Listín Diario
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Listin Diario is one of the oldest, must successful and trusted Dominican Republic newspapers. It was founded in the late 1800s and now its very well known in the country.
[edit] Overview
Listín Diario, the oldest daily newspaper of the Dominican Republic, was founded on August 1, 1889 by Arturo Pellerano Alfau and Julian Atiles, two successful merchants who needed to inform the general public of the arrival and departure of galeons into Dominican ports. Soon after, the one page Listín Diario Marítimo became a broadsheet newspaper, printed out of the Pellerano & Atiles offices in the Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo.
Pellerano Alfau served as Editor and Publisher of the newspaper until his death in the early 1930s. During his tenure, Listín Diario championed some of the era's more significant regional issues, such as: Cuban Independence, from 1894 to 1898, during which time it regularly published letters from Dominican General Máximo Gómez, who fought on the Cuban side; during the US intervention of 1916-24, Listín maintained a serene opposition to the intervention, regularly publishing articles and editorial columns written by the Dominican patriots.
Listín's biggest battle of the first half of the twentieth century was against General Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, whom it opposed during the first ten years of his mandate, and as a consequence, was financially strangled by the dictator, having to shut down operations for all of 21 years.
Even before Trujillo was assassinated in May 1961, Mr Pellerano's descendants started to plan the papers revival, and on August 1, 1963, lead by Carlos Alberto Ricart Vidal (married to Nelly Pellerano Lopez-Penha, daughter of Arturo Pellerano Alfau), together with Moisés Pellerano Lopez-Penha, Rogelio Pellerano Romano, Máximo Pellerano Romano and other close relatives, Listin Diario was edited again. Ricart Vidal was the Publisher of Listín Diario from 1963 to 1984, when he retired and gave way to Rogelio Pellerano, who served on that post until his death in 1993.
The family tapped Rafael Herrera Cabral, the editor of El Caribe, the leading Dominican daily newspaper at the time, as the editor of Listín Diario. Herrera served from 1963 until his death in 1994, and is considered the most important editorialist of the Dominican Republic. Listín Diario´s current Editor is Mr Miguel Franjul and the current publisher is Ramón Báez Romano.
In the past few years, Listín Diario has been involved in several scandals. The paper was bought by Banco Intercontinental (Baninter) the first of the three banks that caused the banking debacle of 2003 in the Dominican Republic. It was seized by the Government of President Hipólito Mejía and used as a political tool during the 2004 elections. Later, when Leonel Fernández assumed the presidency, it was returned to Ramón Báez Romano, the father of Ramón Báez Figueroa, the president of Baninter, but it remains in a legal quagmire.
