El Español, the new face of Spanish journalism

Saturday, June 27, saw the first annual general shareholder’s meeting of El Español, a partially crowdfunded Spanish language news startup founded by one of Spain’s best-known newspaper editors.

I attended the event in central Madrid in my capacity as a member of the board of directors. It was attended by many of the 5,600 or so people who have donated more than $3 million, adding to a pot of some $5.6 million donated by the paper’s founder, Pedro J. Ramírez, who was defenestrated earlier this year from his post as editor of El Mundo, the paper he founded in 1989 and which became Spain’s second-best selling daily, uncovering dozens of scandals and government dirty doings over the years.

Aside from the usual business of an annual general shareholders meeting, Saturday was an opportunity to present El Español to a wider public, explaining its goals and modus operandi. It aims to shake up Spanish journalism using a team of around 50 journalists, and will cover international stories, sports, the arts, as well as focusing on Spanish politics and current affairs. An online beta print version is undergoing trials, and a print version will be launched in September. Writing in his blog, Ramírez describes the project a “universal, independent, combative, pluralist, innovative, even-handed, intelligent, Twitter-oriented, and yours.”

I can say that I am proud to have been invited to take part in this historic project, which I am convinced will make a major contribution to Spanish journalism, going some way to inject some independence into a sector that has increasingly fallen under the influence of government and big business. “For El Español, there are no untouchable institutions, no untouchable businesses, no untouchable people; in fact the only thing that is untouchable are the rights of the citizens,” Ramírez told delegates. For my part, I feel free to bring to this project whatever I feel is of interest or value, and that I have not been subjected to any conditions whatsoever.

The team comes from a wide background, representing the political spectrum in Spain. Besides the founding team, the company has been able to successfully cherry-pick journalists from many different legacy newspapers, and has received more than 6,000 resumes. Equally importantly, El Español’s journalists are extremely committed to digital journalism. The mood in the newsroom is very much that of a startup, with everybody keen to get this show on the road. The best is yet to come.

(En español, aquí)