Táchira | Presidential candidates no longer use regional print media to campaign

The disappearance of print media in Venezuela has become an alarming reality, especially in the Andean region. As the country’s economic and social crisis deepens, many newspapers have chosen to close their doors or migrate to digital platforms. An emblematic example of this situation is Diario de Los Andes, which in 2021 published its last printed issue in Trujillo, putting an end to decades of history. Although some media still manage to survive, such as Pico Bolívar in Mérida, which is published weekly with a limited space for news material, and La Nación in Táchira, which maintains a frequency of three times a week, their existence is threatened by the current context. This trend towards digitalization reflects not only a change in the business model, but also a response to the difficult conditions faced by traditional media in Venezuela.

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Zulma López/ DLA.- To date, the only print media outlet in the state of Táchira, the newspaper La Nación, does not have any electoral propaganda for any of the 10 candidates who on Sunday, July 28, aspire to become the president of Venezuela for the next six years.

We consulted Omaira Labrador, director of the newspaper La Nación, and she confirmed that they have not hired electoral propaganda for this electoral process as they did in previous presidential elections. However, she believes that the candidates could leave their publications for the last day of the campaign.

The newspaper La Nación is only printed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, which may have influenced the decision of the campaign teams to prefer to invest the resources destined for propaganda on social networks.

Labrador said that the propaganda during this campaign was not done through traditional means, “this campaign is on YouTube, you go in and there is advertising from Edmundo and Maduro, and even on our page there is advertising, but it is from Google, not from La Nación,” he explained.

He recalled that in the 2013 presidential campaign, when the main candidates were Nicolás Maduro and Henrique Capriles, there was a lot of advertising through all the traditional media; at that time, social networks were not as important as they are now. He said that in 2013, the candidates hired full pages or half a page of the newspaper La Nación, but for the presidential elections of 2018 the investment was lower.

It is important to note that the Electoral Gazette published on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, establishes specific regulations concerning the electoral campaign and propaganda for the presidential election on July 28 of this year.

Article 9 of the regulations establishes the publication of propaganda in printed newspapers. “Candidates and organizations with political purposes may contract the dissemination of electoral propaganda in printed newspapers of national, regional or local circulation. If they are standard-sized printed newspapers, the space may be half (1/2) a page per day, and in tabloid size, up to one (1) page per day, not cumulative,” the article indicates.

If we are guided by what is happening in the only printed media in circulation in the state of Táchira, the regulations are not applied.

“The lack of electoral propaganda in newspapers is a consequence of the regulation and closure of media”

According to the most recent study by Espacio Público, Report 2023: General Situation of the Right to Freedom of Expression in Venezuela. January – December 2023in the chapter on the media ecosystem, it indicates that “print media (written press) experienced a slight increase of 14%. In 2021, there were 21 print media, and by 2023, this number increased to 24.” But despite this increase, “print media represent only a quarter of what they were before 2012, constituting a small portion compared to the rest of the media platforms.”

Lawyer Carlos Casanova, who is a columnist for the newspaper La Nación, maintains that the lack of investment in electoral propaganda in the print media is one of the consequences of the closure of more than 400 Venezuelan media outlets and the regulations that have been made during the years of revolution.

For Casanova, investing in a medium that is only printed two or three times a week would be investing in intermittent advertising, and those who are going to publish want a superior view, greater interaction, “so of course if the newspaper were every day, I have no doubt that many people would be using the newspaper for its own anchoring in terms of advertising,” he said.

He also recalled that previously national and regional newspapers were the means of obligatory advertising and that was precisely what happened with the Diario de La Nación, where positions, sections, and pages were fought for and based on that, the price was higher or lower.

He explained that one of the things that advertising agencies wanted was to guarantee first pages, odd pages, at the top and on the right, and that the issue of the companies that were also in charge of facilitating the placements between the client and the supplier played a big role in this.

He concluded that, nowadays, because print media does not have the same regularity as it once had, people prefer alternative media such as social networks that have greater visual exposure.

Propaganda on social media and billboards

The lack of print media has not been an impediment for candidates to spread electoral propaganda on social networks and billboards that have been seen in different streets and avenues of the city of San Cristóbal.

A journalist from Táchira who preferred not to be identified informally said that every day YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, web pages and the different applications for downloading videos, games and those used to shorten links, are completely invaded with videos of the candidates and mainly of President Nicolás Maduro who is seeking reelection.

He believes that it is an atypical campaign in every sense and it has been quite noticeable in advertising, because it has managed to penetrate each and every Venezuelan who has a cell phone through which they seek to capture a larger audience.

It is important to highlight that according to the most recent study presented by Frequency58 of ORC Consultores (July 05 – 13, 2024), information consumption habits in the region show a clear preference for digital platforms.

According to the data presented, 51.16% of people prefer to get information through the Internet and social networks, highlighting their growing importance in the dissemination of news. On the other hand, 16.42% opt for cable or satellite television, while 9.40% get information through the radio. Open television remains an option for 9.33%, and 8.55% prefer to obtain information through conversations with neighbors, friends and family. 3.60% say they do not know where to get information, and newspapers barely reach 0.77%, reflecting the drastic decrease in interest in print media in the country. These data show a clear change in information preferences, where digital prevails over traditional media.

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