[2] It was founded in 1980 by Jesús Blancornelas, known as "the spiritual godfather of modern Mexican journalism",[3][4] along with Héctor Félix Miranda and Francisco Ortiz Franco.
The magazine regularly runs exposés on corruption in local and federal governments as well as on organized crime and drug trafficking, resulting in numerous threats and attacks against its staff.
More than half of the journalists working for the Zeta report on sport events, entertainment, and art, but the front-page stories on the newspaper are about drug trafficking and political corruption.
[9] In 1994, Zeta published an investigation on the assassination of Luis Donaldo Colosio; despite the conspiracy theories about the case, the magazine concluded that the shooting had been the work of a single troubled individual.
[3][7] As well as acting as an editor, Héctor Félix Miranda contributed a column titled "A Little of Something", in which he satirized and criticized government officials, particularly those of the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
[4][15] While previous attacks on journalists had received little coverage, Blancornelas' assassination attempt made it to the front page of most newspapers in Mexico, and was covered on television and radio.
[11] At around this time, Blancornelas wanted to remove bylines from Zeta's most dangerous stories, but was persuaded not to by Ortiz, who wished his to continue to run.
[18] On June 22, 2004, Ortiz was shot three times at the wheel of his car by masked gunmen in a drive-by shooting, in full view of his son and daughter (aged 9 and 11).
[11][19] Federal prosecutors later linked the murder to the Tijuana Cartel of the Arellano Félix family, with Ortiz's coverage of the organization as the probable motive.
[21][22] As the magazine's new director, Navarro continued Blancornelas' tradition of high-risk reporting on organized crime, stating that "Every time a journalist self-censors, the whole society loses".
[1][25] In January 2010, US law enforcement notified Navarro of death threats from the Tijuana Cartel, causing the Mexican government to assign her seven soldiers as bodyguards.
In 2012, the Zeta is still thriving in Tijuana with its weekly column of "who's who in the underworld of Mexico's Baja California peninsula," and with unique stories of drug traffickers rarely seen anywhere else in the Mexican media.
[1] Most media outlets in Mexico limit their reports to government statements and news conferences, while others cover the drug war aggressively.