'O Globo' Owner Dies in Brazil

By: Peter Muello, Associated Press Writer (AP) Roberto Marinho, who turned his father's newspaper into a media empire and became one of Brazil's richest men, died Wednesday. He was 98.

Marinho died in Rio's Samaritano Hospital, where had been taken earlier in the day, according to his Globo TV network.

Marinho founded Organizacoes Globo, which included television, cable, pay television, and print media outlets. Among his holdings were Brazil's third-largest newspaper, O Globo, a network of radio stations, the Editora Globo publishing house, and recording labels.

Marinho also controlled other companies grouped under Globo Comunicacoes e Participacoes, or Globopar, of which he was chairman of the board.

With a fortune estimated at $6.4 billion in 2000, Marinho saw his personal worth dwindle after financial setbacks and the decline of Brazil's currency. In 2003, he failed to make Forbes magazine's annual list of billionaires.

But it was his hands-on management of TV Globo, with its 113 stations and affiliates that reach into 99.9% of Brazilian homes, that gave Marinho unparalleled influence over shaping the nation's culture, politics, and image of itself.

A self-described "patriot" with close ties to Brazil's 1964-1985 military regime, Marinho unabashedly used Globo's power to favor chosen politicians and snub those he deemed "bad Brazilians." He could make or break candidates, and presidential hopefuls routinely made the pilgrimage to Rio for his blessing.

In 1985, when President-elect Tancredo Neves picked Marinho's close personal friend Antonio Carlos Magalhaes as his Minister of Communications, he reportedly justified his choice by saying: "I'll fight with the Army Minister, but not with Roberto Marinho."

Born in Rio de Janeiro on Dec. 3, 1904, Marinho went to work at the daily O Globo after the death of his father, Irineu Marinho, who founded the newspaper in 1925 and died 23 days later. Starting as a cub reporter, the young Marinho quickly climbed the ladder and became managing editor in 1931, at the age of 26.

A patron of the arts, Marinho sponsored many exhibitions through the Roberto Marinho Foundation and had a private collection of some 700 works of art, including Pancettis and Mondrians, at his estate in Rio's Cosme Velho district, at the feet of the Christ statue. In 1993 he was elected to the Brazilian Academy of Letters.

Marinho was married three times, the last to Lily Carvalho, Miss France of 1938.