Mexico now has no English-language daily newspaper. The Miami Herald's Mexico edition — produced in partnership with El Universal and including an eight-page local news pull-out — printed its last edition at the end of May 2007, after just over four years. Anyone heading to the Herald's Mexico website is now redirected to El Universal's Spanish-language homepage.
The Herald's Mexican venture was itself a replacement. It launched after Novedades, the publisher behind The News, folded after five decades. The News was the long-running English-language paper that expats and regular visitors relied on, and word now is that a member of the O'Farrill family, which owned Novedades, is planning to bring it back to life. So the story may not be over.
In its farewell edition, the Herald pointed to the economic pressures hitting newspapers everywhere, but insisted there was a genuine audience: expatriates, tourists, and Mexicans who speak English or want to polish it. That's the puzzle, though. Print demand has clearly been eroded by the internet — anyone can now read news from anywhere, in any language, on a screen. Yet plenty of people still want an actual paper to read at breakfast, flick through on the beach, or fold up on a train.
The real killer, according to someone familiar with the business, isn't producing the thing. Writing, printing and distributing a daily in Mexico City is manageable. Making it pay is not. A publisher might fund an English-language daily for a while out of prestige or passion, but history suggests the money eventually runs out. Mexico has seen several English-language papers over the years, most tied to local Spanish-language publishers, and none seriously challenged The News' modest but loyal readership.
The formula for success isn't exactly cutting-edge journalism, either. The paper's readers were the type to complain if Beetle Bailey went missing from the comics or the New York Times crossword solutions appeared out of order. Comfort and routine were the product as much as the news — which tells you a lot about what this audience actually wanted.
Why should travellers care? For decades, an English-language daily was part of the furniture for long-stay visitors and expats in Mexico — an easy way to follow local events, weather, and even property listings without fluent Spanish. If The News does return, that convenience comes back. Until then, English speakers in Mexico are relying on websites, international editions flown in at a premium, or their hotel's Wi-Fi.
For now, the practical takeaway for visitors: don't count on grabbing an English-language paper at the newsstand, and check online English-language coverage of Mexico before you travel if you want to follow local news on the ground.
