 | |
 Front page, 1 June 2009 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Compact |
| Owner | Unidad Editorial S.A. |
| Founders | |
| Editor | Jorge de Esteban |
| Founded | 23 October 1989; 35 years ago (1989-10-23), asEl Mundo del Siglo Veinte |
| Political alignment | Centre-right[1] |
| Language | Spanish |
| Headquarters | Madrid, Spain |
| Circulation | 266,294 (2011) |
| Sister newspapers | |
| ISSN | 1697-0179 (print) 1697-0179 (web) |
| Website | elmundo |
El Mundo (Spanish pronunciation:[elˈmundo];lit. 'The World'), beforeEl Mundo del Siglo Veintiuno, is the second largest printeddaily newspaper in Spain. The paper is considered one of the country'snewspapers of record along withEl País andABC.
El Mundo was first published on 23 October 1989.[2][3] Perhaps the best known of its founders wasPedro J. Ramírez, who served as editor until 2014.[4] Ramirez had risen to prominence as a journalist during theSpanish transition to democracy.[5] The other founders,Alfonso de Salas,Balbino Fraga and Juan González, shared with Ramírez a background in Grupo 16, the publishers of the newspaperDiario 16. Alfonso de Salas, Juan Gonzales and Gregorio Pena also launchedEl Economista in 2006.[6]
El Mundo, along withMarca andExpansión, is controlled by the Italian publishing companyRCS MediaGroup[2] through its Spanish subsidiary company Unidad Editorial S.L.[7][8] Its former owner was Unedisa which merged withGrupo Recoletos in 2007 to form Unidad Editorial, current owner of the paper.[9]
The paper has its headquarters inMadrid,[10] but maintains several news bureaus in other cities. The daily has a national edition and ten different regional editions,[11] including those forAndalusia,Valencia,Castile and León, theBalearic Islands andBilbao. It is published intabloid format.[12]
In 2005El Mundo started asupplement for women,Yo Dona, which was modelled onIO Donna, a supplement of theItalian dailyCorriere della Sera.[13]
In January 2014 Pedro J. Ramírez, editor of the paper, was fired from his post.[14][15] He argued that reporting on corruption scandals involvingSpanish Prime MinisterMariano Rajoy led to his sacking.[14][15] Casimiro García-Abadillo served as editor until April 2015, when he was replaced in turn by David Jiménez.[4][16]
Editorially,El Mundo often expresses the mainstream views of thecentre-right[14][17] withindependent andliberal overtones.[1][18]
El Mundo defines its editorial line asliberal. It is usually critical of theleft-wing andperipheral nationalisms. Its current ideology issecularcenter-right. Among its columnists there is a remarkable heterogeneity and eclecticism, often openly critical of the editorial line itself. At the time it was decisive in the fall ofFelipe González.[1]
According to its ideological principles, “it aspires to be a progressive newspaper, committed to defending the current democratic system, public freedoms and human rights included in the Universal Declaration promulgated by theUN and in theEuropean Convention of Human Rights."[19]
El Mundo has played a key role in uncovering a number of scandals, among them embezzlement by the commander of theGuardia Civil, accusations ofinsider trading andtax fraud by the governor of theCentral Bank of Spain and aspects of theBárcenas affair.[20] Investigative reporting by the staff ofEl Mundo also revealed connections between the terroristGrupos Antiterroristas de Liberación (GAL) and theSocialist administration ofFelipe González, revelations that contributed to his defeat in the1996 elections.
In October 2005,El Mundo revealed that NaziAribert Heim (aka "Doctor Death") had been living in Spain for 20 years, probably with help from theODESSA network, in collaboration withOtto Skorzeny, who had helped set up one of the most important ODESSA bases of operation in Spain, during the rule ofFrancisco Franco.[21]
After the11 March 2004 Madrid train bombings, the newspapersEl Mundo andLa Razón, the regional television channelTelemadrid and theCOPE radio network alleged that there had been inconsistencies in the explanations given by the Spanish judiciary about the bombings. Other Spanish media, such asEl País,ABC and theCadena SER radio network, accusedEl Mundo and the other media of manipulation over this issue. The bombings and the results of the subsequent judicial inquiry are still debated in Spain today.[22]
The circulation ofEl Mundo rose in the 1990s. It was
In 2001El Mundo had a circulation of 291,000 copies[25] and it was 312,366 copies next year.[26] The paper had a circulation of 300,000 copies in 2003, making it the third best selling newspaper in the country.[27]
Based on the findings of the European Business Readership SurveyEl Mundo had 11,591 readers per issue in 2006.[28] Its circulation between June 2006 and July 2007 was 337,172 copies.[10] The 2007 circulation of the paper was 337,000 copies.[2] It was 338,286 copies in 2008[29] and had 200,000 readers for the printed edition in 2009.[30] The circulation of the paper was 266,294 copies in 2011.[31] In April 2020 the newspaper had 51,526 readers of the printed edition.[32]
El Mundo (elmundo.es) is currently the seconddigital newspaper in Spanish.[24] It was previously in the lead afterEl País introduced a payment system for access to the contents of its electronic version. It had 24 million unique web visitors per month in 2009.
Many online readers are in Latin America, and the website has an edition for the Americas.[30] However, digital expansion has done little to offset the decline in revenues from Spanish advertisers since 2008.[4][5]The newspaper aims to increase digital profits via a subscription model.[33] It launched a current affairs outlet only accessible to subscription customers, named ORBYT.[33]
