El Nacional

El Nacional is a Venezuelan publishing company under the name C.A. Editorial El Nacional, most widely known for its El Nacional newspaper and website. It, along with Últimas Noticias and El Universal, are the most widely read and circulated daily national newspapers in the country. In 2010, it had an average of 83,000 papers distributed daily and 170,000 copies on weekends. Since the increase of censorship in Venezuela during the presidencies of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, El Nacional has been described as one of the last independent newspapers in Venezuela. El Nacional published its final print edition on 14 December 2018 (after having been cut to five print editions per week back in August), joining in the dozens of anti-government newspapers in the nation that have stopped printing due to paper and toner shortages. It became an exclusively online newspaper after the date, and has been blocked by internet providers since early 2022. History The first edition of El Nacional circulated on 3 August 1943, founded by Miguel Otero Silva in Caracas, with innovations such as the replacement of the editorial by the mancheta, the use of notorious headlines with large graphics and the classification of the entire newspaper by thematic areas. During the first year it circulated with a circulation of 10,000 copies per day and each edition consisted of two eight-page spreads, in standard format and seven columns. The first headquarters of El Nacional was located between the corners of Marcos Parra and Pedrera, in downtown Caracas, from 1943 to 1951. It then moved its headquarters to Puerto Escondido from 1951 to 2007, for 56 years.