El Comercio

What is El Comercio?

El Comercio is a daily newspaper published in Quito; its site carries the masthead “El COMERCIO — Noticias de Ecuador y del mundo” and lists the sections Última Hora, Actualidad, Tendencias, Tecnología, Deportes, Opinión, Videos, Podcasts and Empleo.^[1]

Ownership is the part of this entry that is least settled from the outlet's own pages. Infoamérica, the media research resource of the Universidad de Málaga, places the origin of the group in 1906, “cuando los hermanos Mantilla Jácome, deciden poner en marcha su propio proyecto editorial”, and lists alongside the daily the title Últimas Noticias, established 1941, the digital edition elcomercio.com launched in 1997, Radio Quito founded in 1940, Radio Platinum created in 1996 in four cities, and the news network Ecuadoradio.^[2] The current site itself states no owner and no founding year; the only ownership indication retrievable from it on 23 September 2026 is a footer link to a Responsabilidad Social page under the name Repretel.^[1] The group's own corporate site could not be retrieved for this page, so no current ownership statement is made here.

Two named bodies publish on the Ecuadorian press. Reporters Without Borders, in its Ecuador country profile, names this title among “El Comercio, El Universo, La Hora, Primicias, and Últimas Noticias”, which it calls “the leading newspapers in Ecuador, where the practice of journalism is being impacted by the unsafe environment and economic difficulties”, and records under its economic heading that “El Comercio laid off a significant share of its staff”; those are RSF's characterisations, quoted and attributed.^[8] The national regulator, the Consejo de Comunicación, maintains a Registro Público de Medios and a viewer of the outlets registered in it; no ownership record for this title could be extracted from that viewer for this page.^[9]

What does El Comercio cover?

Its Deportes section describes its own scope as “Noticias de deportes de Ecuador y del mundo. Infórmate sobre deportes como el fútbol ecuatoriano y mundial, tenis, ciclismo, baloncesto, fórmula 1 y otros deportes.”^[3] That is a stated coverage list rather than a measured one, and it is quoted here as the section's own description.

The football sub-section retrieved on 23 September 2026 carried an opinion column headed “Acerca del fútbol”, opening on a line it attributes to the Italian coach Arrigo Sacchi, “El fútbol es la cosa más importante, de las cosas menos importantes” — an indication that the section mixes reporting with commentary.^[4] Outside sport, the newspaper reported the creation by decreto ejecutivo 1160, signed 26 September 2020, of the state's public media company, covering public radio and television broadcasting services and “el Diario El Telégrafo” as an internet publication,^[5] and reported that the earlier Medios Públicos company had begun the liquidation ordered in Decreto 1059, with Pública FM, Ecuador TV and Televisión Pública continuing and El Telégrafo's operation not continuing as before.^[6]

How large is El Comercio's audience?

No audited circulation or audience figure for El Comercio could be retrieved for this page, and none is given. Infoamérica records only a comparative statement about the digital edition, that elcomercio.com “en tan sólo siete años ha alcanzado la mayor cantidad de suscriptores registrados en comparación con otros medios de información local”, and publishes no number and no date against it.^[2] That sentence is quoted rather than adopted, and because it carries neither a figure nor a date it is not usable as a measurement.

The newspaper's own site states no circulation, no registered-user count and no founding year.^[1] The absence of an audited press-measurement currency that could be retrieved for Ecuador is a limitation of the evidence available here, not a finding about the newspaper.

Since when has El Comercio existed?

The date given here rests on a single source. Infoamérica places the origin of the group in 1906 with the Mantilla Jácome brothers.^[2] No corroborating primary document — a founding instrument, a gazette entry or the group's own corporate history — could be retrieved for this page, and the newspaper's own site states no founding year.^[1] The 1906 date is therefore reported as Infoamérica's, with that qualification attached.

Infoamérica's other dates for the group are given the same way: Últimas Noticias from 1941, Radio Quito from 1940, Radio Platinum from 1996 and the digital edition from 1997.^[2] Founding, first publication and incorporation are distinct events, and the source does not distinguish between them.

Why does El Comercio matter in Ecuador's sport?

It is the Quito counterpart to the Guayaquil titles on this list, and the capital is where Liga de Quito plays; Primicias' reading of the completed 2025 LigaPro Serie A season gave that club an average of “12.009 aficionados” a match.^[7] Its standing Deportes section states coverage of Ecuadorian and world football, tennis, cycling, basketball and Formula 1.^[3]

The group Infoamérica describes also holds radio, which matters for sport because radio carriage is one of the structural proxies for how a sport reaches an audience: Radio Quito from 1940, Radio Platinum from 1996 in four cities and the Ecuadoradio network.^[2] No current broadcast-rights holding by that group for any Ecuadorian competition could be retrieved for this page, and none is asserted.