About El Impulso

El Impulso

Overview

El Impulso is Venezuela's oldest newspaper, a regional daily based in Barquisimeto, in the state of Lara, founded in 1904. It is a family-owned business, currently managed by the fourth and fifth generations of the Carmona family, and it is widely recognised for its enduring commitment to independent journalism and its critical editorial perspective in Venezuela's complex socio-political landscape. Today it is digital-only: its print edition ended in 2018 after a long struggle with newsprint shortages, and its journalism continues online at elimpulso.com.

For the people of Barquisimeto — known as Guaros — El Impulso has been part of daily life for more than a century, the paper read with morning coffee, as one of its readers put it. Its history spans the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez, the democratic era, the Chávez and Maduro governments, and the economic crisis that forced it off newsprint. Its survival as a digital outlet, with items dated 2 and 3 October 2026, confirms a newspaper still publishing in the current week.

El Impulso's story is also the story of Venezuela's regional press: independent, family-owned, critical of governments of all stripes, and squeezed by the same newsprint shortages and economic pressures that have closed or shrunk many of the country's newspapers. That it continues, 122 years after its founding, is a measure of its place in Lara state.

History

El Impulso was founded in Carora in 1904 by Federico Carmona, and it moved to Barquisimeto in 1919. It was passed on to Carmona's son in 1928, and it has been controlled by the Carmona family ever since, making it one of Venezuela's longest-running family-owned newspapers. Its early decades were spent building a regional readership in Lara state, and it grew into the state's leading newspaper, a position it has held for much of its history.

The paper's modern crisis began with Venezuela's newsprint shortage. On 15 September 2014, El Impulso ceased publication due to the lack of printing paper and financial problems, in a halt reported by Reuters and the Associated Press. The paper's editorial board wrote that, as of that Monday, and for a time it anxiously hoped would be as short as possible, the mouthpiece of the people of Lara state would cease to accompany their morning coffee. The 110-year-old privately owned newspaper said the obstacles it faced in getting paper were one link in a difficult chain of adversities inherent to the country's serious economic situation, with strict currency controls, import delays and red tape contributing to the shortage.

El Impulso was able to resume printing after that interruption, but the reprieve was temporary. In December 2016 it announced it would shut down its print edition until further notice because the state refused to sell it enough newsprint, and the 31 December 2016 edition was its last for the time being, as the Caracas Chronicles reported from Barquisimeto. In February 2018, after 114 years, the newspaper released a statement explaining that the circulation of physical copies was to cease due to newsprint shortages, and its print edition ended for good.

Since 2018 El Impulso has continued as a digital-only newspaper. Its website carries news from Lara state, Venezuela and the world, with the same critical editorial line that characterised its print era. Its items dated 2 and 3 October 2026 show a newsroom still publishing daily, covering the state it has served since 1919. The paper's digital transition mirrors that of other Venezuelan regional newspapers, such as El Carabobeño, which discontinued its print edition in 2016 and continued online, but El Impulso's claim to be Venezuela's oldest newspaper gives its survival a particular resonance.

Programming and Content

El Impulso's content is regional and national news, with a focus on Lara state and its capital, Barquisimeto. Its website covers politics, economics, society, culture and sport, with reporting from its Barquisimeto newsroom and from correspondents across the state. Its editorial line is independent and critical, and it has maintained that stance through governments of different ideologies, a consistency that its readers cite as its defining quality.

The paper's digital output includes breaking news, analysis, opinion and features, together with coverage of local issues — municipal politics, public services, health and education in Lara — that national outlets often ignore. Its history as a print daily gives its digital edition a depth of local knowledge that newer online-only outlets lack, and its archive stretches back over a century of Lara's history.

For readers in Barquisimeto, El Impulso remains the paper of record for the state, even without a print edition. Its digital transition has not changed its mission: to serve as the mouthpiece of the people of Lara state, as its editorial board described it in 2014, and to hold power to account in a region where independent journalism is scarce.

Audience and Reach

El Impulso serves the state of Lara and its capital, Barquisimeto, with a readership that extends to Larenses living elsewhere in Venezuela and abroad. As a regional newspaper, its audience is smaller than that of the Caracas national dailies, but its influence in its home state is disproportionate: it is the paper that Lara's politicians, businesspeople and civic leaders read, and its reporting sets the agenda for local debate.

No recent audited audience figures for the newspaper are published, and this profile does not assert any. What is documented is its longevity and its continued publication: founded in 1904, still publishing daily online in October 2026, it is Venezuela's oldest newspaper and one of the few regional dailies to have survived the newsprint crisis as a going concern. Its digital readership, through its website and social channels, extends its reach beyond Lara to Venezuelans everywhere.

Digital Presence

El Impulso's website, elimpulso.com, is its main outlet since the end of its print edition in 2018. The site carries its daily news output, with items dated 2 and 3 October 2026 showing a newsroom publishing through the current week. The paper is also active on social platforms, where its headlines and stories reach readers who no longer buy a print newspaper — or who never did, since its print edition ended before many of its current readers came of age.

The paper's digital transition was forced by the newsprint shortage, but it has allowed El Impulso to continue publishing when other regional newspapers closed entirely. Its website is the authoritative source for its journalism, and its online archive preserves more than a century of Lara's history in digital form.

Ownership and Organisation

El Impulso is a family-owned business, published by C.A. El Impulso and controlled by the Carmona family, currently managed by the fourth and fifth generations. It was founded by Federico Carmona in Carora in 1904, passed to his son in 1928, and moved to Barquisimeto in 1919, where its headquarters remain. The family's stewardship, through dictatorship, democracy and revolution, is one of the longest continuous ownerships in Venezuelan journalism.

The paper's organisation reflects its regional scale: a newsroom in Barquisimeto, correspondents across Lara state, and a digital operation that has replaced its print plant. Its independence — it is not owned by the state, by a political party or by a larger media group — is central to its identity, and its critical editorial line, maintained through the Chávez and Maduro eras, is the quality its readers most associate with the paper.

Contact and Availability

El Impulso is headquartered in Barquisimeto, Lara state, Venezuela, and publishes in Spanish. Its print edition ended in 2018, and its journalism is now published online at elimpulso.com, where its daily news output is available free of charge. Its newsroom continues to cover Lara state and Venezuela, and the newspaper remains in publication as a digital-only outlet as of October 2026.