Diario Extra

What is Diario Extra?

Diario Extra is a Costa Rican daily newspaper with a news site at diarioextra.com, whose home page carries the heading “El Diario de Costa Rica”.^[8] Mediapolis, a media-ownership project of the University of Costa Rica, records it as part of Grupo Extra, which it states owns the open television channel Extra TV Canal 42, the newspaper and the radio stations E-Music and Extra Radio, and which operates its television frequency “a través de Sociedad Periodística Extra LTDA.”^[2]

Ownership. Mediapolis states: “Durante muchos años, la empresa se mantuvo bajo la propiedad de la familia Gómez Vargas, pero en 2024 fue adquirida por el Grupo Transcomer Puesto de Bolsa de Comercio, y el 100% del capital accionario pasó a manos de Óscar Gutiérrez Lacnher.”^[2] Its own timeline dates the change differently. Under 2023 it records: “En mayo, la familia Gómez Vargas anuncia el cierre de operaciones de todos los medios del Grupo.” and “En junio, el Grupo Transcomer anuncia la compra del grupo de medios, y anuncia su reapertura y relanzamiento.”^[2] The entry thus gives 2024 in its text and June 2023 for the announced purchase.

A third source dates the sale. El Financiero reported on 28 June 2023: “El Grupo Transcomer es el nuevo dueño del Grupo Extra tras comprar la empresa a los antiguos dueños, la familia Gómez”, after a closure announced on 31 May, and that “La adquisición incluye el Diario Extra, el canal TV42 y radio América.” Its headline gave 3 July 2023 as the date the outlet would resume operations.^[7] No register entry was retrieved, and no later change of owner was found in the sources read.

Its sports news sits on the path diarioextra.com/categoria/deportes.^[1]

What does Diario Extra cover?

The sports section's own description promises “Últimas noticias de deportes en Costa Rica sobre fútbol, atletismo, ciclismo y otros deportes destacados”. As retrieved on 26 September 2026, it carried items dated 25 and 26 September on the national team and its coach, on a signing by the first-division club Escorpiones, on new athletics circuits in La Sabana park and on international football.^[1]

Escorpiones FC is among the clubs listed on the site of UNAFUT, which runs the Liga Promerica.^[6]

How large is Diario Extra's audience?

No audited circulation or readership figure for the printed paper was retrieved.

Web estimate. La Nación reported on 31 July 2026, from Similarweb data presented at the Data Media Day Costa Rica 2026 organised by the Cámara de la Comunicación Comercial (Camco), that Diario Extra had 4.27 million monthly visits and 1.23 million monthly unique users. The article does not state which month the figures cover.^[3] Similarweb is a traffic estimator, not audited measurement, and the figures were reported by a competing outlet.

Since when has Diario Extra existed?

Mediapolis's timeline records under 1978: “El periodista William Gómez Vargas funda el Diario Extra.”^[2] That is a single secondary account; the paper's own statement of its founding date was not retrieved.

The 2020 newscast closure. CR Hoy reported on 30 September 2020 that Grupo Extra would close “el telenoticiero de Extra Noticias, en canal 42”, with the newscast staff working until 30 October, and that nearly 30 of the newspaper's journalists would be dismissed and rehired. That closure concerned the television newscast, not the newspaper.^[4]

2023 and 2024. Mediapolis records the family's announcement in May 2023 that all the group's media would cease operating, and the announced purchase and relaunch in June; its entry adds that “La reestructuración incluye la reactivación del canal de televisión, la devolución de las señales radiofónicas en AM concesionadas al grupo”. Under 2024 it records that Grupo Extra announced the acquisition of two FM signals, 97.9 FM and 92.3 FM.^[2] The paper's sports section was publishing on 26 September 2026.^[1]

Why does Diario Extra matter in Costa Rica's sport?

Diario Extra is among the news sites whose Similarweb monthly-visit figures La Nación reported in July 2026, and its sports section published national-team, league and athletics items in the week of the build date.^[3][1]

Mediapolis's timeline records under 2025 that in November 2025, through the front page of Diario Extra and on social media, “el grupo pidió una disculpa pública por el amarillismo periodístico que caracterizó a los medios de la empresa en el pasado.”^[2] That is Mediapolis's account of the group's own statement.

Reporters Without Borders, in its 2026 country entry, states that “The concentration of media ownership in the hands of a few conglomerates has limited media pluralism.” It names no outlet in that passage.^[5]