The news that La Prensa is shutting down came as a surprise, since less than two months ago, it’s publisher and owner, Nina Duran, announced it would be transitioning to digital-only this summer.
La Prensa was founded in 1913. The one-of-a-kind bilingual newspaper was taken over by Tino and Amelia Duran in 1989.
Since then, it’s provided a positive spin of local news for the hispanic community -- just the way Tino Duran had always imagined. Duran passed away a year ago and left the paper to his youngest daughter, Nina Duran.
But in a recent Facebook post, Nina said she inherited a struggling newspaper on the brink of collapse.
“I knew that something was terribly wrong with our family business,” Nina said. “It broke my heart because I was still dealing with, and still am dealing with, the death of my father… and now the death of our family newspaper,” she said.
Nina went on to say she tried everything to save the paper, even going into personal debt.
But Nina’s older brother, Steve Duran has a plan for saving his father’s legacy.
For the first time Tuesday, he and the staff members of his newly-established ‘La Prensa Texas’ gathered around a table to discuss their first issue, which is hitting newsstands Father’s Day Weekend, featuring his late father, Tino Duran.
“My dad… in a week in a half, it’ll be a year since he passed away, my dad meant a lot to me,” he said.
Steve is also in charge of the La Prensa Foundation, which has provided scholarships to students in our community. He says the foundation will remain.
As for the newspaper, it will maintain its concept: local, positive, and bilingual. The paper will be run from offices at the San Antonio Westside Development Corporation.
“The initial news was heartbreaking,” said President and CEO of the corporation, Leonard Rodriguez.
“We see this as just continuing our mission and fulfilling our mission to help preserve the history and culture of our community,” Rodriguez said.
Duran said he will fund the paper through advertising and community partnerships. He has big dreams for the paper, just like his father.
“In ten years, I see it being statewide, what my dad wanted to do originally,” he said.