Isidro Vanegas the quality of the

information increased, the topics covered diversified, the reading public expanded, the

administration and internal organization of the companies improved, and the commercial

strategies and technological innovations of the modern press were adopted by Colombian

newspapers in this time period. In short, Colombian newspapers were moving towards a

commercially-oriented model of journalism.3 As these changes have not been explored in-

depth in the Colombian case for the first decades of the twentieth century, in this presentation

I intend to fill this gap in the historiography by showing that—indeed, what ensured El

Tiempo’s recognition well into the twentieth century as Colombia’s most politically

influential newspaper—was its success in becoming a financially independent and internally

organized company employing state-of-the-art printing and transportation technologies. In

particular, I shall focus on El Tiempo’s revenue and income between 1912 and 1919.

Financial independence

2
Eduardo Posada-Carbó, “Newspapers, Politics, and Elections in Colombia, 1830-1930,” The Historical
Journal 53, no. 4 (2010): 942.
3
Ricardo Arias, Los Leopardos. Una Historia Intelectual de Los Años 1920 (Bogotá: ICANH & Facultad de
Ciencias Sociales Universidad de los Andes, 2007), 93; Isidro Vanegas, Todas Son Iguales. Estudios Sobre La
Democracia En Colombia (Bogotá: Universidad Externado de Colombia, 2011), 226.

2
When Alfonso Villegas founded El Tiempo on January 30, 1911, this lawyer and journalist

had the goal of establishing a newspaper which would serve as the organ for the newly created

Republican Party, founded in 1909. A four-page long publication, it contained chiefly

political analysis and opinions supporting the ideas and candidates of the Republican Party—

whose members in Colombia and abroad were its targeted reading public as well as its most

assiduous supporters—and had little room for advertisements. In this regard, El Tiempo

shared traits that were common for the press in the country since the nineteenth century: these

were newspapers that served primarily as political tools dependent financially on the fortune

of their owners, the government, the Catholic church, or the political parties whose views

they represented, and were read by a limited reading public. As long as newspapers fulfilled

their role serving as party organs, launching candidates, and mobilizing voters, profitability

was not usually a factor considered by newspaper owners.

In July 1913, Eduardo Santos, a habitual contributor to El Tiempo and years later President

of Colombia (1938-1942), bought the newspaper for COP$5,000 and became its new Editor-

in-chief.4 Although defending the ideas and promoting the candidates of the Republican party

remained one of Santos’ primary goals, the new Editor-in-chief also considered it necessary

to provide El Tiempo with a coherent financial and journalistic project that ensured both a

stable source of revenue and quality information for its readers. Shortly after assuming the

position as Editor-in-chief, Santos announced to El Tiempo’s readers his plan: a larger

newspaper with more pages to present the most comprehensive information possible of

international and national matters—the latter covering news not only from Bogotá but also

4
El Tiempo, January 30, 1961, p. 23.

3
from other cities across the country—as well as to discuss business, science, and literature

along with politics.5

During his first months as Editor-in-chief, Santos was able to advance some of these goals—

for instance, the amount of international news and the number of advertisements increased.

With the outbreak of World War I in 1914 numerous difficulties for this new journalistic

project arose. The supply of international news was affected during the war as cable

communication from Europe failed and European governments imposed censorship on war

correspondents and international cables. As a result, El Tiempo frequently communicated to

its readers that no information had been received from Europe or denounced that the

information obtained through those means was not reliable. The drastic increase in the price

of imported newsprint, however, was the most compelling challenge faced by El Tiempo

during the war years. Newsprint paper was imported from Europe and the United States, as

El Tiempo informed its readers early in 1917, and prices had increased from 1914 to 1917 by

almost 300%.6 In 1916 imports of paper and paper products into Colombia were valued at

COP$913,502, while one year later imports decreased to $710,690. By 1918, there was a

shortage of paper all over the country.7

Facing a newsprint paper shortage and increasing import prices during World War I, most of

the newspapers in Colombia decided to increase the price of street sales and subscriptions.

By 1917, El Nuevo Tiempo, a Conservative newspaper published in Bogotá, increased street

5
El Tiempo, May 2, 1914, p. 3.
6
El Tiempo, February 24, 1917, p. 2.
7
P. L. Bell, Colombia. A Commercial and Industrial Handbook (Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office,
1921), 371.

4
sales prices from $0,3 cents to $0,5 a copy and annual subscriptions from COP$7 to $12.

Even newspapers in the port city of Barranquilla had to increase sale prices, notwithstanding

that they had cheaper and easier access to imported paper since they did not have to transport

it along the Magdalena river. The strategy adopted by El Tiempo to face the paper crisis was

different: the newspaper opted to keep the prices for street sales and subscriptions unchanged

while increasing advertising prices in the same proportion as the price for imported newsprint

had increased. Although El Tiempo finally had to increase sales prices by the end of 1919,

throughout the four years of the war street sales prices remained at $0,3 cents a copy and

annual subscriptions at COP$7. In contrast, advertising prices increased by 300% during the

war.

With this strategy, El Tiempo not only expected to ensure a stable source of revenue but also

to retain El Tiempo’s readership and circulation across the country as well as to endorse the

expansion of the already meager reading public in Colombia. According to El Tiempo,

companies contracting press advertising services should be the first to support lower street

sales and subscription prices because only low prices could ensure that newspapers were

broadly read and ensured that advertisements reached a larger number of potential clients.8

Even though the expansion of El Tiempo’s format to include more pages promised by

Eduardo Santos had to wait until the 1920s, the decision to increase advertising revenue

rather than the newspaper’s sales price became the commercial strategy that helped El

Tiempo to weather the hardships imposed by World War I and, in the long-term, to achieve

financial independence.

8
El Tiempo, July 25, 1919, p. 1.

5
Table 1: Annual revenue of El Tiempo from 1912 to 1919 (percentages)9

1912 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919

Subscriptions 39.99% 52.17% 44.90% 44.91% 41.80% 37.45% 35.05%

Sale of old issues 24.33% 11.54% 11.40% 4.80% 4.49% 3.95% 5.90%

Advertising 16.82% 24.40% 28.96% 33.07% 36.92% 38.07% 42.62%

Street sales 5.40% 9.98% 11.46% 15.56% 16.36% 20.14% 16.23%

Sale of newsprint
7.25% 0% 2.34% 1.12% 0% 0% 0%
paper

Publishing house 6.20% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

Others 0% 1.90% 0.94% 0.55% 0.15% 0.39% 0.20%

Although the detailed information of El Tiempo’s revenue and expenses is only available

until 1919, however, the information I provide in Table 1 suggests that El Tiempo’s financial

model changed in this time period. In 1912 El Tiempo depended financially on subscriptions

(39,99%), which accounted for 52,17% of the newspaper’s revenue in 1914. However, these

subscribers were typically members of the Republican party and most of them lived outside

Bogotá. For instance, in June 1913, 746 out of the 1,081 subscribers of El Tiempo lived in

other parts of Colombia, while only 335 lived in the city of Bogotá. 10 Besides, most of the

issues sent to cities other than Bogotá were sold through agencies and distributed by members

9
I calculated these figures based on the Account books of El Tiempo from 1912 to 1919. The figures for 1913
are not available at the archive. See Archivo de Eduardo Santos, fondo El Tiempo, caja 0007, carpeta 0003,
folios 216-290.
10
See Archivo de Eduardo Santos, fondo El Tiempo, caja 0007, carpeta 0003, folio 217.

6
of the Republican Party.11 Although I do not have access to detailed figures about El

Tiempo’s circulation and number of subscribers during the 1910s, the fact that the percentage

of revenue accounted for by subscriptions remained steady over the years analyzed should

not be taken to mean that the composition of the newspapers subscribers remained static. In

fact, as the number of readers in cities other than Bogotá expanded, El Tiempo came to rely

less on members of the Republican Party for its circulation growth. Nor should we assume

that net revenue accounted for by subscriptions did not increase. In 1912 the revenue from

subscriptions was COP$353.377, while in 1919 it was $12,508.66.12

In fact, the information I provide in Table 1 shows that revenue derived from advertising

increased steadily over the 1910s: while in 1912 it accounted for the 16.82% of the

newspaper’s revenue, by 1919 it accounted for the 46.62%. Likewise, street sales increased

from 5.40% in 1912 to 16.23% in 1919. Moreover, revenue from old newspaper issues, that

is, issues sold after the day on which they were printed, decreased as, over the years examined

here, El Tiempo increased its ability to sell all of its issues on the same day they were printed.

Indeed, revenue from the sale of old newspaper issues decreased from 24.33% in 1912 to

5.90% in 1919. Finally, as El Tiempo increased its annual revenue and exploited its paper

and printing machines more efficiently and intensively, the revenue accounted for by sale of

newsprint paper and publishing house services also decreased. The former decreased from

11
The correspondence of Alfonso Villegas as Editor-in-Chief from 1911 to 1913 shows that most of El Tiempo
readers, both in Colombia and abroad, were interested in the circulation of El Tiempo as long as it was the
organ of the Republican Party. See Archivo de Eduardo Santos, fondo El Tiempo, caja 0008, carpetas 0004-
0006, folios 0580-1107.
12
Net revenue from subscriptions is expressed in 1912 constant prices. See Archivo de Eduardo Santos,
fondo El Tiempo, caja 0007, carpeta 0003, folios 216-290.

7
7.25% in 1912 to 0% in 1919—also due to the paper crisis described above—and the latter

decreased from 6.20% in 1912 to 0% in 1919.

In brief, by 1919 El Tiempo did not depend financially on the personal fortune of Eduardo

Santos, the government or the Republican party. On the contrary, El Tiempo was a financially

independent newspaper whose revenue came from the sale of newspaper issues,

subscriptions, and above all, from advertising. However, the growth of advertising revenue

was not simply the result of decisions made by Eduardo Santos and El Tiempo’s Board of

Directors. Rather, what made it possible for the newspaper to obtain 42.62% of its revenue

in 1919 from advertising was a shift in Colombia’s economic circumstances that encouraged

national and foreign companies to expand their markets and increase the number of their

clients. The advertising services provided by El Tiempo and other newspapers proved critical

to that endeavor. As Marco Palacios and Jesús Bejarano have shown, the expansion of coffee

production and exports in the early twentieth century propelled economic growth, production

diversification, and the strengthening of the internal market, resulting in a dynamic and

growing national economy.13 This new economic situation transformed the press business in

the country. According to Christopher Abel the country’s economic prosperity resulting from

rising coffee exports enabled the press to find an increasing and solid financial support in

commercial advertising.14

13
Marco Palacios, El Café En Colombia (1850-1970) (Bogotá: FAES, 1979), 285; Jesús Bejarano, “La
Economía,” in Manual de Historia de Colombia, 4th ed., vol. 3 (Santafé de Bogotá: Procultura S.A. & Tercer
Mundo Editores, 1994), 17–22.
14
Christopher Abel, Política, Iglesia y Partidos En Colombia (Bogotá: FAES Universidad Nacional de Colombia,
1987), 50–51.

8
Therefore, El Tiempo’s annual revenue increased exponentially—while in 1912 it was

COP$8,198.57, in 1922 it rose to a peak of $106,804.16, and then declined somewhat in 1925

to $99,520.54.15 As a consequence of the growing revenue of El Tiempo, expenses over the

same years not only increased but also diversified. As I show in Table 2, El Tiempo’s annual

expenses reflect the newspaper’s improving financial situation. In 1912, general expenses

and labor costs accounted for 20.48% and 55.45% of the newspaper expenses, respectively.

Even though the number of employees of El Tiempo increased as did general expenses such

as the cost of leasing facilities, in 1918 general expenses and employee salaries decreased as

a proportion of the newspaper’s total expenses to 11.63% and 23.59% respectively. Expenses

for newsprint paper increased from 4.85% in 1912 to 28.62% in 1918, not only due to the

imported paper crisis described above, but also because the circulation figures of El Tiempo

grew. Likewise, while expenses for mail, telegraph, and cable services accounted for 2.19%

of the total expenses in 1912 and declined to almost 0% during the years of World War I, by

1918 these expenses had increased to 3.67%. Finally, the revenue accruing to El Tiempo’s

owner also increased—from 17.03% in 1912 to 30.81% in 1918. The growing revenue of El

Tiempo thus made it possible to fulfill the expansion project that Eduardo Santos had

articulated in 1914 as the newspaper had more revenue from which to draw to buy more

paper, increase the cable and telegraph services it contracted, and hire more employees.

Table 2: Annual expenses of El Tiempo from 1912 to 1918 (percentages)16

15
Annual revenue is expressed in 1912 constant prices. See Archivo de Eduardo Santos, fondo El Tiempo,
caja 0007, carpeta 0003, folio 259.
16
I calculated these figures based on the Account books of El Tiempo from 1912 to 1919. The figures for
1913 are not available at the archive and I did not include 1919 because for that year expenses are classified
in other categories. See Archivo de Eduardo Santos, fondo El Tiempo, caja 0007, carpeta 0003, folios 216-
290.

9
 1912 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918

Newspaper owner 17.03% 18.48% 26.88% 33.22% 34.82% 30.81%

Mail, cable and

2.19% 0% 0% 0% 0% 3.67%
telegraph

Employees 55.45% 43.50% 38.58% 32.34% 26.65% 23.59%

General expenses 20.48% 12.99% 9.81% 9.10% 11.83% 11.63%

Newsprint paper 4.85% 21.47% 22.39% 22.49% 24.92% 28.62%

Loans interests 0.00% 3.56% 2.34% 2.85% 1.78% 1.69%

Financial independence, however, did not equate with political autonomy. In fact,

newspapers in Colombia stand out in Latin America because they continued to be organs of

a political party during a large portion of the twentieth century, even as publications like El

Tiempo achieved financial independence. Towards the end of the 1920s, when El Tiempo

shifted its political allegiance from the Republican to the Liberal party, the newspaper had

become the platform of its second Editor-in-chief, Eduardo Santos, and the moderate wing

he defended within the Liberal party. In contrast, in Argentina, La Prensa led the process by

which journalism was established as a profession separate and independent from the

government and the political parties, and in México, it was the state-financed newspaper El

Imparcial that led the modernization of the press.17

17
Sylvia Saítta, Regueros de Tinta. El Diario CRITICA En La Década de 1920 (Buenos Aires: Editorial
Sudamericana, 2010), 30; Pablo Piccato, “The Public Sphere and Liberalism in Mexico: From the Mid-19th
Century to the 1930s,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History, August 2016, 7–8.

10