Spanish newspapers

Even in the analogue days, when a newspaper was something you held in your hands, it always seemed like a lot of work to read one. Nowadays I have a newsreader application that collects news from the Internet. It's not as though I'm a glutton for punishment or anything, I only have three feeds: one for local news, a second for serious news and a third that's a bit more frivolous with the sort of stuff that happens on Twitter or Instagram. Nonetheless the number of articles that turn up each day is simply overwhelming.

A podcaster I listen to, in English, promises to summarise all the Spanish news for me so that I don't need to bother. That's not really true but the podcast does, at least, unpack stories where the detail has often escaped me. Last week, as an extra, the podcast did a bit of background on some of the major Spanish newspapers and the rest of this blog is my recap of that

El País is still the biggest selling (however that is now counted) newspaper in Spain. It's a progressive, centre left newspaper. It's a paper of reference in Spain a bit like the Guardian in the UK or The Washington Post in the US. El País is aligned with the Socialist party, the PSOE and generally it gives the current Spanish President, Pedro Sanchez, an easy ride. The two journos who were doing this round-up of the newspapers repeatedly mentioned newspaper editors. It's very true that newspaper editors are much more like personalities here in Spain than they are in the UK. They often turn up on those political chatter shows which is something a bit alien to us Brits. El País has gone through a lot of editors in recent years. The changes took the newspaper a bit to the right, then back to its traditional position and now they have an ex radio personality at the helm. The changes perhaps, reflect how difficult it has been for newspapers to find their way in the new digital landscape.

El País has an English edition. That used to be a source for Spanish news in English but it has recently changed editor and it now seems to limit iitself to doing a few international stories.

El Mundo, is the number two newspaper in Spain. Like el País it is a reliable source of information. Its politics are centre right. If el País is for PSOE voters then el Mundo is for the centrist end of the Partido Popular. The newspaper had a charismatic founder and editor, Pedro J Ramirez, well known for always wearing braces. He was ousted in 2014. El Mundo blundered seriously when it persisted in reporting that the 2004 Madrid train bombings were the work of ETA rather than Al Qaeda and that mistake still taints its credibility for lots of Spaniards.

ABC is a well established and reliable newspaper. It's a long way to the right, politically, but recently it has been softening its stance a little. That's probably to maintain its place as the party of the Partido Popular and to distance itself from the extreme hard right party Vox.

Vox has its newspaper though in La Razón. Again this newspaper is identified with its editor, Francisco Marhuenda, who is one of the people who gets very excited on those political talk shows, has very strong opinions about most things and has been involved in a number of scandals.

Nowadays as well as the newspapers that have print and digital editions there are some that are purely digital. The digital world has changed though and lots of news is no longer free. Most of the recognisable digital stuff has to be paid for. The most successful digital newspaper is one set up by the man who was ousted from el Mundo, Pedro J. Ramirez. It's called el Español and it is more or less in the political centre with a bit of a leaning towards the right and a very critical stance on Pedro Sanchez's government

El Confidencial is the online Spanish equivalent of newspapers like the Financial Times or the Wall Street Journal. It's apparently pretty reliable in its information but, given its potential readership, it's not surprising that it is right leaning.

The current Spanish government is a socialist led coalition. The junior partner in the government is Unidas Podemos which is a a far left political group which even includes the remnants of the old Communist Party. One of its founders was a bloke called Pablo Iglesias and he is closely aligned to the newspaper Publico. The paper is very left biased and it likes to do those sort of digital stories - what was said on the telly or who is slagging off who on Instagram or Twitter.

El Dario is another progressive, left leaning digital newspaper that has straightforward and usually factually correct reporting. Their pay model is a bit like the Guardian - you can have it for free for a while but expect a deluge of messages asking for money till you give in and pay up.

And last, and least, OK Diario. This is a newspaper that, I am told, never checks its facts and is happy to run with anything that supports the right and badmouths the left. The editor Eduardo Inda is, I am told, loud mouthed and boorish.