Grupo Nación Launches ‘La Teja’ Daily Newspaper

The most recent addition to Costa Rican newsstands: La Teja, a daily news option that offers the events of the day spiced up with plenty of color, celebrity gossip and headlines such as “El Brassier Mata” (“Brassieres Kill”).

Rubén Rodríguez, director of the paper, told The Tico Times La Teja is media company Grupo Nación’s effort to reach out to “the lower class” without the bloody cover stories and sensational photos that have become the trademark of the country’s most popular daily, Diario Extra. Rodríguez is a 10-year veteran of Grupo Nación’s daily Al Día.

“The number-one goal is to show people you can do something nice… without blood,” he said, adding that the paper is targeting not readers of La Extra, as Diario Extra is known, but the 500,000 Costa Ricans who don’t read papers regularly or aren’t tied to any particular publication, according to Grupo Nación market research.

Circulation of the new paper – named after Tico slang for ¢100 (about 20 U.S. cents), La Teja’s newsstand price – began at 40,000 on Sept. 29, its first day of publication.

It’s steadily rising thanks to a positive reader response, according to Rodríguez.

“People were wanting something different,” he said.

La Teja is published Monday-Saturday and includes features, crime reports, a family section, sports, comics and a scantily clad woman on the back cover. (Women over 18 interested in appearing in the paper can call 247-6000 for their shot at fame.) Its nine journalists came from a variety of news organizations, including La Extra, Noticias Repretel, Grupo Nación publications and others.