Editor from Ecuador visits Daily 49er

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Ecuadorian newspaper editor Marco Antonio Arauz visited the Cal State Long Beach Summer Forty-Niner June 8.

Arauz is the editor in chief of the daily "El Comercio," which is a nationally circulated newspaper located in Quito. With a daily circulation of 140,000 and 200,000 on the weekends, "El Comercio" represents the largest circulated newspaper in Ecuador, according to Arauz.

Arauz is participating in the International Visitor Program, traveling the United States for 20 days, and visiting the newsrooms of different publications across the country.

"My idea is to observe all kinds of newspapers--national circulation, community, and college newspapers such as the Daily 49er," Arauz said.

At the same time, Arauz said he wants to observe and examine journalism education and its practice in the United States.  According to Arauz, journalism in this country is very competitive because of its huge market of educated people.

"In South American countries the market is not as broad as here," Arauz said. "We can't find the newspaper that adapts to a certain or specific audience such as an university campus, or the small community newspaper which could be very successful."

However after visiting several newspapers in the United States, Arauz pointed out that he is very surprised about how competitive some South American newspapers are in terms of technology.

"I have noticed that some newspapers here are not completely digital and still use manual diagramation," Arauz said.
Staff size seems to be the main difference Arauz has noticed between American and Latin American newspapers.

"It's amazing that here it could happen that a reporter spend even weeks working on only one story," Arauz said. "In Ecuador we can't do that. Sometimes reporters have two or three stories assigned the same day and to be published in the same edition."

During his visit to the United States Arauz has also visited publications such as "Newsweek Magazine," "USA Today," "The Washington Post." His last stop will be at "CNN" in Atlanta.

According to U.S. representative and interpreter Eida De Gennaro, the International Visitor Program was established by the U.S. Department of State more than 50 years and has invited world leaders such as Margaret Thatcher and people from all different areas and ethnic backgrounds to visit the United States.

"The program brings five to six thousand people every year," De Gennaro said.  "The only purpose is to keep good diplomatic relations with the rest of the world, there is no commitment; we want different people to have that personal contact with this country and know more about us."