La Perla del Sur


La Perla del Sur is a weekly regional Spanish-language newspaper based in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is distributed in nine towns in southern Puerto Rico and has a circulation of 75,000.

History

The newspaper was founded in Ponce in 1983 by Juan Nogueras with a crew of six employees. It was first published every other week, had 32 pages and a circulation of 40,000 copies. At first it circulated only in Ponce and Juana Diaz, but a year after its foundation it started circulating also in the towns of Santa Isabel, Coamo, Guayanilla, Peñuelas and Yauco.
In its beginnings the paper was printed by a third party, but starting on 2 February 1993, the paper started publishing at Juno Printing, a wholly owned subsidiary of La Perla del Sur. The paper is known as "El periodico de Ponce y la region Sur de Puerto Rico." It is a weekly newspaper, published on Wednesdays.

Recent events

Today the paper is distributed, free of charge, in the towns of Ponce, Peñuelas, Guayanilla, Yauco, Santa Isabel, Villalba, Juana Diaz, Salinas, and Coamo. The company has approximately 30 employees.
In 2012, it received an award for its coverage of Gasoducto del Norte in the category of investigative reporting specifically for "El tiempo desmiente la Vía Verde" article series. The presenter of the award, the Puerto Rico Newspaper Association, stated the series was "a well-developed and well-written work. The reporting does away with the myth that regional newspapers are not interested in subjects involving national issues".