MEDIA IN TROUBLED COLOMBIA SEEK TO PUT EMPHASIS ON UPLIFTING NEWS

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Concerned that saturation coverage of guerrilla
attacks, murders and economic woe will scare off advertisers and
readers, major Colombian newspapers, magazines and television stations
are seeking out sunnier stories.

This month, El Tiempo, the nation's largest newspaper, published a
48-page special section called "Rabiosamente Optimistas," or "Rabidly
Optimistic," that spotlighted people who are bullish on Colombia.

To lighten the mood, television news teams have added attractive women
to read the latest gossip.

There is even a monthly newspaper in the city of Medellin that ignores
the nation's troubles altogether. The Spanish-language publication
has an English title -- Good News From Colombia.

Critics say the trend is driven by commercial rather than civic
motives. Newsrooms, however, have been flooded with letters, phone
calls and e-mail messages praising the campaign.

"In the worst of times, people want us to show them something good,"
said Pilar Calderon, assistant editor of the newsweekly Cambio, which
distributes a sister publication called Cambio Buenas Noticias, or
"Cambio Good News."

A decade ago, bad news in Colombia was a bonanza.

Reporters made their reputations by investigating Pablo Escobar and
other flamboyant drug lords who waged a brutal campaign against the
state by setting off car bombs and killing police officers. Escobar
was killed in a police manhunt in 1993, and the Cali cartel leaders
were jailed two years later.

Though Colombians were appalled by the violence, editors say that
readers rarely tired of the story.

"We knew that on Sunday, if we had a piece on Pablo Escobar and his
land holdings, we would sell a ton of newspapers," said Gonzalo
Guillen, an editor at La Prensa, a Bogota daily that closed two years
ago.

Today, however, the mood of readers has shifted amid a growing sense
that the nation's troubles are here to stay.

Marxist guerrillas, who have been fighting for 35 years, are stronger
than ever and now operate in 40 percent of the countryside. More than
1.5 million Colombians have been displaced by the war. Kidnappings are
at an all-time high.

"The situation in Colombia is extremely negative," Calderon said. "The
other day, I sat down with a few journalists to talk about how many of
our friends had been assassinated and buried. We counted 20."

Adding to the malaise is Colombia's worst recession since the 1930s.
Unemployment tops 20 percent, and the economy may shrink by 4 percent
this year.

The bleak outlook has hurt both circulation and advertising.

"The economic crisis has put people in a very different mood compared
to 10 years ago," said Francisco Santos, news editor of El Tiempo.
"People are so fed up that they want to read about something else."

A citizen-organized campaign recently called on Colombians to boycott
newspapers and TV newscasts because they were too negative.
Advertisers complained that their products were being associated with
violence.

For several months, major television stations broadcast reports of
violence only in black and white as a gesture of solidarity with the
nation's peace movement.

Francisco Celis, an El Tiempo editor who calls himself a die-hard
idealist, came up with the idea for a 14-page special section on
Colombians with a positive outlook. Businesses jumped at the chance to
buy space in a forum stressing good news, and the section expanded to
48 pages.

Celis acknowledged that the media and advertisers have a common
interest in promoting an upbeat mood. El Tiempo's "Rabidly Optimistic"
section was published shortly after the newspaper opened two new
printing plants and a TV station.

"If people are convinced there are no solutions, they are not going to
buy anything," Celis said. "Businesses need a mood of optimism for
people to consume."

The El Tiempo supplement included stories on high-profile Colombians
like Microsoft Vice President Orlando Ayala and rock star Shakira as
well as local heroes, such as a Bogota carpenter who had lost both
hands in an industrial accident but still managed to do his job.

Cambio, which has published four "good news" supplements this year,
has focused on the reconstruction of the coffee-growing region of
western Colombia that was devastated by a January earthquake as well
as environmental projects and campaigns against government corruption.

The reaction to the El Tiempo supplement was immediate. During a brief
interview at the newspaper's offices last week, Celis received two
phone calls from readers thanking him for his work.

"If Colombia still survives, it's not because of its political leaders
or those who defend their ideas with guns, but because of the 28
million Colombians who only show up in the press when they publish an
odd supplement about optimism," said Daniel Samper, an author and the
brother of former President Ernesto Samper.

Others are more skeptical. Marianne Ponsford, editor of the weekly
magazine Cromos, said that good news has suddenly become politically
correct. "It looks good, and they get a lot of ads," she said.

At El Tiempo, reporters and editors try to get uplifting articles into
the newspaper every day, Santos said. Tracking such stories down,
however, requires patience.

Cambio reporter Jose Manuel Reveron said that people in Cali, one of
the cities hit hardest by the recession, were puzzled when he recently
inquired about positive developments there.

A few years ago, La Prensa tried to run a regular good-news column.
But Guillen said the idea was scrapped because of the lack of
legitimate stories.

"Things here are so messed up that it could be considered news if the
police don't rob a bank or if the stoplights work," Guillen said.

"But people are going to get tired of false optimism," he said. "To
say that yesterday people went to work and that the bread-maker made
bread is stupid journalism."