Alzugaray Family

Três Communication Group, created by Brazilian-nationalized Argentinian Domingo Alzugaray, in 1972, faced a series of financial difficulties throughout the years. In 1980, the company’s debts made the control of IstoÉ magazine, the group’s most important title, pass to the creditor bank, Unibanco, and the magazine was handed by one company to another until 1988, when Alzugaray managed to buy it back. Almost thirty years later, with the number of titles reduced, the Alzugaray family once again faces financial problems.

The Group’s main company, Três Publishing, registered in the names of Domingo Alzugaray (deceased in 2017) and his wife Cátia Alzugaray, appears in São Paulo’s Commercial board as "a company in judicial recovery", with accumulated debts with creditors, in taxes and workers rights. News published in the media indicate that Domingo Alzygaray’s heirs, his children Carlos Domingo Alzugaray and Paula Alzugaray, would be tryig to sell out the publisher and its main product, the IstoÉ magazine, that, even during crisis, remains among the three current affairs weekly magazines of biggest circulation in Brazil. Among possible buyers, names like João Carlos Camargo (Grupo Camargo de Comunicação, former owner of Nativa FM, now controlled by Bandeirantes Group), the Saad family (Bandeirantes Group), André Esteves (BTG Pactual bank), Daniel Dantas (Opportunity bank) and Nelson Tanure (Companhia Docas e Companhia Brasileira de Multimídia, controller of newspapers Gazeta Mercantil and Jornal do Brasil and of the Forbes Brasil magazine). Tanure would have already made proposals for the publisher at least since 2006 and has also been making proposals of acquisiton for another company under judicial recovery, the telecommunications company Oi.

In the first years of the publisher, Domingo Alzugaray granted freedom to its editors, such as Mino Carta, co-founder of IstoÉ and long-time editor of the magazine. In the 1990s, however, started to follow closely his magazine’s editorial lines, and becoming closer to politicians and executives, “started showing up on Friday mornings to alter texts written the night before, favoring influential characters that should be immediately told of the given graces", as Mino Carta tells. About that, Alzugaray himself declare to the Jornlistas & Cia portal, in 2006: "we define a magazine’s editorial line along with the director and the writing staff. If he is not aligned with the editorial line you want, it is clear that you will end up changing the newsroom director. On the other hand, if he does not agree with the magazine’s editorial line, he should work on a magazine he agrees with."

The Group follows Domingos’ and Cátia’s son’s, Carlos Domingo Alzugaray (Caco Alzugaray), lead. Caco started working in the family’s business in 1988, in the commercial and institutional areas. Nowadays he is the executive president of Três Publishing, besides being the owner (along with Ana Carolina Homa Alzugaray) and publisher of Rocky Mountain Publishing, that publishes magazines in affiliation with Três Publishing and produces events like Rocky Spirit, Rocky Man and Circuito Brasileiro de Surf (‘Brazilian Surfing Circuit’).

The couple’s daughter, Paula Alzugaray, does not participate in the family’s business management, although she works as a journalist and art critic in the group’s magazines. She is a Visual Arts graduate at Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado (FAAP), specializing Art and Architecture History at Escola Técnica Superior d’Arquitectura de Barcelona, Spain, has a master’s degree in Audiovisual Aesthetic and Communication, at USP’s Art and Communication School and a doctor’s degree in Communication and Semiotic at PUC-SP. She started working at Três publishing in 1992, as a journalist and art critic and at IstoÉ and Vogue Brasil magazines. From 1998 to 2001, she was the cultural editor for IstoÉ Gente magazine. Since 2001, she started writing about visual arts on other publishers’ magazines, such as Bravo!. Besides that, she is a writer, a documentary filmmaker, and an art curator. At Três Publishing, created and still directs the quarterly magazine Select, with focus on visual arts and contemporary culture.