Behind the scenes at Granma, Cuba’s Communist Party newspaper

In June, 11 students and two professors from Miami University, where I teach, spent a week in Havana, Cuba, studying how journalism functions in the Western Hemisphere’s only socialist country. Our most anticipated stop on a packed itinerary was a visit to the newsroom of Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist party of Cuba. (The newspaper, founded in 1965, takes its name from the yacht that brought the Castro brothers and 80 others from Mexico to Cuba to start their revolution in 1956.)

What we found is that Granma’s challenge is the same one faced by legacy newspapers in the U.S.—how to attract young, digital-age readers with a product that will pay its own way.

Our educational partners at the Center for José Marti Studies warned us it wouldn’t be easy to gain approval for our visit to Granma. Twenty-four hours before our appointment, we were still waiting for a thumbs-up from the central committee of the party. Good news arrived late in the day: “Your visit for June 7 has been approved by Raul Castro.” I’m still not sure if they were kidding.

Read the whole story at InCubaToday.com.

This story was originally published July 12, 2016 at 9:17 AM with the headline "Behind the scenes at Granma, Cuba’s Communist Party newspaper."