The Newspaper (Barcelona)
El Periódico, formerly known as El Periódico de Catalunya, is a paid general information newspaper and distributed in the morning, published in Barcelona in double version: in Catalan and in Spanish. It has its newsroom in a building on Avenida de la Granvia, in Hospitalet de Llobregat, and has its own correspondents in the main cities of the world. Formally, it is characterized by the great graphic treatment and the printing of all its pages in color. According to data certified by the Diffusion Justification Office (OJD) and referring to the period January-December 2019, the average reading of El Periódico was 386,000 daily readers. sixth place in the ranking of the most read press in Spain, led by El País.
It belongs to Prensa Ibérica and is considered ideologically progressive, historically close to the positions of the PSC and opposed to the unilateral independence of Catalonia. It has received subsidies from the Generalitat of Catalonia, like other paper media or digital, and it forgave 9.1 million euros of debt for the purchase by Editorial Prensa Ibérica, and the Generalitat Valenciana also forgave another 3.1 million euros.
History
Early Years
Founded by Antonio Asensio Pizarro from Barcelona, El Periódico de Catalunya published its first issue on October 26, 1978, at a time when there were thirteen headlines on newsstands in Barcelona, three of them sports. An edition was also released for the Spanish capital, El Periódico de Madrid, which, however, would be a failure.
El Periódico came to occupy an empty media space in Catalonia: a newspaper, written entirely in Spanish, of constitutionalist and progressive ideology. In addition, from the beginning it gave great coverage to information on the city of Barcelona and on sports, which did not have as much space in the rest of the general newspapers. This led to the recruitment not only of new readers not accustomed to buying newspapers, but also of readers of other newspapers.
Its release on the market led to a commitment to a new concept of printed newspaper, giving great relevance to graphic elements, creating a model that would partly coincide with the one that, four years later, USA Today would revolutionize the press in the United States.
The first newsroom, located on Roger de Lauria street in Barcelona, was directed by a management team led by Antonio Franco and made up of the deputy directors Enrique Arias Vega, José Luis Orosa and Julián Lago, and the journalists Fernando Jáuregui, Ramón Miravitllas, José Luis Erviti and Juan Fermin Vilchez. From the beginning it had prestigious writers from the entire ideological spectrum: Emilio Romero Gómez, Manuel Martín Ferrand, Amando de Miguel, Cándido, Montserrat Roig, Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, or Antonio Álvarez-Solís. From 1980 to 1989, it included the comic strip Quico el progres, by J. L. Martín.
Recent stage
Since October 1997 the newspaper has had two editions —one in Spanish and the other in Catalan— with identical content. The publication in Catalan is encouraged by public subsidies.
In recent years it has initiated an expansion policy, with the creation of sister capitals in various Spanish provinces and in Andorra. Thus, it has promoted the creation of El Periòdic d'Andorra, El Periódico de Aragón (1990), El Periódico de Extremadura and The Mediterranean Newspaper. All these newspapers share with El Periódico de Catalunya the formal and graphic characteristics, the information on Spain and international politics, opinion articles and some editorials; they differ by the coverage of local and regional news.
In March 2015 the Lara family, owners of Editorial Planeta, entered into the capital of El Periódico de Catalunya by buying 5.75% of the newspaper, after refinancing the debt, which in the summer of 2014 amounted to 117 million euros. Marta García Lara, daughter of José Manuel Lara Bosch, joined the council. From then on, the editorial line of the newspaper has changed from the Catalanist line to the current constitutionalist line.[citation required]
In December 2017, the newspaper began to provide the digital edition with more content from Spain. In this way, regional news stopped occupying a strategic place on the front page to make room for other news with greater repercussions on a national scale. On May 31, 2019, it became part of Prensa Ibérica after the acquisition of Grupo Zeta by of this company.
Directors
- 1978-1982: Antonio Franco.
- 1982-1984: Ginés Vivancos.
- 1984-1988: Enrique Arias Vega.
- 1988-2001: Antonio Franco.
- 2001-2010: Rafael Nadal Farreras.
- 2010-2019: Enric Hernández.
- 2019-2020: Anna Cristeto
- Since 2020: Albert Sáez
Catalan of the Year Award
The Catalan of the Year Award is given by the newspaper to relevant personalities from Catalonia. It was created in the year 2000 and the winner is chosen by popular vote.
- 2000: Ernest Lluch.
- 2001: Pau Gasol.
- 2002: Manuela de Madre.
- 2003: Ferran Adrià.
- 2004: Joan Manuel Serrat.
- 2005: Joan Massagué.
- 2006: Neus Català.
- 2007: Pasqual Maragall.
- 2008: Vicente Ferrer i Moncho.
- 2009: Josep Guardiola.
- 2010: David Miret.
- 2011: Joaquim Maria Puyal.
- 2012: Josep Sánchez de Toledo.
- 2013: Josefina Castellví.
- 2014: Lucia Caram.
- 2015: Òscar Camps, activist.
- 2016: Oriol Mitjà, doctor and researcher.
- 2017: Josep Maria Pou, actor and director.
- 2018: not celebrated.
- 2021: Jaume Plensa, sculptor.
Recognized journalists and communicators
- Marc Marginedas
- Albert Sáez
- Pau Arenós
- Jordi Bianciotto
- Ferran Monegal
- Silvia Cobo
- Olga Pereda
- Emilio Pérez de Rozas
- Juan Tapia
- Guillem Sánchez
- Rafael Tapounet
- Josep Cuní