Toni Cruanyes: "Journalism is a way of life"

Toni Cruanyes (Canet de Mar, 1974) is one of the most well-known faces in Catalan journalism. Although his father would have preferred him to study Law, he ended up studying Journalism and Political Science at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). He first picked up a microphone at Ràdio Canet and earned his first salary with the Informatiu del Maresme, at Ràdio Arenys. In his hometown, "a small paradise," he founded with some friends, all Journalism and History students, the local magazine Àmbit, later La revista de Canet, "it was a journalism school," he explains to The New Barcelona Post. This is the second installment of a series of interviews with fit personalities from Barcelona's civil society that we publish with the support of DIR, the leading gym chain in Catalonia.

Formerly a correspondent in London and Paris, Toni Cruanyes has been presenting TV3's TN Vespre for ten years, and there isn't a day that someone doesn't ask him for a photo when they see him, even in a gym after an interview. He knows it's part of his job, "you enter people's homes at a time of certain intimacy and you have to return this favor they do you," and he appreciates that the viewers he meets on the street respect him when he is with his children. "You won't talk to people, will you?" the eldest often tells him when they leave home. And the youngest greets him when she sees him on TV.

He feels that being a journalist has allowed him to meet personalities like Ian Wilmut, the clonador of Dolly the sheep, or politicians like former presidents Jimmy Carter, Evo Morales, or François Hollande. Also, singer and model Carla Bruni. The jokes Marc Giró makes before the TN take him "a little off script," but what he finds hardest to follow is the weather with Tomàs Molina. In addition, he also writes and won the Josep Pla award with La vall de la Llum (Destino, 2022), where he approaches the story of his grandfather. For now, he is working on the second part, but he is not managing to find the time to finish it.

--- What is the daily life of the presenter of Telenotícies Vespre like?

--- My daily life is very much marked by family life. In the morning, I'm the first one to wake up at home and get everyone going.

--- Despite being the one who goes to bed latest?

--- Yes. I'm the last one to go to sleep and I'm also the first one to wake up. It's my internal machinery, I manage with few hours of sleep. But it's nothing out of the ordinary, I wake up at a quarter to eight and prepare everything so that at eight I can wake the children and go to school. Also because I really like it a lot. From eight to nine in the morning is the time I have with my children and my husband, when we can all be together as a family. Afterwards, there are days when I pick up the eldest and we eat together, and so we have some time for just the two of us. My eldest son is 9 years old and he is probably the one who misses me the most throughout the week.

--- And, after dropping the children off at school?

--- My morning is doing two or three errands I have pending at home. I have to go shopping, I have to clean, I have to try to go to the gym... Then there are work things, some meetings and keeping an eye on WhatsApp. But, above all, it's flipping through newspapers and listening to the radio. I'm an old-fashioned gentleman.

--- Not so much Twitter?

--- I also look at it, but, for me, reading newspapers is more important. It's a moment of pleasure: coffee and a paper newspaper. It means I have some time and I dedicate it to myself. Also, what I do is try to read the information I like the most: international, politics, economy and culture. I delve into it to learn more. Journalism is above all learning.

--- Also as a presenter?

--- It's true that half of my workday has a lot to do with the way we explain things. Every day, I spend an hour and a half, or more, getting dressed, putting on makeup and in front of a camera on set. There's a very aesthetic and theatrical part. But, on the other hand, the work I enjoy the most is the editorial. The peak of this is this coffee reading the newspaper in the morning. And then the discussions we have at work, with the section heads or with the experts on the topics. That is a real luxury, working with an editorial team where there are people who stand out and being able to discuss a topic to then end up deciding how we explain it. It's a brutal source of learning and also of satisfaction.

"I'm the last one to go to sleep and I'm also the first one to wake up. It's my internal machinery, I manage with few hours of sleep. But I like it a lot: from eight to nine in the morning is the time we can all be together as a family"

--- I really like stories that have an explanation or that serve to understand a larger reality. In that sense, what interests me least are events; when something has happened in an apparently fortuitous way, for me, it doesn't have as much interest. However, where I find it hardest to pay attention is in the weather. Look, Tomàs (Molina) does it very well and, moreover, he's very funny explaining things. But I'm capable of listening and then saying: "Oh, now I don't know if I have to take an umbrella or not."

--- This 2024 you will complete ten years presenting TN Vespre. What has been the most difficult?

--- A part of my job consists of deciding how much time you dedicate to each topic, who you send to one place and who to another, how you start and how you finish... Many times this has to do with mechanisms that are not journalistic, but rather logistical. This is the part that I find most tedious. But I have ended up learning to master it. At first, it was too much for me. I spent a couple of years not controlling the news rundown. Now I have the feeling that I master it and, moreover, quite well. Before, I worried a lot about this and, after a while, finally, I was able to focus on what is really important in the work of a news editor, which is to be on top of the information, value it and have your own criteria to stand out from other media, either because you see it as important or because you think it's not worth explaining, or because you think we haven't explained it enough and people need to know it.

--- In addition, the night audience is very specific.

--- When I started presenting the newscast, I was very obsessed with breaking news, with differentiating myself from the midday news, with finding something different from what people had seen throughout the day. But I realized that the natural space for the Telenotícies Vespre is really to summarize the news. To do it well, that is, as well as was previously expected from the next day's newspaper. Many times, people at nine at night already know what has happened, because it has reached them through their mobile phone or they have heard it on the radio; they know something and expect you to organize it for them. Despite platforms, mobile phones, and the multiplication of channels, I believe we are maintaining the natural margin of when I go to sleep or when I wake up as moments to get informed. In the morning, people, above all, listen to the radio and, at night, before going to sleep, they still turn on the television for a summary.

--- Do you see yourself presenting the TN for ten more years?

--- I don't see myself doing the newscast my whole life. But now we have some very cool processes ahead of us, like the new sets we are going to debut before the end of the year or the new news brands of 3Cat. I want to give this extra turn to the news, I really feel like putting all this background to use and seeing how it works. After that, we'll see, professional life is long and you and I will have to work until we are 70. I think we will all have to keep reinventing ourselves.

"Many times people at nine at night already know what has happened, because it has reached them through their mobile phone or they have heard it on the radio; they know something and expect you to organize it for them"

--- I would really like to, but I don't know if I can do it familially. The opportunity to be a correspondent is that you learn many new things because everything is new. You have to rethink everything about the country you are going to, you have to start from scratch with their vision of politics, the economic system, how their hospitals are, how their schools are, or the integration of their most difficult neighborhoods. It's learning everything and this is what's coolest about going as a correspondent.

--- If you could, which country would you choose?

--- I would like the Middle East. It's an area of the world that interests me a lot. Right now, Israel is a very interesting country. But also Turkey, Lebanon, Iran... These are countries that interest me a lot from the point of view of international information. However, I see it as very difficult on a family level.

--- Being one of the most recognized faces of TV3, surely people stop you on the street.

--- Everyone is very kind to me. But it is quite continuous that they make comments. Most are thumbs up and saying "very good, we like you a lot, you do it very well" or things like that. This familiar impact, I take it as a sign that we are doing well. In the end, you do enter people's homes at a time of certain intimacy, they open the door and let you in. Therefore, that favor they do you, you also have to return it when they reaffirm it on the street.

--- Do you detect when someone recognizes you?

--- Many times, yes. People want to be discreet, but, of course, you notice the reaction beforehand. Because you see someone looking at you, it takes a second or two to fully recognize you, and their face is first surprised and, then, they usually smile.

--- Surely you have days when you don't want to greet anyone.

--- People are very respectful when I'm with the children. That is appreciated. On the other hand, when they see that you are alone, they dare more to make comments. Anyway, even so, many also make comments to me with the children, and my eldest son, when we go somewhere, sometimes tells me: "But you won't talk to people on the street, right?".

--- But surely at home they wait to see when you appear on TV.

--- Yes, it makes them laugh. My youngest daughter still greets me when she sees me on TV. The older one, when he was younger, also did it. Now, he goes to sleep when it's time, but, when I arrive, at half past ten at night, I give him a goodnight kiss and many times he is still half awake, waiting for me. Or sometimes he is half asleep, but he wants to tell me something without much sense.

"My youngest daughter still greets me when she sees me on TV. The older one, when he was younger, also did it"

--- My older son told me to be careful when I was sent to Israel this year or to Ukraine last year. "Above all, watch out, be careful," he kept telling me.

--- Are they getting encouraged to become journalists?

--- The girl is still very young, she will turn four now, but the older one really likes sports and would be a good sports journalist. He likes football and, when he plays with Playmobil clicks, he broadcasts the match.

--- You have him quite on track. Do you teach him how to explain plays or project his voice?

--- No. But he already has a knack for it. He has a natural ability to narrate. The emotional part pulls him a lot and he is able to express emotions very well.

--- So, you won't be the typical father who doesn't let his children study journalism.

--- I love journalism. It's a vocation, a passion, and I would almost tell you it's a way of life. If a child of mine likes this, I'll be delighted. I also have to tell you that, as things are now, if one of them told me they wanted to be a journalist, I don't know if that conservative fatherly vein would come out in me, wanting my child not to suffer and wanting to protect them. Really, right now I see that it's very difficult to work as a journalist. Perhaps this part would get to me and I would say: "Have you thought about it carefully? Are you sure?" But what I am convinced of is that you have to study what you are passionate about. And, if you are passionate about journalism, go for it.

--- How did your parents take it?

--- At home, they did understand it because they saw it was something I liked since I was little. But my father would have preferred me to have studied law.

"As things are now, if one of my children told me they wanted to be a journalist, I don't know if that conservative fatherly vein would come out in me, so they wouldn't suffer. Really, right now I see that it's very difficult to work as a journalist"

--- I really liked journalism, but I also really liked to read. I thought about doing print journalism, but the first thing I did was on my town's radio station, Ràdio Canet, and then I saw that I had a knack for public speaking. When I did internships at university and then on TV, I also saw that I expressed myself well in front of the camera, and this led me towards audiovisual. But my initial idea was to write, and even now it's something that I've done whenever I could. For two years I was at the newspaper Avui, it was an opportunity that came my way and I took it. Afterwards I've written books. I still think there are things that need to be written. It's true that I work in a field where documentaries are made, all kinds of audio and video information, but, even so, I believe that some things are never expressed as well as when they are written.

--- Do you still consider making the switch to print journalism?

--- I see it as difficult. But, if I can, I would like to continue writing books, to the extent that I can combine it. From my point of view, it's another way of doing journalism. I don't see myself doing fiction literature; on the other hand, I do believe that it's a good formula to do journalism in the form of an essay, a report, or a story. The last book I wrote (La vall de la Llum) is the story of my grandfather and my approach to his life and how people lived in his time, it's very journalistic. The war, the shortages, the post-war period, a spirit of overcoming, the transition... The determining point was that he died in a geriatric residence during covid. It left a bad feeling for all of us in the family, and telling his story was also a bit therapeutic.

"It's true that I work in a field where documentaries are made, all kinds of audio and video information, but, even so, I believe that some things are never expressed as well as when they are written"

--- I am writing, yes. It is a more memorialistic topic linked to the book about my grandfather's history. It follows the same thread. I thought the first book would serve to settle a debt with my grandfather, and I have found that there are more debts to settle. But I am going very slowly. It is costing me a lot to get the information out. And, on the other hand, family logistics and work do not leave me time.

--- That's what I was going to ask you. How do you manage to write?

--- I wrote the previous two books while doing the TN, I dedicated either a few hours in the morning or a few mornings each week. The last two years, this dynamic has been very difficult for me because I can't find the time. But, well, the project is there. One day or another it will come out. If not this coming year, it will be the next.