Jornal do Brasil was an important opponent for challenging censorship although it never was radically against the dictatorship and its editors did not follow a rebellious line against the government, rather they avoided such conflict.

What some people do not realise that the newspaper made its great profits from the advertisement it sold, it had at times up to 5 supplements on different areas of the Rio market.

[citation needed] With the oil crisis their stocks fell and they suffered until they were sold JB was the first Brazilian newspaper to have an electronic edition which included partial PDF-publishing.

[citation needed] JB is pictured in the Academy Award-nominated film Cidade de Deus, as the newspaper where the main character, Buscapé, begins working as a photographer.

The movie is set in Rio de Janeiro during the 1960s-1980s, the golden age of the paper, before it started its long decaying period.