TromeвЂ™s editors understand this new market panorama. These new consumers also lack interest in politics, a legacy of the civil war that ravaged the country in the 1980s and FujimoriвЂ™s 10-year reign of corruption in the 1990s, which fed PeruviansвЂ™ traditional distrust of government. They want a new car, nice furniture, a better house, anything that helps them improve their status and their lives.вЂќ They are very pragmatic, success-oriented and focused on acquiring material goods. вЂњTheyвЂ™re more like the new middle class in China or India. вЂњItвЂ™s not your traditional middle class,вЂќ said MarГa Elena Otiniano, manager at Grupo El Comercio. According to research by companies hired by El Comercio, the new middle class yearned for a media outlet that could speak their language and meet their needs for social advancement. The tabloidвЂ™s introduction was an effort to attract the new middle class that has emerged amid PeruвЂ™s high economic growth, mostly made up of small entrepreneurs of lower-class origins. Trome was launched in 2001 by the owners of El Comercio, PeruвЂ™s oldest newspaper and the groupвЂ™s flagship publication, which is read by high-income earners. But it is a recipe that might work only in Peru. Curious editors from other countries often descend on Lima to learn about the winning formula. Trome is now a case study taught at business schools all over the world. How a cheap Peruvian tabloid (at only US$0.20) bucked the worldwide trend of declining newspaper sales is a story of difficult beginnings and big-time success featured by street-smart editors and marketing researchers, who seized on opportunities in PeruвЂ™s roaring economy.

With 734,000 copies sold daily, Trome sells more than PeruвЂ™s El Comercio (90,000), ArgentinaвЂ™s ClarГn (280,000), SpainвЂ™s El PaГs (325,000) or ColombiaвЂ™s El Tiempo (400,000). This sassy concoction has made Trome a вЂњfamily tabloidвЂќ and the best-selling newspaper not only in Peru but also in the Spanish-speaking world. It devotes entire sections to beauty and health tips for women, love and sex horoscopes, gossip columns and educational material for schoolchildren. It runs photographs of scantily clad women, but unlike most tabloids, it lacks gory pictures or sensational crime stories on the cover those are sent to the inside pages. Like most tabloids, Trome lives off celebrity scandal and entertainment news. вЂњItвЂ™s entertaining.вЂќД¬alled Trome, named after a word for вЂњaceвЂќ or вЂњchampionвЂќ in Peruvian slang, the popular paper prides itself in offering вЂњentertainment for the whole family,вЂќ and according to Cueva, it delivers. вЂњI read it to pass the time,вЂќ said Cueva, 34, a mother of an eight-year-old boy. When the day is slow, she reads a cheap tabloid filled with splashy headlines, coupon promotions, cash prizes and gossip news about local celebrities. Mabel Cueva makes a living selling Egyptian tarot decks, self-help books, pirated Paulo Coelho novels and other bestsellers in a makeshift book market in downtown Lima. The paper appeals to an audience with a desire for social mobility. Headlines from the tabloid newspaper Trome feature sports and scandals.

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