Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK
For members

SPAIN EXPLAINED

A foreigner’s guide to understanding the Spanish press in five minutes

Want to decipher the different political biases in the Spanish press? Eager to find out which newspaper you'll enjoy reading while improving your Spanish? Here's everything that's interesting and important about Spain's newspaper landscape.

Published: 26 January 2022 10:31 CET
Updated: 9 May 2023 10:43 CEST
SPAIN-PRESS-SUMMARY
Want to find out more about Spain's complex media landscape? Here are the main things you need to know. (Photo by JAVIER SORIANO / AFP)

Like almost any other democracy in the world, Spain has a range of newspapers that stretch across the political spectrum. In fact, according to the association Editores de Diarios Españoles (Editors of Spanish Dailies), there are over 100 published in Spain alone, with a total daily circulation of over 2 million copies between all its national, regional, and local titles. 

Although a flurry of newspapers were born at the end of the Franco dictatorship and during the transition period, and the free press held up as the backbone of Spanish democracy, even Spain’s relatively young media ecosystem has been unable to avoid the overall global trend in falling newspaper readership.

Whereas in 2009 16.4 million Spaniards picked up a newspaper every day, in 2022 that figure had shrunk to 5.6 million daily readers.

Spain is in essence joining the global shift towards digital, with fewer paper copies sold every year and all the leading national newspapers and many regional dailies turning to a subscription-based model to survive. There are now 3.6 million subscribers to digital newspapers in Spain, including The Local.

Interestingly, although Spanish newspapers are designed and published in tabloid format, the sensationalist reporting you might see in British tabloids is (largely) absent from the Spanish media landscape.

To help you understand and navigate la prensa española (the Spanish press), The Local has broken down the main periódicos (newspapers) in Spain, their editorial lines, history, and the differences between them:

spanish newspapers
Front pages of Spanish newspapers dedicated to the 2017 Barcelona terror attacks. Photo: GABRIEL BOUYS /AFP
 


El País

Founded just six months after the death of Franco, El País (meaning ‘The Country’) is the newspaper with highest circulation in Spain. El País is considered the most progressive newspaper in Spain, the editorial line is largely social democrat and almost always supportive of PSOE.

Perhaps the most respected and well-known Spanish newspaper abroad, El País is the only big Spanish daily with an English-language edition. That being said, even El País hasn’t been able to buck the downward trend of print media; in the late-1990’s the left-wing paper sold almost 450,00 copies daily, but by 2016 that number had shrunk to 185,000.

El Mundo

Spain’s second biggest newspaper, El Mundo is also considered one of Spain’s print sources of record. Founded in 1989, El Mundo has ten regional editions with headquarters in Andalusia, Valencia, and the Balearics, among others. 

Editorially, El Mundo is broadly centre-right and critical of PSOE and Podemos, as well as nationalist and separatist groups in the Basque Country and Catalonia.

Although it leans right editorially, El Mundo (The World) reporters have played their part in uncovering several big political scandals over the years, including Guardia Civil corruption, fraud by the governor of the Bank of Spain, and the paper played a role in the fall of Felipe González’s socialist government in the 1996 election.

ABC

ABC has much more history than both El Mundo and El País, founded in Madrid in 1903. It’s conservative editorially and a staunch defender of the Spanish monarchy, also known for its full-page photographic front pages which catch the eye at newspaper stands across Spain.

It is also distributed in Latin America, and is often the Spanish language newspaper of choice for exiled Cubans and Venezuelans. Interestingly, for a time during the Civil War there were two editions of ABC: one in Madrid that supported the Republicans when the headquarters were taken over, and another in Sevilla supportive of the nationalist cause. 

La Vanguardia

The oldest of all Spanish newspapers, La Vanguardia (Vanguard) was founded in Barcelona in 1881. Its conservative editorial line meant it was left alone during Franco’s dictatorship at a time when many other newspapers were forced to support the regime, and the paper has endured as one of Spain’s best-selling daily newspapers that focuses particularly on regional and separatist issues, remaining a favourite among Catalonia’s middle classes.

La Razón

The youngest of Spain’s big five newspapers, La Razón (The Reason) was founded in Madrid in 1998 and has an economically liberal, socially conservative editorial line. La Razón has had its fair share of controversies over the years, including most recently in 2015 when it published a photoshopped picture of a Canadian Sikh man and linked him to the 2015 Paris terror attacks. 

El Diario

An online title founded in 2012, El Diario has a progressive editorial stance and is read by the academic and middle class left. Edited by Ignacio Escolar García, El Diario was born after Público (also founded by García) after it ceased to print and is staffed by many former Público journalists. El Diario is a partner of the Guardian newspaper. 

El Confidencial 

Another digital paper, El Confidencial is an old school online newspaper, if that’s possible, starting back in 2001. Its coverage has a financial and economic focus, with lots of political analysis, and has a broadly liberal editorial outlook. El Confidencial increased its international reputation for its role in The Panama Papers leaks.

El Español

Even though it only launched in 2015, El Español was the most read digital newspaper in Spain in 2022. Set up by the former head of El Mundo Pedro J. Ramírez through equity crowdfunding, it produces a huge amount of digital content, with an emphasis on politics. It could be defined as being a centre-right publication. 

Regional titles

Anyone who has spent any time in Spain knows how varied and distinct its regional identities are. This translates to dozens of newspapers too, with Spain having a more influential, effective and well-read local newspaper market than most other European countries. 

Often these regional titles are aligned editorially with political movements, or even separatist or nationalist ideology, and printed in regional dialects. The big hitters are El Periódico de Catalunya, which has built a respectable readership among young left of centre people in Catalonia, and prints in both Spanish and Catalan, as well as Gara, a Basque/Spanish language newspaper founded in 1999 that was born after the long-running daily paper Egin was closed down due to its links to separatist group ETA, Gara has since softened its stance somewhat but still has a distinctly nationalist, anti-Madrid editorial stance. 

Other notable mentions are La Voz de Galicia, Heraldo de Aragón, El Correo in the Basque Country, Las Provincias in the Valencia region, Diario de Avisos in the Canary Islands, Diario Sur in Andalusia, El Diario Montañés in Cantabria, Hoy in Extremadura and Última Hora in the Balearics.

Sports newspapers

Similarly, anyone who has spent time in Spain knows that perhaps the only thing that trumps regional or political affiliations are football teams. Simply put, the Spanish are football mad, and sports newspapers are absolutely huge in Spain.

spanish sport newspapers
Sports newspapers are more read by Spaniards than regular news dailies. (Photo by GABRIEL BOUYS / AFP)

The major sports papers in Spain are MARCA and Diario AS, which support Real Madrid. There are two Barça biased papers, Sport and El Mundo Deportivo, which have a sizeable but smaller readership outside of Catalonia.

MARCA is the most read newspaper – of any kind, sports or not, national or regional – anywhere in Spain. A staggering 2,500,000 read MARCA daily, not only for their football analysis but for the ongoing soap-opera style commentary of the rivalries between Spain’s biggest clubs. Not only is it by far Spain’s most read newspaper, it’s also one of the oldest: MARCA was founded in 1938, during the Spanish Civil War, and is a sister publication of El Mundo.

Owned by the same group that controls El País, AS is primarily a football publication, with a particular focus on the Madrid teams. There are, however, other bureaus across Spain, and in 2012 the newspaper launched an English language online edition that is widely cited in the English football media.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

LEARNING SPANISH

Do people in Spain actually use the formal ‘usted’ form anymore?

It was once common in Spain, but nowadays the formal 'usted' (you) form is rarely used besides in some pretty specific situations. So why is the more informal 'tú' form becoming ever more dominant among Spaniards?

Published: 14 May 2024 11:12 CEST
Updated: 14 May 2024 12:58 CEST
Do people in Spain actually use the formal 'usted' form anymore?

If you live in Spain or spend time here, you’ve probably heard the word tú (you) a fair bit. It’s one of the very first words you learn when learning Spanish, and pretty crucial (obviously).

But you may have also occasionally heard Spanish speakers using the word usted (also meaning you) from time to time too.

It’s far more likely that you hear tú in Spain, but perhaps if you’ve heard a respectful younger Spaniard talking to an elderly neighbour, or their boss on the phone, or even watched something like a political debate or interview on TV, you probably heard usted used.

Similarly, if you have noticed usted being used while out and about in Spain, it could well have been from the large Latino population in Spain, and it’s likely that you heard Colombians, Venezuelans or other Latinos saying it.

READ ALSO: Why Spain has allowed regional languages to be spoken in Congress

Though they do sometimes use it, the use of usted among Spaniards is slightly different, much rarer, and saved for select circumstances.

In fact, it’s becoming so rare in Spain that some feel its usage is dying out completely, if it hasn’t already.

So, what’s going on here?

Usted vs tú

Firstly, let’s start with a definition. According to the Real Academia Española (RAE) usted is a:

“Form which, in the nominative, in the vocative or preceded by a preposition, designates the person addressed by the speaker or writer… [used] generally as a polite, respectful or distancing address.”

Eg) disculpe, ¿sabe usted dónde está el hospital? (excuse me, do you know where the hospital is?)

In understanding the usted form specifically in Castilian Spanish – Spanish spoken in parts of Latin America it can be slightly or very different, depending where you are – that last part of the definition is key: “generally as a polite, respectful or distancing address.”

It’s worth noting that with usted the verbs are conjugated as if they were third-person singular (el as in he or ella as in she), so it’s usted sabe instead of tú sabes. 

Usted is a form used to show respect or seniority: that you understand there’s a hierarchy (in which usted is at the top, so for example when speaking to your boss or someone interviewing you for a job), but also occasionally to mark social distance between two people (because tú could be considered overly friendly in certain situations) and then, finally, it’s also used more generally to show respect in terms of seniority, like when speaking to an elderly person.

Tú vs usted in Spain

Respectfulness is the key word here. In short, if you hear usted used in Spain, it’s probably for a reason.

In Spain, usted is generally only ever used with authority figures, the elderly and in some formal and/or professional settings, but many Spaniards will just skip over it and use the tú form. Tú can be used with everyone else: your friends, partners, neighbours (around your age or younger), siblings, co-workers, kids, and other people you don’t know but are roughly your age or younger.

In fact, in some cases people might actually be offended if you use the usted form because you could be implying that they’re old, a mistake or social faux pas that is somewhat similar to calling a woman señora and then being quickly corrected (usually with a scornful look) that is should be señorita.

In such cases, they may say trátame de tú (treat me as ‘less formal’ you) or me puedes tutear. 

The verb tutear actually means to speak to someone using the more informal tú form. 

The only part of Spain where the plural form of usted – ustedes – is used all the time is the Canary Islands and some parts of southern Andalusia, where locals prefer this form instead of the standard Castillian vosotros (you in plural). That doesn’t mean that they say usted instead of tú in the singular form, this exception only applies to the plural.

Do people actually use the formal usted form anymore in Spain?

Less and less. It’s dying out in Spain, has been for a while, and is now reserved for those rare occasions outlined above. It’s thought by linguistic experts that it began dying out in the 1970s and 1980s.

The use of usted in Castillian Spanish is now very rarely used in casual conversation. In many cases can only be heard in very formal or ceremonial settings, such as in judiciary, the army, or in certain academic culture contexts or events.

In day to day life, usted only really shows up (besides the examples given above) in advertising, something that generally needs to reflect cultural attitudes and keep up with modern day parlance, so now only really uses the usted form in some specific campaigns for financial services or medical products. As such, depending on the context and age of the people involved, you could also hear usted in spoken Spanish in banks and doctors or hospitals.

An article in Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia entitled ‘Usted is dying’ published back in 2012 looked into the disappearance of the formal form in detail. The fact it was published over a decade ago means that, if anything, the trends it discusses have deepened since then and usted is even lesser used than it was then.

“The use of usted has been reserved for very formal campaigns where a kind of protocol respect for the interlocutor is maintained,” Josep Maria Ferrara, founder and creative director of the Paulov advertising agency, told La Vanguardia.

But this was not the case twenty or thirty years ago. A study on the use of tú and usted in advertising at the end of the 1980s showed that the usted form was used for the most part and that only 11 percent of the advertisements analysed used the tú form.

Changing world, changing language?

So, what changed? Secundino Valladares, professor of Anthropology at the Madrid’s Complutense University, says that Spaniards have embraced tú to such an extent “that the phenomenon is now unstoppable; young people, educated in ‘tuteo’ [the use of the tú form] are sweeping to victory with the tú, and as society is dominated by the value of youth… many older people feel flattered if you tú them,” he said.

In Spain in the 1940s and 1950s the usted form was still well established in many parent-child relationships, and in teacher-student relationships until well into the 1970s. But a changing world and progressive, more egalitarian political ideas seems to be partly responsible for the change. Of course, in Spain, this linguistic shift may have something to do with the changing power and interpersonal dynamics of Spanish society as it transitioned from dictatorship to democracy around this time.

Headline by Spanish radio station Cope reads “Speaking to the teacher at school with the usted form must be brought back”.

Sociologist Antonio López pointed to this trend: “The tendency towards a more egalitarian society, towards the loss of hierarchical distances in social relations, means that it does not seem right to establish prior distances and that is why tú is used instead of usted, which for many denotes distance.”

In that sense, the decline in the formal usted form can be understood both in terms of the laid back nature of Castilian Spanish compared with countries in Latin America, but also in terms of language reflecting social change, similarly to how today, in modern day Spain, there is debate over the use of inclusive language and the dominance of the masculine form in Spanish grammar.

READ ALSO: What is Spain’s inclusive language debate and why is it so controversial?

SHOW COMMENTS