La Tercera

• 1. Introduction

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  La Tercera began life on the 7th of July, 1950, not as an independent voice but as an evening companion to another paper. The Picó Cañas family launched it under the name La Tercera de la Hora, essentially a later-in-the-day edition of a publication called La Hora. That arrangement would not last long. Within the decade, La Tercera cut loose from La Hora and reinvented itself as a morning paper, setting out on a path that would carry it through military coups, format revolutions, and digital reinvention. What does it take to survive as a daily newspaper across more than seven decades in one of South America's most turbulent political landscapes? And how does a tabloid aimed at the middle class transform itself into something that competes at the highest levels of the Chilean press? Those are the questions this documentary will explore.

• 2. Politics and Power

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  La Tercera's early identity was shaped by a direct party affiliation. It aligned itself with Chile's Radical Party, but broke that tie in 1965, declaring itself politically independent and free from any party, government, or religious connection. That stated independence, however, did not prevent the paper from taking sharp editorial positions in the years that followed. During the early 1970s, La Tercera was an outspoken critic of Salvador Allende's government. When the military coup came on the 11th of September, 1973, the newspaper supported it. It then backed the subsequent dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet. In this stance it was not alone: El Mercurio and La Nación were counted alongside La Tercera as playing significant roles in endorsing those events. The paper's political posture during this period would remain part of its history long after Chile returned to democratic governance.

• 3. Format and Reinvention

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  For the better part of half a century, La Tercera held to a tabloid format and a voice calibrated for the middle class. Then in 2003, the paper made a deliberate leap upmarket. It adopted the Berliner format, a size larger than tabloid but smaller than broadsheet, and shifted toward more formal language. The page count expanded as well, all in pursuit of a higher social stratum of reader. Four years later, in October 2007, another wave of changes hit the design side of the paper, this time steering toward a minimalist look. Under the direction of Cristián Bofill, coverage sharpened its focus onto political, business, and economic affairs. The header itself was remade on the 1st of August, 2010, with red and white lettering designed by Marcelo Godoy of Chile and Javier Errea of Spain, a collaboration that gave the paper a fresh visual identity.

• 4. Digital and Alliance Strategy

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  November 2008 marked La Tercera's digital pivot. The newspaper overhauled its website and folded all Copesa media properties into a single destination called Mediacenter La Tercera. A month after that relaunch, the paper joined a broader alliance it called Strategic Alliances CNN Chile, which brought together Radio Bío Bío, local television channels, UCV TV, and the Network Mapcity Daily Citizen. The reach extended further when, starting the 2nd of November, 2010, subscribers could pay an additional fee to access the International Edition of the Spanish newspaper El País. These moves placed La Tercera inside a web of partnerships that stretched well beyond its Santiago print origins. La Tercera also holds membership in Periódicos Asociados Latinoamericanos, an organization of fourteen leading newspapers across South America, which situates the paper within a regional network of press institutions.

• 5. Structure and Ownership

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  La Tercera is owned by Copesa and published daily out of Santiago. Its closest competitor in the Chilean newspaper market is El Mercurio, a rivalry that has shaped both papers for decades. The current editor-in-chief carries the name Juan Pablo Larraín Medina. On the 16th of July, 2017, the paper moved its offices out of the historical building at Vicuña Mackenna 1962 in the Ñuñoa district and into a new address at Apoquindo 4660 in Las Condes, a shift that placed the editorial operation in one of Santiago's more contemporary commercial corridors.