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The thinker and urban planner Richard Sennett (in the book Building and Dwelling) recounts that large cities are the ideal space for the development of individual freedoms and the democratic values required by open and prosperous societies. According to a German proverb, originating in the Late Middle Ages and still very popular in Central Europe, "Stadluft mach frei": the city air makes you free.
I felt that myself in 1977, when I was 13 years old and was able to travel for the first time accompanied by my father from our native Badalona to Barcelona.
On the occasion of our first Gamper together, we spent two consecutive days visiting the city. From that precise moment, I fell in love with the streets of El Born, the sobriety of the Eixample, and its beautiful architecture.
But Barcelona captivated me above all for its creative drive, and for that desire for freedom and positive spirit with which its citizens undertake projects, boost the economy in any of its fields, and defend culture as a fundamental backbone of their values.
The New Barcelona Post connects with this passion for explaining life in Barcelona and aims to be the reference medium for offering quality news about the economy and culture of a city that is both a capital and universal, thus strengthening its international position and enhancing its exceptional character as a privileged space for attracting talent.
Like all important cities in the world, Barcelona is now facing a critical period that could determine its future for the coming decades. The city has experienced similar crises, and even tougher situations, but has always ended up being reborn when it has invoked the best of its brand and has been able to instill ambition in its citizens.
Despite current difficulties, Barcelona remains an optimal city in areas such as business activity, tourism, international fairs, higher education centers, biomedical research, gastronomy, or the pleasure of delighting in art and culture. If you are in Barcelona, you have many chances of receiving good news. If you have problems or need ideas to prosper, Barcelona can be the place where everything has a solution.
Beyond geopolitical and social factors, the economy is also determined by a profound psychological aspect. The economy depends heavily on what happens in the minds of citizens and what concerns their anxieties and worries. For reasons known to all, our historical present may end up generating a climate of fear that leads to a tendency to castrate initiatives and business projects. In our newspaper, we will not talk about Covid-19, not because it does not exist or does not concern us, but because the rest of the media already deal with it. For that same reason, in our desire for positivity, we will shun partisan squabbles and petty ideological disputes that poison life without contributing anything.
Due to my professional activity, I have had the privilege of visiting many capitals and cities around the world. Even today, Barcelona seems to me the best place on the planet to live and one of the most optimal to develop a professional career. For this reason, we aspire for The New Barcelona Post to disseminate all that is motivating happening in Barcelona, whether or not it occupies a place on the agenda of traditional media, promoting rigorous and constructive journalism, with the aim of generating a community of restless and demanding readers with whom to share this vision of the city and of journalism.
We will not shy away from any controversy as long as the dispute in question helps us improve the life of the city, but we will unequivocally distance ourselves from journalism that seeks the easy click, gratuitous and unnecessary disputes, and the noisy universe of fake news.
Like any journalistic adventure, The New Barcelona Post does not start from scratch. This new stage would not have been possible without its original configuration, which gave it life. And that was thanks to the brave and happy idea, and the effort and tenacity, of the magnificent journalist and person Ana Aguirre, and her small but tireless team formed by its first director, the poet Enric Boluda, and the digital technology expert Raquel Pérez, as well as the essential support of Foment del Treball. The New Barcelona Post is also the fruit of their legacy and from today we hope to live up to their dreams, ambitions, and demands.
This newspaper will be a reflection of the city that inspires it: a plural universe, with very different opinions, to which we will give a voice no matter how diametrically opposed they may be.
If you want to breathe the unique freedom of Barcelona, you are home. If you like to read good news, written with rigor and quality, and to know opinions and voices of all colors, this is your newspaper.