El País is a
SpanishSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
national daily
newspaperA newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
owned by the Spanish media conglomerate
PRISAPromotora de Informaciones, S.A is a Spanish media conglomerate. The PRISA group was founded in 1972 by Jesús de Polanco.-Newspapers:* El País, daily newspaper* Diario AS sports newspaper* Cinco Días economic newspaper-Magazines:...
. With an average of 391,815 copies sold each day, is the widest selling non-sports newspaper in
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. Its headquarters and central editorial staff are located in
MadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, although there are regional offices in the principal Spanish cities (
BarcelonaBarcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
,
SevilleSeville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, Valencia,
BilbaoBilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...
,
Santiago de CompostelaSantiago de Compostela is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia, Spain.The city's Cathedral is the destination today, as it has been throughout history, of the important 9th century medieval pilgrimage route, the Way of St. James...
) from where these regional editions are produced. El País also produces a world edition that is printed and distributed in
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
.
El País is often referred to as a
newspaper of recordNewspaper of record is a term that may refer either to any publicly available newspaper that has been authorized by a government to publish public or legal notices , or any major newspaper that has a large circulation and whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered professional and...
from Spain, along with its fellow
MadridMadrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
morning dailies
El MundoEl Mundo is the second largest printed and the largest digital daily newspaper in Spain and one of the newspapers of record in that country, with a daily circulation topping 300,000 readers for the printed edition and 24 million unique web visitors per month for the...
and ABC. Opinion polls cited in El País are all carried out by a separate company called Instituto OPINA.
History
El País was founded by a team at
PRISAPromotora de Informaciones, S.A is a Spanish media conglomerate. The PRISA group was founded in 1972 by Jesús de Polanco.-Newspapers:* El País, daily newspaper* Diario AS sports newspaper* Cinco Días economic newspaper-Magazines:...
which included
José Ortega SpottornoJosé Ortega Spottorno was a Spanish journalist and publisher. Born in Madrid to famous philosopher José Ortega y Gasset and Rosa Spottorno Topete, José Ortega Spottorno was the founder of affordable paperback publishing firm Alianza Editorial and the Spanish daily newspaper El País, which quickly...
and
Carlos MendoCarlos Mendo was a Spanish journalist. Mendo co-founded El Pais, Spain's most widely circulated daily newspaper, 1972....
. The paper was designed by Reinhard Gade and Julio Alonso. It was first published on , six months after the death of
FrancoFrancisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
, and at the beginning of the
Spanish transition to democracyThe Spanish transition to democracy was the era when Spain moved from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco to a liberal democratic state. The transition is usually said to have begun with Franco’s death on 20 November 1975, while its completion has been variously said to be marked by the Spanish...
. It was the first pro-democracy newspaper within a context where all the other Spanish newspapers were influenced by Franco's ideology. El País filled a gap in the market and became the newspaper of Spanish democracy, for which role El País was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and the Humanities in 1983, at a time when the transition from Franco's dictatorship to democracy was still developing. The paper's first Director (until 1988) was Juan Luis Cebrián, who came from the daily newspaper Informaciones. Like many other Spanish journalists of the time he had worked for the Diario Pueblo (People's Daily) which was a mouthpiece for the Francist sindicato vertical.
Its reputation as a bastion of Spanish democracy was established during the attempted
coup d'etatA coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
by Lieutenant Colonel
Antonio TejeroAntonio Tejero Molina is a Spanish former Lieutenant Colonel of the Guardia Civil, and the most visible figure in the attempted coup d'état – also known as the 'Tejerazo' – against the Spanish democracy on 23 February 1981....
of the Guardia Civil on 23 February 1981. During the uncertain situation of the night of 23 February 1981, with all the members of parliament held hostage in the Congress building and with tanks on the streets of Valencia, and before the state television station could transmit a speech by King Juan Carlos I condemning the coup, El País published a special edition of the newspaper called
'El País, for the Constitution'. It was the first daily paper on the streets that night with a clear pro-democracy position calling on citizens to demonstrate in favour of democracy. It was widely discussed in the news media that the then director of El País, Juan Luis Cebrián, telephoned the then director of
Diario 16Diario 16 was one of the most widely-circulated newspapers in Spain. According to the 1981 General Media Study , it had about 100 thousand readers. It often criticized President George W...
,
Pedro J. RamírezPedro José Ramírez Codina , Spanish, more often known as Pedro J. Ramírez, is a Spanish journalist. When he was appointed to manage Diario 16 at the age of 28, he became Spain's youngest editor of a national newspaper. In 1989 he founded the newspaper El Mundo, managing it continuously since then,...
, in order to propose that both newspapers work on a joint publication in defence of democracy and Ramírez refused, claiming that he would prefer to wait a few hours to see how the situation developed. Diario 16 was not published until after a television broadcast by the king. Along with its commitment to democracy before the attempted coup of 23 February 1981, the
Spanish Socialist Workers' PartyThe Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...
's election victory in 1982 with an absolute majority and its open support for the government of
Felipe GonzálezFelipe González Márquez is a Spanish socialist politician. He was the General Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party from 1974 to 1997. To date, he remains the longest-serving Prime Minister of Spain, after having served four successive mandates from 1982 to 1996.-Early life:Felipe was...
, meant that El País consolidated its position during the 1980s as the Spanish newspaper with the most sales ahead of the conservative leaning ABC.
Both the rigorous journalistic standards and the fact that it was the first Spanish newspaper to establish internal quality control standards have increased the standing of El País. It was also the first Spanish daily to create the role of Reader's Advocate (equivalent to the Press Ombudsman in Britain) and in publishing a "Style Guide" that has become a benchmark for quality amongst journalists. El País has also established a number of collaborative agreements with other European newspapers with a social democrat viewpoint. In 1989 El País participated in the creation of a common network of information resources with
La Repubblicala Repubblica is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. Founded in 1976 in Rome by the journalist Eugenio Scalfari, as of 2008 is the second largest circulation newspaper, behind the Corriere della Sera.-Foundation:...
in Italy and
Le MondeLe Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
in France. Since October 2001 an English language supplement of El País has been included in the Spanish version of the
International Herald TribuneThe International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
.
At the beginning of the 1990s El País had to face a new political and journalistic challenge. The increasing political tensions caused by corruption scandals involving the socialist government of
Felipe GonzálezFelipe González Márquez is a Spanish socialist politician. He was the General Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party from 1974 to 1997. To date, he remains the longest-serving Prime Minister of Spain, after having served four successive mandates from 1982 to 1996.-Early life:Felipe was...
polarized both the Spanish political classes and the press of the left and right wings.
Since that time, both the
Partido PopularPartido Popular may refer to:* People's Party * People's Party * The original name of the Popular Socialist Party...
and the media aligned with it have accused El País and the other companies owned by
PRISAPromotora de Informaciones, S.A is a Spanish media conglomerate. The PRISA group was founded in 1972 by Jesús de Polanco.-Newspapers:* El País, daily newspaper* Diario AS sports newspaper* Cinco Días economic newspaper-Magazines:...
along with
SogecablePRISA Televisión, S.A.U is the leading pay TV company in Spain, created in 1989 and controlled by PRISA. It was the first company to introduce interactive systems and specially Digital Television in Spain...
of supporting the interests of the
Spanish Socialist Workers' PartyThe Spanish Socialist Workers' Party is a social-democratic political party in Spain. Its political position is Centre-left. The PSOE is the former ruling party of Spain, until beaten in the elections of November 2011 and the second oldest, exceeded only by the Partido Carlista, founded in...
(PSOE). Despite this El País has managed to maintain its position as the best selling generalist daily in Spain, although its lead over El Mundo has been reduced.
On September 26, 2007 the paper published the
Bush-Aznar memoThe Bush–Aznar memo is reportedly a documentation of a February 22, 2003 conversation in Crawford, Texas between US president George W. Bush, Prime Minister of Spain José María Aznar, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Daniel Fried, Alberto Carnero, and Javier Rupérez, the Spanish...
, a leaked transcript of a closed-door meeting between presidents Bush and Aznar shortly before the invasion of Iraq.
During the premiership of
José Luis Rodríguez ZapateroJosé Luis Rodríguez Zapatero is a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party . He was elected for two terms as Prime Minister of Spain, in the 2004 and 2008 general elections. On 2 April 2011 he announced he will not stand for re-election in 2012...
El País has been publishing an increasing number of articles criticising or opposing the policies of the Zapatero government. This has provided opportunities for new entrants to represent the centre left, such as the appearance of the daily newspaper
PúblicoPúblico is a Spanish daily national newspaper launched on September 26, 2007. It is owned by the media group Mediapro....
.
Appearance
The appearance of El País is characterized by its sobriety, both in the treatment of information and in its esthetics. Most pages contain five columns that are arranged in a neat and clear manner with distinct journalistic sub-categories. Photographs and graphics play a secondary, supporting role to the written word. The newspaper has had the same design from its foundation until the end of 2007, with hardly any changes (it only used black and white photographs, although the current format includes colour and more imaginative design, mainly in the varied supplements), and the same
Times RomanTimes New Roman is a serif typeface commissioned by the British newspaper The Times in 1931, created by Victor Lardent at the English branch of Monotype. It was commissioned after Stanley Morison had written an article criticizing The Times for being badly printed and typographically antiquated...
font.
The format of the newspaper was revamped on with changes to its printed form, its digital presence on the
internetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and its historical motto of 'Independent morning daily' was changed to 'Global Spanish language newspaper'. Other notable changes are the inclusion of the tilde accent in its title header and the substitution of Times Roman by Majerit.
Electronic edition
In the mid-1990s El País was the second Spanish newspaper to publish an internet edition, El País digital (the first was the Catalan newspaper
AvuiAvui is a Catalan daily newspaper, based in Barcelona, Catalonia . It is one of the city's newest papers, having been founded in 1976. The editorial line is Catalan nationalist.- History :...
). On it became the first Spanish newspaper to introduce a payment system for access to the contents of its electronic version, which drastically reduced the number of visits to the website, to the extent that El Mundo, which maintained open access to the majority of its contents, became the leading Spanish digital newspaper. After taking this decision El País digital was suspended in 2002 by the OJD for four months because of two serious breaches of OJD regulations. The El País digital website opened again on with free access to the majority of the contents. Subscription was required to gain access to multimedia contents and to the newspaper's
archiveAn archive is a collection of historical records, or the physical place they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or organization's lifetime, and are kept to show the function of an organization...
.
Supplements
El País produces a number of supplements:
- Wednesdays:
- Futuro, (Future) supplement on science.
- Thursdays:
- Ciberpaís, supplement on computing and electronics, and
- The New York Times, a castellano version of the American original
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
.
- Fridays:
- EP[3], previously known as El País de las Tentaciones, (The Country of Temptations) youth supplement.
- Ocio, (Leisure) supplement on cultural activities.
- Saturdays:
- Babelia, cultural supplement specializing in literature and
- El Viajero, (The Traveller) on travel.
- Sundays:
- the magazine El País Semanal (El País Weekly) previously called EP[S] on fashion, reports and opinion,
- Negocios, (Business) financial supplement.
The supplement designed for children Pequeño País (Small Country), ceased publication in 2009.
A number of publications issued in installments have also been produced throughout its history:
- Classic and Modern Comics (1987).
Ideology
The paper's ideology has always been defined by a leaning towards
EuropeanismAlthough this term is occasionally used to describe support for European integration , it is more commonly used in relation to the idea that Europeans have common norms and values that transcend national or state identity, that have been promoted most actively...
. Politically it is situated in the centre-left and the left. El País has repeatedly supported King Juan Carlos I for his contribution to the consolidation of democracy, especially, for his decisive intervention in aborting the coup of 23 February 1981. The paper is characterized by the amount of space it gives to the reporting of international news, culture and information regarding the economy, as well as Spanish news. It has specific columnists and contributors from different social backgrounds contributing to the democratic and pro-European editorial line of the newspaper.
Criticism of Che Guevara, the "populist left" and the Government of Venezuela
The paper has criticized figures such as
Che GuevaraErnesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...
and his idea of armed struggle.
El País has also been critical of the so-called "populist left" in Latin America. In April 2002 it termed the failed
coupThe Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002 was a failed coup d'état on 11 April 2002 that saw President Hugo Chávez ousted from office for 47 hours, being restored by a combination of military force and mass demonstration of popular support...
in
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
as a "coup against a tyrant" accusing
Hugo ChávezHugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the 56th and current President of Venezuela, having held that position since 1999. He was formerly the leader of the Fifth Republic Movement political party from its foundation in 1997 until 2007, when he became the leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela...
of authoritarianism and of eliminating the separation of powers. The paper criticized Chávez again regarding the
Venezuelan constitutional referendum of 2007A constitutional referendum was held in Venezuela on 2 December 2007 to amend 69 articles of the 1999 Constitution. Reform was needed, according to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, to implement his socialist agenda; detractors said he was using the reforms to become a dictator.The referendum was...
accusing him of holding the referendum without the least "minimal guarantees", of restricting the actions of the
National Electoral CouncilThe National Electoral Council is one of the five independent branches of government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. It is the institution that oversees and guarantees the transparency of all elections and referendums in Venezuela at the local, regional, and national levels...
and tampering with the electoral roll. The Venezuelan government, through the Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information considers El País to be one of the Spanish newspapers most critical of the left-wing governments of
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
,
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
,
EcuadorEcuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
,
NicaraguaNicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
and
BoliviaBolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
.
Notable contributors
- Ariel Dorfman
Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman is an Argentine-Chilean novelist, playwright, essayist, academic, and human rights activist. A citizen of the United States since 2004, he has been a professor of literature and Latin American Studies at Duke University, in Durham, North Carolina since 1985.-Personal...
- Juan Carlos Gumucio
Juan Carlos Gumucio was a Bolivian-born journalist, writer and linguist.The son of Azul Quiroga and architect René Gumucio, from an affluent and old-established family, Juan Carlos worked as a journalist for over 30 years, having started his career in his hometown, Cochabamba, as a crime reporter...
- Fernando Krahn
Fernando Krahn was a Chilean cartoonist and plastic artist. A celebrated cartoonist, his works were published in Esquire, The New Yorker, The Atlantic and The Reporter. In 1973 he was forced to flee his native country Chile to escape persecution after the 1973 Chilean coup d'état...
- Elvira Lindo
Elvira Lindo is a Spanish journalist and writer.At the age of 12 Lindo moved to Madrid, where she studied journalism. She did not get her degree, as she began to work in television and radio as a speaker, actress and scriptwriter...
- Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
- Javier Marías
Javier Marías is a Spanish novelist. He is also a translator and columnist.-Life:Javier Marías was born in Madrid. His father was the philosopher Julián Marías, who was briefly imprisoned and then banned from teaching for opposing Franco...
- Rosa Montero
Rosa Montero is an award-winning journalist for the Spanish newspaper El País and an author of contemporary fiction.-Early life:...
- Manuel Rivas
Manuel Rivas is a Galician writer, poet and journalist. He began his career in some Spanish newspapers like El Ideal Gallego, La Voz de Galicia, El Pais, and was the sub-editor of Diario 16 in Galicia...
- Eduardo Mendoza
Eduardo Mendoza may refer to:*Eduardo Mendoza Ceballos, Spanish novelist, Venezuelan businessman, special commissioner for international narcotic affairs, with the rank of ambassador...
- Empar Moliner
Empar Moliner i Ballesteros is a Catalan writer and journalist.She works for the newspapers El País, Avui, and appears in several TV and radio programs as Minoria Absoluta , El matí de Catalunya Ràdio and Els matins .-Published books:* L'Ensenyador de pisos que odiava els mims. ISBN 84-233-3114-8*...
- Javier Pradera
Francisco Javier Pradera Gortázar was a Spanish anti-Franco activist, journalist, political analyst and publisher. Pradera was a journalist and columnist for El País, based in Madrid. Pradera worked as an editorial writer at El País from 1976 to 1986. His first piece for El País was published on...
- Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca
Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca, who earned his doctorate in Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, is the Director of the Juan March Institute and Associate Professor of Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid, Universidad de Salamanca and Associate Professor in the Political Science...
- Maruja Torres
Maria Dolors Torres Manzanera known as Maruja Torres is a Spanish writer and journalist.Her parents were from Murcia and she was born in El Raval neighbourhood. She started as a journalist thanks to Carmen Kurtz when she was 21 years old...
- Eduardo Haro Tecglen
- Pilar Rahola
Pilar Rahola i Martínez is a Catalan journalist, writer, and former politician and MP.Rahola studied Spanish and Catalan Philology at the Universitat de Barcelona. She has published several books in Spanish and Catalan, and she is a columnist at La Vanguardia in Spain; La Nación in Argentina; ...
- Juan José Millás
Juan José Millás is a Spanish writer and winner of the 1990 Premio Nadal. He was born in Valencia and has spent most of his life in Madrid where he studied Philosophy and Literature in the Universidad Complutense.-Life:...
- Manuel Valls
Manuel Valls i Gorina was a Catalan Spanish composer, pianist, music critic, and music educator.Valls was born in Badalona. He studied at the University of Barcelona and the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu. At the Liceu he was mentored by Aita Donostia with whom he studied music...
External links