On Monday, September 13, 1993, the first edition of Portafolio was published, the newspaper that today constitutes a leading ecosystem in terms of information and analysis of the economy and business in Colombia.

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With its bright salmon color, in the style of the most traditional and influential financial publications in the world, and its tabloid format – innovative in the written press at the time –, Portafolio was born as a weekly in the middle of a country which was beginning to live under the political Constitution of 1991 and whose economy was beginning its process of opening up.

The idea was born in 1993, in Milan (Italy), during a conversation between Mauricio Rodríguez Múnera, who was at the time vice-president of the multinational Dow in that country, and his brother-in-law, the former president Juan Manuel Santos, who in turn he transmitted it to his brother Luis Fernando Santos, then president of EL TIEMPO Casa Editorial.

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An anecdote of sporting origin accompanies the birth of Portafolio. The first copy was ready to circulate on September 6. But the day before, the Colombian football team had beaten Argentina five goals to zero in the 1994 World Cup qualifiers in the United States.

In a smart decision, this first issue of Portafolio was postponed for eight days and began its history in Colombian journalism. Portafolio had a first team led by Mauricio Rodríguez, its first director, and Silverio Gómez, economic editor of EL TIEMPO.

Since the first edition, this direction has opted for the combination of an agile and varied journalistic style. with a precise and strict approach to the economic and commercial agenda.

This proposal of tone, content and editorial principles became the key for the nascent weekly – whose survival beyond six months was not completely guaranteed – to find and colonize its own space and leadership in the niche. economic publications. A formula which ended up constituting a powerful common thread and a constant element during these thirty years and more than 7,500 editions.

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The first title

“Openness in the conflict” was the title of the first major report of this first edition, which not only included the economic debate of the moment, but also marked this promise of value from the editorial staff: an agenda of economic and commercial news with creativity and accessible to all, without losing its technical scope. Added to this is the creation of a space where columnists and analysts from different schools could set up.

Four years and 220 editions later, in November 1997, EL TIEMPO Casa Editorial’s weekly commitment to an economic information product took root and increased its daily publication frequency, from Monday to Friday, as it continues today.

In 2006, Portafolio took another important step by putting into circulation the printed edition Fin de Semana, which today circulates in digital edition.

The following year, Portafolio debuted its second director, economist and journalist Ricardo Ávila Pinto, who would consolidate and expand the newspaper’s editorial footprint, as well as its influence and reach in commercial spaces.

On the occasion of Portafolio’s twentieth anniversary in 2013, Ávila identified the main challenge the newspaper was beginning to face in this era of digital transformation. “The effort is not to tell the reader the news of the day that ends, but rather the news of the day that begins,” Ávila said.

Not only has the audience of the economic press expanded and changed, but also its information consumption habits and its need for better analysis and explanation of economic phenomena. In this sense, in 2012 he produced the television program Portafolio TV, broadcast weekly on the City TV and El Tiempo Televisión channels.

In September 2019, after more than 12 years, Ávila retired and its current director, Francisco Miranda Hamburger, joined.

Over the last thirty years, Portafolio has become an ecosystem of information and analysis on economic and commercial issues. which includes, in addition to the daily edition, a web portal renewed for this anniversary, a social networking system, a fortnightly magazine and a unit dedicated to events and forums.

The direction of the management could not be the same without the editors, journalists, designers, infographics, photographers and administrative and commercial staff who have left their mark and contributed day after day to the consolidation of Portafolio at each of its stages.

In 1993, the Colombian economy and productive sectors were facing modernization and the newspaper was born to tell, inform and analyze this process.

And in 2024, the country is going through a post-pandemic situation and faces challenges due to institutional, political and economic changes, and has Portafolio and its information platforms, which continue to fulfill their role as the leading economic and commercial sector of the country, under the principles of defense of private property, business development and economic freedoms.

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