THE ECONOMIST SECRET BAN CALLED A DELAY - a chronology

DEC 20 - JAN 9 No edition whatsoever of The Economist is on sale in the main Latin America city, São Paulo. Holiday issue? No, nothing.

JAN 9 - an insider - longtime acquaintance of ours - tells us about the boycott, adding that it was not the first. He has long been in the trade of magazines and books. Soon later (this very day) we publish our first post on the matter .

JAN 11 - we write about the boycott on the comments page under the article "Brazil's fall", the one about the cover topic of the 'missing edition'. It was a very late comment, for they had started on Dec 30, having on this date reached 605. So we posted the comment number 606 (and 607 as an addition). Despite the tardiness, on the following day we saw someone had clicked on the comment as 'recommendation'. Guess what happens on the following day...

JAN 12 - The holiday issue comes out. Employee at the main store of the big booktrader Livraria Cultura, av. Paulista, asserts that 'the distributor has come back from vacation and the edition about Brazil will arrive next week'. It would never go on sale at that branch of the bookstore. We have detected that feeble discourse of the employee and rightly predicted that outcome, as we updated our readers.

JAN 13-18 we deepen the investigation by talking to more traders - newsstand owners, specially. Ones we had never met before. They had been losing a lot of sales for "everybody was asking for the magazine with Dilma on the cover" - precisely the edition after the holiday issue - and they did not have it.

JAN 19 - key moment. In the morning, one newsstand owner tells us, 'the distributor has come today, but the magazine is not on the list, is not here (showing the list). I can be at this point almost sure this magazine [the one with Dilma on the cover] is not coming'. The distributor passes -normally- once a week.
One more week pointed to a total of four pending editions. 'The distributor will bring the two latest to eliminate the delay and ignore the other editions', he added.
In the afternoon we post 'The Economist "Brazil's fall" will not circulate in that country - rumor or tumor?
Against all odds, the "Dilma's edition" would be released... the following day. Sheer coincidence?

JAN 20 - Very early in the morning I talk to a newsstand owner familiar to me for quite a long time, but to whom I had not spoken yet about the boycott: 'You could help me with something - The Economist'. He stares at me. Eventually, says, 'It was at the airport. I don't have it, but it has come out today.' Can you imagine our emotion? That man had to repeat, 'It has come out today.' I immediately go to av. Paulista. It was there. What a wonderful feeling! All newsstands had it, but that branch of Livraria Cultura... did not.
We announce the 'miracle' in this blog. Translate into portuguese and publish that rumor-or-tumor decisive article - here. 

JAN 21 - we keep checking with our sources. One of them was surprised: 'The distributor has come today again. Brought one more edition [on Saudi Arabia]'. So there had been three visits instead of one - the regular one on Tue, 19, without The Economist; then another on the following day, 20, with "Brazil's fall" edition. And the third one, on 21, with the edition focusing Saudi Arabia. (who is paying for the extra travels made by the distributor? good question)

JAN 26 - the newsstands we have been tracking were all sold out of the "Dilma's magazine", as the edition was referred to. But those retailers got only a few copies (up to four). One owner lamented, 'I could have sold three times as much if it was rightly available. But they had this idea of smothering'.
A branch of Livraria Cultura bookstore - at Iguatemi shopping - had an unusual high stock of them: 23. Comparing: this branch had only five copies of the Saudi Arabia edition. Has this branch concentrated the copies from other branches, from the ones that did not sell the Dilma's edition? Likely. Along the week, this branch had sold six or seven. One employee at this branch revealed, 'It is very late. Don't know why. It was funny because the Saudi Arabia edition came before the Dilma's edition.' (interesting to know)
Even the stand inside the Emporio Santa Maria - a grocery targeted at top-class buyers - was slow in sales of the edition that arrived so late - still had 12 on Monday (25), out of 14 in stock just before the weekend.

This week the retailers received the edition highlighting China - dated Jan 14, when there are two more already out: Jan 23 and Jan 30 editions. At least one of these is already at the airport.

'Who is paying for the extra storage space at the airport?', asked one of our readers.
I leave this answer to your imagination.

And, again, thanks, dear readers, for all good contributions.

We will very soon be back on the matter because The Economist has not forgotten Brazil!