Alejandro Junco de la Vega

With his success at El Norte and El Sol (another Monterrey newspaper founded by his grandfather in 1922), Junco was able to expand these two newspapers into a national chain and grow his team from 17 local reporters to 400 nationwide.

Junco worked in the newsroom and occupied different management positions at El Norte, a Monterrey newspaper founded in 1938 by his grandfather.

Alejandro Junco de la Vega (born August 28, 1948) is a Mexican journalist and newspaper publisher known for developing one of the largest and most powerful newspaper consortiums in Latin America.

Alejandro Junco de la Vega was born August 28, 1948, in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico.

He attended college at the University of Texas at Austin, earning a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the Moody College of Communication in 1969.

Junco is an outspoken advocate for journalistic integrity and has actively campaigned since the 1970s to reform journalism, strengthen press freedom, and promote public information laws in Mexico.

When he became publisher of El Norte in 1973, Junco teamed with Mary Gardner—one of his former journalism professors at the University of Texas—to train reporters in journalistic techniques and ethics.

Junco barred his reporters from taking bribes and from selling advertising to the subjects of their articles.

These journalism standards would become the cornerstone for the growth of what would eventually become Grupo Reforma.

Shortly after Junco took over the leadership of El Norte, the newspaper found itself at odds with the Mexican government after its reporting and editorials angered President Luis Echeverria.

The government attempted to shut down the newspaper by ordering PIPSA, Mexico's state-owned paper manufacturer, to stop selling newsprint to El Norte in what would come to be known as la "Guerra del Papel" (the "Paper War").

Despite the challenges, Junco and his team were able to keep El Norte in print by cutting the newspaper to 12 pages.

Eventually, they were able to supplement their paper supply with imported newsprint.

In 1988, he launched Metro—a morning daily that offered information to readers in a tabloid format.

Metro began in Monterrey, but was eventually expanded to Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Saltillo.

In the 1990s, Grupo Reforma helped loosen the control and censorship that had long been imposed on the media by the Mexican government.

The ethics and integrity that Junco brought to Mexican journalism, along with Grupo Reforma's commitment to exposing fraud and corruption, helped pave the way for democracy and put an end to 70 years of one-party rule in Mexico.

American academics and journalists have lauded Grupo Reforma for the role it has played in the advancement of independent journalism in Mexico over the last 40 years.

Former IAPA president Edward Seaton says that Junco's newspapers "ushered in a different ethical standard for journalism" and states that "[w]ithout Alejandro Junco's contributions, I believe Mexico would not be the vibrant democracy it is today."

Sallie Hughes, a professor of journalism at University of Miami, refers to Reforma as a "change leader" and says that its launch was "a watershed event in Mexico City journalism."

And MIT professor Chapell Lawson has said that Junco's work "changed the rules of Mexican journalism."

In 1991, Junco implemented a model of community editorial boards that would eventually become standard for Grupo Reforma.

He invited hundreds of readers, thought leaders, and experts to participate in editorial boards that helped set the newspapers' editorial agenda.

Not only did this promote community involvement in civic matters, but it also ensured a diversity of viewpoints.

Junco has described the editorial boards as promoting democracy and objectivity because its members are politically balanced and come from a wide variety of backgrounds.

According to Junco, the system puts the power in the hands of the readers.

Junco also led a transformation in the way newspapers were distributed by challenging Mexico City's government-affiliated newspaper carrier union.

In November 1993, Junco launched Reforma in Mexico City.

At this point, he brought El Norte, El Sol, Metro, and Reforma together under a single publishing company, which he named Grupo Reforma.

When the union boycotted the delivery of Reforma newspapers in October 1994, Junco led his reporters in the streets to sell the papers themselves.

He also hired his own vendors to create an independent distribution system.

Junco believed that commercial success through selling newspapers and advertising was a fundamental aspect to establishing a free press.

To this end, he began offering food and fashion sections in Reforma and the newspaper became popular among the middle class.

(In 1998, PIPSA was privatized by the Mexican government, allowing for the unrestricted import of newsprint.)

In November 1998, Junco unveiled Mural in Guadalajara, which was added to the Grupo Reforma lineup.

In the early 2000s, Junco helped lead the Oaxaca Group (an initiative that brought together media outlets, legal experts, academics, and NGOs) to convince Mexico's political leaders to approve a landmark federal transparency law.

The freedom-of-information legislation gave journalists, investigators, and ordinary citizens access to government information that had been denied to them for decades.

Junco was also part of a campaign against government censorship throughout the early 2000s.

He publicly denounced defamation charges that government officials (such as former Mexico City mayor Rosario Robles) had levied against him and his reporters.

His efforts persuaded legislators to decriminalize the expression of ideas.