Folha de S. Paulo - History

History

Founded on 19 February 1921 by Olival Costa and Pedro Cunha as Folha da Noite (Evening paper), Folha de S. Paulo was bought on 1962 by businessmen Octavio Frias de Oliveira and Carlos Caldeira Filho. On 1925, a morning edition (Folha da Manhã) was released, while an afternoon edition (Folha da Tarde) came in 24 years later. These three separate editions, finally merged in 1960, giving birth to Folha de S. Paulo.

In 1930 it supported presidential candidate Júlio Prestes, therefore being pillaged and closed on 24 October 1930, when the 1930 Revolution triumphed. At that time, Folha de S. Paulo had on its staff the famous cartoonist Lelis Viana, popularly known as Juca Pato (Juca the Duck), a figure which always criticized the Liberal Alliance of Getúlio Vargas. The newspaper resumed operations in 1931 with new owners and a new editorial line toward the support of agriculture.

Unlike its main rival, O Estado de S. Paulo, which was even censored and intervened, Folha de S. Paulo initially supported the 1964 coup d'état against João Goulart and the military regime that followed until the government of Ernesto Geisel. In the early 1970s, this stance has led to a series of attacks against vehicles delivering Folha de S. Paulo, which were burned down by leftist resistance groups. According to Elio Gaspari, currently a columnist for Folha de S. Paulo, "cars of the company were borrowed to the DOI, which used them as coverage to transport prisoners".

The rising of a renewed and engaged writing team, featuring prominent names such as Cláudio Abramo, Boris Casoy, Clóvis Rossi, and Jânio de Freitas, led a change in the editorial line of the newspaper, which in the 1980s was marked by immediate support to the Diretas Já movement. In the late 1980s, the newspaper was a pioneer in Brazil in the installation of computers in its newsroom. Later the newspaper dared to hire an ombudsman, something quite unusual for a major Brazilian newspaper then. It was so groundbreaking for its time that led to many clashes between then ombudsman Caio Tulio Costa, and Paulo Francis, which eventually moved to rival O Estado de S. Paulo. Since the 1980s, Folha de S. Paulo was also an early adopter of graphics and tables that explain, in a didactic manner, the details of breaking news and the context of the same.

In early 1990s, the newspaper began to invest in developing new products and supplements, such as Revista da Folha (Folha Magazine), Folhateen, and TV Folha. Marketed by a major advertising campaign, in which staff director Matins Suzuki Jr. himself announced the new features of the newspapers, Folha de S. Paulo went on to lead sales in São Paulo, surpassing O Estado de S. Paulo. A graphical reform in the mid-1990s and the launch of gifts such as the Atlas Folha and dictionaries strengthened the newspaper's leadership. In October 1996, a Sunday edition of Folha de S. Paulo sold as much as 489,000 copies in newsstands alone.

However, over a decade later, the scenario is quite adverse for the newspaper. Data from the Checked Circulation Institute (Instituto Verificador de Circulação – IVC) shows that Folha de S. Paulo ended the first trimester of 2009 selling a daily average of 298,351 copies, while in early 2000, that average was of 429,476 copies, which represents a decline of almost 50% in sales, although it remains the best-selling newspaper in the country.