The three main newspapers in Barcelona are optimistic about the future despite the crisis that the internet and new reading habits have plunged the print press into for some years now. This was stated last Tuesday by the directors of La Vanguardia, Jordi Juan; of El Periódico, Albert Saez, and of Ara, Esther Vera, in an event co-organized by the Fundació La Caixa, the Col·legi de Periodistes, the communication agency Intermedia and the Dircom organization. All agreed that there are growth expectations thanks to digital subscriptions and the opportunities generated by new business models.
The written press has been looking for years, not always successfully, for new paths for a business that the irruption of the internet has impacted in its traditional revenue streams: advertising and the sale of copies. Closures and drastic staff reductions have been a constant for a couple of decades in the sector worldwide. The practice of journalism in newspapers has also been deeply affected. Illustrative is the phrase uttered before his death by the journalism legend Ben Bradlee, who was editor of The Washington Post during the Watergate era: "My journalistic life ended before the internet. Thank goodness!
This global media crisis ---some have called it a perfect storm--- has also undermined its credibility, largely due to the phenomenon of fake news amplified through social networks. Other threats to the journalism profession are already looming on the horizon through robotization in news writing.
Illustrative is the phrase uttered before his death by the journalism legend Ben Bradlee, who was editor of The Washington Post during the Watergate era: "My journalistic life ended before the internet. Thank goodness!Juan, Saez, and Vera conspired at Palau Macaya to warn that their newspapers are not only not going to throw in the towel, but are beginning to reverse the biggest crisis in the history of newspapers. All three have already implemented their digital subscriptions. Free access to information is now very limited and they are convinced that readers are willing to pay in exchange for quality information.Little by little, this process advances.
The director of La Vanguardia insisted that now the possibilities of growth "are real" and that in his newspaper online advertising already surpasses that of paper. The director of El Periódico agreed and added that newspapers must continue doing journalism. "When we do it, it works," he said. The director of Ara highlighted that today, newspapers resemble a 24-hour television channel and that they must adapt to a technology that has "run them over."
The newspaper business is indeed facing some paradoxes that have shown its feet of clay. One is that newspapers have never been read as much as they are today, but sales have plummeted. Before the Internet, advertisers were charged millionaire rates. Online advertising has ended this model. "Before we sold advertising wholesale, and now, retail," Saez illustrated. And paper cannot be given up, because the printed newspaper is still the mainstay of the brand, the one that gives it credibility. This forces publishing companies to bear the heavy burden of structural costs such as printing plants, paper purchases, and distribution channels.
As was foreseeable, the presence of Antonio Franco, former director of El Periódico who passed away a few days ago, was constant. Franco was a director who revolutionized the press in this country in the late 70s, when he founded the Grupo Zeta newspaper and promoted a model in which the design of news with photos and larger headlines than was customary gained great prominence. It was a model used by the then-called sensationalist press and which El Periódico employed without sacrificing the rigor of information. Over time, all newspapers ended up adopting that model.
Franco never stopped innovating in his years ---in two stages--- at the helm of the newspaper. He promoted the Catalan edition of the newspaper and when the Internet arrived, he did not shy away. He faced the challenge and led the adaptation of El Periódico to new technologies, but unfortunately that revolution was no longer his. I was fortunate to work many years under his direction and learn from his professionalism and demand for good journalism. The newsroom of El Periódico in the 90s was in many aspects something like the dream team of the written press.
The Internet took it away, like so many other things. Now, it's up to the new generation of directors, like Jordi Juan, Albert Saez, and Esther Vera, to pick up the baton from their predecessors and the spirit of good journalism embodied by Antonio Franco, to change the history of the press and, unlike Bradlee, to be glad that their career began with the Internet.