Alejandro Banuet

Today, PALABRA has printed its last edition in Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico.

It is a sad decision, but the financial panorama for Mexico and the region is little encouraging.

The contraction of the advertising market, the constant increase in the price of the newsprint and the unstability in the exchange rate were the “molotov cocktails” which forced Grupo Reforma to renounce an effort of more than 11 years in search of PALABRA’s financial self-sufficiency.

Since its birth on November 20, 1997, PALABRA always shared the same editorial and graphics principles as its brothers, Mexico City’s Reforma, El Norte in Monterrey and Mural in Guadalajara.

PALABRA leaves behind independent opinions, reliable analysis, free journalism, as well as numerous SND winning designs, including a World’s Best Designed Award in 2001.

Free daily Publimetro, mexican name for Metro due to trademark issues, is available in Monterrey (Mexico’s second largest city, and my hometown by the way) since yesterday morning.

The initial circulation will be 60,000 copies. Publimetro Monterrey will be distributed at points along the city’s main avenues as well as at Starbucks cafes.

The first edition of Publimetro launched in Mexico was two and half years in Mexico City and according to Executive Vice President of Metro International, Robert Patterson, Metro Mexico “has been profitable in 2008 and is expected to be able to finance the new Publimetro Monterrey edition from its current surplus cash holdings and the future positive operating cash flow of its Publimetro Mexico City edition”.

Publimetro is a joint venture between Metro International (49%), Inmobiliaria Torraco, S.A de CV and MX Shares, S.A. de CV.

Yesterday, at the same time as the United States’ future was being decided,  Mexico’s Interior Secretary Juan Camilo Mouriño, among others, had died in a plane crash in Mexico City…

A very busy day for mexican papers.