| El periódico global ("The global newspaper") | |
 | |
 El País newspaper (16 February 2015) | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Compact |
| Owner | PRISA |
| Founders | |
| Publisher | Ediciones El País, S.L. |
| Editor-in-chief | Jan Martínez Ahrens[1] |
| Associate editor | Miguel Jiménez |
| Managing editor | Mónica Ceberio[2] |
| Founded | 4 May 1976; 49 years ago (1976-05-04) |
| Political alignment | Center-left[3][4][5][6] |
| Language | Spanish Portuguese (online only, discontinued)[7] Catalan (online only) English (online only) |
| Headquarters | Madrid, Spain |
| Circulation | 52,024 Average print circulation (2024)[8] 403,840 news suscribers (as of December 2024)[9] |
| Sister newspapers | Cinco Días Diario AS |
| ISSN | 0213-4608 |
| Website | elpais |
El País (Spanish:[elpaˈis]ⓘ;lit. 'The Country') is a Spanish-languagedaily newspaper inSpain.El País is based in the capital city ofMadrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomeratePRISA.[10] It is the first-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain as of December 2017[update].[11]El País is the most read newspaper in Spanish online,[12] and is one of the Madrid dailies considered to be a nationalnewspaper of record for Spain (along withEl Mundo andABC).[13] In 2018, its number of daily sales were 138,000.[14]
Its headquarters and central editorial staff are located in Madrid, although it is present in other Spanish cities likeSeville,Valencia,Bilbao, andSantiago de Compostela,Barcelona. It also has bureaus located inMexico City,Bogotá,Santiago, andWashington, D.C., and a reporting team inBrussels.El País produces an America edition with subeditions forMexico,Colombia,Chile, andArgentina.El País English is a selection in English of articles from all of its editions. In 2024, El País developed a US edition,El País US, aimed at Hispanic readers, providing news and stories that help them interpret their reality and aspirations.[15][16]
El País was founded in May 1976 by a team atPRISA which includedJesus de Polanco,José Ortega Spottorno, andCarlos Mendo.[17][18] The paper was designed by Reinhard Gade and Julio Alonso. It was first published on 4 May 1976,[19] six months after the death of dictatorFrancisco Franco, and at the beginning of theSpanish transition to democracy. The firsteditor-in-chief of the daily wasJuan Luis Cebrián.[20]El País was the first pro-democracy newspaper within a context where all the other Spanish newspapers were influenced by Franco's ideology.[21] The circulation of the paper was 116,600 copies in its first year.[22] It rose to 138,000 copies in 1977.[22] In 1978,El País suffered afar-right terrorist attack due topolitical upheaval. Four people were injured, two greatly, and one died. The building also suffered structural damage.[23]
El País filled a gap in the market and became the newspaper of Spanish democracy, for which roleEl País was awarded thePrince 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 newspaperInformaciones. Like many other Spanish journalists of the time he had worked forDiario Pueblo (meaningPeople's Daily in English) which was a mouthpiece for the Francoistsindicato vertical. Its reputation as a bastion of Spanish democracy was established during the attemptedcoup d'état by Lieutenant ColonelAntonio Tejero of theGuardia Civil on 23 February 1981. During the uncertain situation of the night of 23 February 1981, when all members of parliament were held hostage in the Congress building and with tanks on the streets ofValencia, and before the state television station could transmit a speech by KingJuan Carlos I condemning the coup,El País published a special edition of the newspaper calledEl País, for the Constitution. It was the first available daily paper during the situation with a pro-democracy position. It called on citizens to demonstrate in favor of democracy, and was widely discussed in the news media so much so that the director ofEl País, Juan Luis Cebrián, called the then director ofDiario 16,Pedro J. Ramírez, in order to propose that both newspapers work on a joint pro-democracy publication; 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 electoral victory of theSpanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in 1982 with an absolute majority and its open support for the government ofFelipe González,[24] meant thatEl País consolidated its position during the 1980s as the Spanish newspaper with the most sales ahead of the conservative leaningABC. In 1986,El País was the recipient of the Four Freedoms Award for the Freedom of Speech by theRoosevelt Institute.[25]
In 1987,El País received the largest amount of state aid.[26] 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 ofEl País. It was also the first Spanish daily to create the role of "Reader's Advocate", and the first to publish a "Style Guide", that has since become a quality benchmark among journalists.[27]El País has also established a number of collaborative agreements with other European newspapers with asocial democratic viewpoint. In 1989,El País participated in the creation of a common network of information resources withLa Repubblica in Italy andLe Monde in France. 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 PSOE government of González polarized both the Spanish political classes and the press of the left and right wings. Since that time, both thePeople's Party (PP) and the media aligned with it have accusedEl País and the other companies owned by PRISA,[28][29] along withSogecable,[30][31] of supporting the interests of the PSOE. Despite this,El País managed to maintain its position as the best sellinggeneralist daily in Spain, although its lead overEl Mundo was reduced. Both in 1993 and 1994, it was the best selling newspaper in the country with a circulation of 401,258 copies and 408,267 copies, respectively.[32] In the period of 1995–1996,El País had a circulation of 420,934 copies, making it again the best-selling paper in the country.[33]
Since October 2001, an English language supplement ofEl País has been included in the Spanish version of theInternational Herald Tribune. This content can also be found on El País' internet site.[34] Also in 2001,El País had a circulation of 433,617 copies,[35] and it was 435,298 copies next year.[36] The paper had a circulation of 435,000 copies in 2003.[37] On March 11, 2004, Spain suffered Europe'sfirst jihadist terror attack with a nearly simultaneous, coordinated bombings against the Cercanías commuter train system of Madrid, Spain, on the morning of 11 March 2004 – three days before Spain's general elections. The day of the attacks, then prime ministerJosé María Aznar, from the ruling conservative party calledEl País editor in chiefJesús Ceberio and gave him assurances that the attacks had been planned and executed by the Basque terrorist group ETA. Despite having no other confirmation, Ceberio ran a front page blaming ETA for the attack, having to correct course the following day. Ceberio, who would continue as editor for three more years, published an editorial piece accusing Aznar of manipulating him.
El País was awarded the World's Best Designed Newspaper for 2006 by theSociety for News Design (SND).[38] Based on the findings of the European Business Readership Survey the paper had 14,589 readers per issue in 2006.[39] The circulation of the daily was 425,927 copies between June 2006 and July 2007.[40] On 24 January 2013,El País published a wrong report about the health status of then Venezuelan PresidentHugo Chávez, with photography of an unknown man from a 2008 YouTube video, provided by the news agency Gtres Online and published on the front page of the paper's print edition as a picture of the Venezuelan president.[41] In 2013,El País started publishing a Brazilian edition inBrazilian Portuguese. On 14 December 2021, the periodical announced that it would be discontinued, citing a lack of "financial sustainability".[42] In August 2019, the newspaper's online edition published an obituary of KingJuan Carlos I even though the former monarch was actually recovering from major cardiac surgery. The El País management explained that the article was published due to an "algorithm error."[citation needed] On 23 May 2024,El País started publishing a US edition in both Spanish and English, aimed at Spanish-speakers residing in the US.[43][44][45][46]
The paper has criticized figures such asChe Guevara, among others. It impugned Guevara's advocacy of armed struggle.[47] The 16 February 2012 edition ofEl País was banned inMorocco due to the publication of a cartoon which, according to the Moroccan authorities, tarnishedKing Mohammed VI's name.[48] In January 2018,El País was sentenced to publish a rectification article after the Catalan TV channelTV3 denounced the newspaper for "harming the TV channel's image" with an article which contained "inaccurate data".[49] A similar case happened between El País and the Catalan businessmanJaume Roures, with El País being sentenced after publishing Roures had 250 million Euros intax havens.[50] According to a report prepared by theParliament of the United Kingdom fake news committee written by thenonprofit organizationTransparency Toolkit and published in April 2018,El País had published "numerous examples of misinterpretations of data sources, use of inaccurate information, lack of attention to detail and a poor research methodology" regarding the alleged Russian involvement in the2017 Catalan independence referendum. It describes their conclusions as "exceptionally deceptive" and concludes "there may be a temptation to use groundless allegations of fake news to support political argument".[51][52]
On 26 September 2007, the paper published theBush–Aznar memo, a leaked transcript of a closed-door meeting between U.S. presidentGeorge W. Bush and Spanish Prime MinisterJosé María Aznar, shortly before the invasion of Iraq.[53] In 2007, the circulation ofEl País was about 400,000 copies.[54] During the premiership of the PSOE'sJosé Luis Rodríguez Zapatero,El País published several articles criticizing the policies of the Zapatero government.[55] This provided opportunities for new entrants to represent the dissentient, anti establishment left, such as the appearance of the daily newspaperPúblico. The 2008 circulation ofEl País was 435,000 copies, making it the second most read daily in the country, only after the sport-dailyMarca.[56][57] It was 267,000 in April 2014.[54]
In March 2015,El País, together with six other international newspapers, founded an alliance called theLeading European Newspaper Alliance (LENA).[58] In June 2016,El País Brasil was found in a list of political newspapers that received money from theWorkers' Party government.[59] Former editor Soledad Gallego Díaz was brought to court after dismissing five employees for what the accusers maintain were political and ideological reasons.[60]
El País has had five editors-in-chief since it was founded in 1976. In February 2014 it was announced that Antonio Caño would be proposed as new editor-in-chief, appointment that was ratified by the Board of Directors and became effective on 3 May 2014. In June 2018,Soledad Gallego-Díaz became the first-ever female editor ofEl País.[61] Gallego-Díaz was replaced by Javier Moreno in June 2020.[62] In 2021,Pepa Bueno was appointed as the new editor.[63] Since June 2025, the editor-in-chief has been Jan Martínez Ahrens.
| Years | Editor-in-chief |
|---|---|
| 1976–1988 | Juan Luis Cebrián |
| 1988–1993 | Joaquín Estefanía [es] |
| 1993–2006 | Jesús Ceberio |
| 2006–2014 | Javier Moreno Barber [es] |
| 2014–2018 | Antonio Caño |
| 2018–2020 | Soledad Gallego-Díaz |
| 2020–2021 | Javier Moreno Barber |
| 2021–2025 | Pepa Bueno |
| 2025- | Jan Martínez Ahrens [es] |
The appearance ofEl País is characterized by its sobriety, in both its treatment of information and its aesthetics. Most pages contain five columns arranged in a neat, clear manner with distinct journalistic sub-categories. Photographs and graphics play a secondary, supporting role to the written word. The newspaper had had the same design from its foundation until the end of 2007, with little change (it previously used only black-and-white (monochrome) photographs, although the current format includescolor photographs and more imaginative design, mainly in the varied supplements), and the sameTimes Roman font.[64]
Opinion polls cited inEl País are all carried out by a separate company calledInstituto OPINA. The newspaper's format was revamped on 21 October 2007 with changes to its printed form, its digital presence on theInternet and the replacement of its historical motto "Independent morning daily" with "Global Spanish language newspaper".[65] The paper began to be published intabloid format.[66] Other notable changes are the inclusion of the acute accent in its title header and the substitution of Times Roman by "Majerit", a specially-commissioned plain serif font.[67]
In the mid-1990s,El País was the second Spanish newspaper to publish an internet edition,El País digital (the first was the Catalan newspaperAvui). On 18 November 2002, 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 thatEl Mundo, which maintained open access to the majority of its contents, became the leading Spanish digital newspaper. After taking this decisionEl País digital was suspended in 2002 by the Oficina de Justificación de la Difusión for four months because of two serious breaches of OJD regulations.[68]
TheEl País digital website opened again on 3 June 2005 with free access to the majority of the contents. Subscription was required to gain access to multimedia content and to the newspaper'sarchive. On 26 November 2013,El País launched a digital edition inPortuguese. In October 2014,El País launched a digital edition in Catalan.[69] In February 2021, it ceased distribution of printed versions in European countries outside of Spain.[70]El País also translates to English a selection of articles from all of its editions. In May 2024,El País launched a US edition,El País US. All its information is produced by a newsroom on the ground, with coverage spanning from New York and Chicago to Los Angeles and Houston.[15][16]
El País produces a number of supplements:
A number of publications issued in installments have also been produced throughout its history.
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. The paper's ideology has been defined by a leaning towardsEuropeanism,progressivism, andsocial liberalism.[71] Politically, it was situated in thecentre-left during most ofSpain's transition to democracy.[22] It regularly criticized theconservative government ofMariano Rajoy (2011–2018) over corruption scandals, economic performance, and a "do-nothing" approach to theCatalan crisis.[72] In the late 1970s and 1980s,El País had close connections with theSpanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE).[24] The paper has repeatedly supported KingJuan Carlos I for his contribution to the consolidation of democracy, especially for his decisive intervention in aborting thecoup of 23 February 1981.[73]
... the country's most powerful media group, which owns the left-leaning El País newspaper ...
A edição em português do EL PAÍS despede-se hoje de seus leitores. Esta edição nasceu em 2013 e durante oito anos informou sobre a atualidade brasileira e mundial. Neste tempo, apesar de ter atingido grandes audiências e um número considerável de assinantes digitais, ela não alcançou sua sustentabilidade econômica, o que levou à decisão por sua descontinuidade.
... Che Guevara [..] belonged to that sinister saga of tragic heroes, still present in the terrorist movements of various types, from the nationalists to the Jihadists, who try to hide the fact they are assassins by claiming to be martyrs, prolonging the old prejudice inherited from Romanticism. The fact that Che Guevara gave his life and sacrificed those of many others does not improve his ideas, that drink from the springs of one of the great totalitarian systems. [..] the only attestable contribution of the insurgent followers of Guevara to Latin American politics was to offer new alibis to the authoritarian tendencies that were germinating on the continent. Thanks to his armed challenge, the right-wing military dictators could present themselves as a lesser evil, if not a inevitable requisite opposing another symmetrical military dictatorship, such as that led by Castro [..] In the four decades that have passed since his death, the Latin American left and, of course, that in Europe, has completely expedited his goals and fanatical methods. To the point where today the only people who commemorate the date of his execution in La Higuera are the governments that subjugate the Cubans or those that invoke Simón Bolívar in their populist harangues.
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| National | |
| Other | |
