The Macondo Times.

Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez is making headlines -- his own.

As the sun set, Carlos Andres Perez descended from the plane that had brought him from Davos, Switzerland and was surprised to see on the platform General Fernando Ochoa Antich, his minister of defense. "What's happening?" he asked, intrigued. The minister reassured him with reasoning so believable that the president did not go to the Miraflores Palace, but instead to the presidential residence, La Casona. He was starting to fall asleep when the defense minister's phone call woke him to report a military uprising in Maracay. He had only just entered Miraflores when the first artillery shells exploded.

THIS WAS THE OPENING PARAGRAPH to a profile of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that appeared recently in Colombia's Cambio magazine. It assumes knowledge of what Perez was thinking and feeling, gratuitously mentions Davos, Switzerland, and doesn't say anything about Chavez, the subject of the story. Would you as editor call the reporter's attention to these details? What if the reporter was named Gabriel Garcia Marquez?

This is not surrealism. The Nobel Prizewinning author, at age 72, is back in the newsroom as star reporter, an editor, and part owner of Colombia's No. 2 newsmagazine, Cambio. The writer is apparently convinced that there is a market for more thoughtful journalism, and, at least for now, he appears to be right.

Since Garcia Marquez, known here simply as "Gabo", relaunched Cambio earlier this year, subscriptions have grown 20% to 65,000 and advertising is up fivefold, according to the publication. With a total unaudited circulation of about 100,000, Cambio, even by its own generous count, is still a far cry from its older and more established rival Semana, with an audited circulation of just over 171,000.

Gabo's niche. After winning the Nobel for literature in 1982, Garcia Marquez has said on numerous occasions that he wanted to return to his roots, reporting. But he claimed no one would hire him. Now, three decades after writing Cien Anos de Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude), he is literally paying to be published.

Proyectos y Finanzas, a local investment bank, identified a niche opportunity in Colombia's magazine sector for Garcia Marquez. Acting on the idea, he and six top Colombian journalists studied the possibility of buying shares in Semana, the nation's top newsweeldy. The magazine's owners were expanding into telecommunications and there seemed to be a possibility that at least a portion of the magazine might be sold to help fund the expansion.

When the owners of Semana turned down the offer, Gabo and the six journalists began conversations with Cambio owner Patricia Lara. A deal was sealed in November of last year for an undisclosed amount and the first edition under the Nobel laureate's stewardship was published at the beginning of January 1999.

Garcia Marquez's purchase of Cambio comes at an important juncture in the five-year history of the magazine. Since it was founded by businessman Juan Tomas de Salas as an offshoot of the Spanish-based Cambio 16 Espana, the magazine has suffered severe marketing and debt problems. In its first three years, Cambio lost approximately $3 million. Since then, however, it has clawed back some market share from Semana and has begun to break even operationally.

Gabo's presence will clearly solve the magazine's marketing problems. While he is normally very press shy, he gave an exclusive to The New York Times recently to discuss Cambio. The magazine is also gaining international exposure because Garcia Marquez's stories are resold to publications abroad. Finally, he can provide exclusives that few star reporters can. Journalists struggle to get an interview with President Bill Clinton, for example, while Gabo has enjoyed a private dinner with him.

The biggest challenge at Cambio may be to avoid becoming too dependent on Garcia Marquez. Pilar Calderon, the magazine's associate director, says that the staff is focusing on what Gabo is good at, not the man himself. She says that the team is concentrating on storytelling.

"Colombian journalism has become too caught up in reporting and has forgotten all about writing," explains Calderon. "Our aim at Cambio is to recover that lost element so that people will begin reading again instead of just watching television."

Readers have already noticed the new tack, but most frequently associate it with stories written by Garcia Marquez, such as a special feature he wrote on the country's peace process in his first edition as part owner. "Without doubt, the magazine is already showing signs of better and deeper investigation," says Armando Montenegro, president of the country's National Association of Financial Institutions and an avid reader of the magazine. He notes that if the magazine wants to close the gap with rival Semana, it will need a redesign to reflect its new ideas and ownership.

But for now, the Nobel laureate has no immediate plans to change the magazine's format, nor is he terribly concerned about playing too big a role in the publication's recent success. Instead, armed with a reporter's notepad and pencil, he is simply enjoying journalism once again.

And how do coworkers feel about the challenge of editing his copy? "The prospect of working with Gabo was terrifying at first," recalls Calderon, a former editor at the country's second daily newspaper, El Espectador. "But he has the gift of creating a warmth of atmosphere around him which is very conducive to working."

LIMITED EDITION

A CREATIVE ALLIANCE BETWEEN GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ AND U.S. graphic designer Roger Black is exploring the possibility of producing a one-off prototype newspaper to be published in three languages, Spanish, English and Portuguese. The publication would be sent to editors around the Americas to show them "what newspaper design could be" and that "newspapers don't have to be so boring," according to one U.S. source close to the project.

The endeavor is being organized through Gabo's Ibero-American Foundation of New Journalism, based in Cartagena, Colombia's colonial jewel in the Caribbean. "Initially, the idea was to produce a nonprofit experimental paper that would circulate only in Cartagena and would explore creative ideas in writing and design," says Jaime Abello, director of the foundation.

But Gabo fans ready to pack their bags for Cartagena shouldn't dust off their suitcases just yet. According to Abello, the organizers have put the project on hold, though only temporarily. "The project has been affected for reasons of time and budget, but it could surface again at any moment and we are maintaining conversations with Roger to see what we are going to do with it," he says.