RODRIGO TERRASA
@rterrasa
Madrid
PHOTOGRAPHS: ALBERTO DI LOLLI
@adilolli
Wednesday, October 23, 2019 - 02:18
- Share on Facebook
- Share on Twitter
- Send by email
There are two ways to get to the newspaper, just as there are two ways to start reading it: there are those that start at the cover and those that enter through Raúl del Pozo where Umbral was always. Well, getting to the building is a bit similar. The main access is for 12 years in the avenue of San Luis de Madrid and the back door, in a dead end lined by tablecloths and panties that once appeared a lady perhaps disoriented.
- Excuse me, is this about psychiatrists?
-No, madam, this is the wording of THE WORLD.
It's six o'clock in the morning in the newsroom. And surely you have to be a little crazy to be working at this time ... The atmosphere at night in a newspaper resembles that of a dark zoo. "Please refrain from throwing food at the editors," says a sign on one of the pillars of the office, right next to a vignette of Ricardo in which the cartoons of Felipe, Aznar, Zapatero and Rajoy appear painting a graffiti. to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the newspaper: «Without THE WORLD, we would live better». The joke has been stuck there for five years.
The ceiling of the writing is illuminated with panels of fluorescent lights, but at this time they are all turned off except those that light Ana's table, as if Ana's table was that of a surgeon. On the days of the entire night, Ana Carrasco enters at 12 and goes home at seven. At three o'clock she is completely alone in the building. "Occasionally a security partner appears, who has given me more than one scare, but I get along well," he admits. «In winter, yes, I pass cold».
"Please refrain from throwing food at the editors," says a sign on one of the pillars of the office.
The night is spent between publishing the new cover of the web and all its covers and a string of tasks that only journalists will understand, things like changing crumbs , publishing SEO news first thing in the morning or testing the degree . Between exactly 12 and seven, exactly 283 teletypes enter. The first, the injury of a Chicago Bears player in the NFL; the last one, a correction on some data of the bank of Vietnam. Only three emails arrive, usually from correspondents. “There are very quiet nights (the least), nights with activity (most) and nights when the world falls and you have to change all forecasts. The ones who usually give me the most work are Trump and Kim Jong-un, who at that time are usually scrambled . Earthquakes in Southeast Asia or South America are also relatively common and, sadly, there is no month that does not have a shooting in the United States.
A huge watch with the green EL MUNDO logo on the dial shows 6:30 in the morning. They sound the program of Alsina and the vacuum cleaner of María José . She has been cleaning the newsroom for almost 25 years. She has been in Pradillo for 12 years and has been in San Luis for another 12 years, so nobody like her has dusted state secrets for the past three decades . Literally. "I don't notice any of that," he says confidently. «In between so much doll, so much plant and so much paper I don't have time to see anything». María José still remembers when we were twice and they were triple. Also when journalists spent the night at the piano of Toni 2 and not the morning consulting the Chartbeat at the door of their children's school. The accelerated digitalization of the business has advanced the rhythms and at nine o'clock the writing is already being filled.
The first screens that light up are four huge plasma telescopes placed vertically as if they were panels of an airport. One shows the traffic of web readers, another the cover of ELMUNDO.es, another the latest news published and the fourth, Google trends, which are changing color almost hypnotically.
At 10 the first meeting of the day is held. The table is oval and the director, the deputies and those responsible for each section come. There are 11 men and three women. It is like a market of topics in which each one offers its forecasts for the day. Pedro Sánchez has a rally in Jaén, Pablo Casado visits a cattle fair in Badajoz and - speaking of an election campaign - the National Circus Prize is ruled out. The printed version and the digital cover are reviewed. «Does anyone feel aggrieved or do you think your topic is not well treated on the web?» , Asks Joaquín Manso every morning.
There will be two more meetings throughout the day. One at one in the afternoon to discuss the issues of opinion and the faces of the characters that go up and down every day. The other, at 17:30 to plan the web and decide the cover issues, that the art director is drawing in pencil on a sheet. Everything is jargon: the theme that opens, the skirt, the empasillado, a path of ants, the chimney, the rataplán, the roof ...
The newspaper is manufactured between trips to the layout section to paint each page; you fight with the payroll to gain space for advertising; choose the photo; square the headline on the web; calls; policy writers sitting on the carpet with their cell phones attached to their ears; Ricardo's drawing table and Gallego y Rey's; secretaries solving the impossible; manolitos if someone turns years, manolitos if someone wins a prize and more manolitos if EL MUNDO returns to be a leader in the internet; the latest genius of Rodrigo Sánchez on the cover of Paper or Metropolis ; launch a notification with a last minute, a tweet, a story, a video; Tertulias on TV, an applause because yes ... "Does anyone want a coffee?" Enter a famous person who has a digital meeting, today (also) there is grilled chicken in the dining room, students of a school parade photographing journalists as if they were lemurs in the Bioparc. Remember, please, don't throw food at the editors. There is a meeting in the director's office, the TV comes because Bustos or Méndez or Urreiztieta have a live show. "It's seven o'clock and we don't have any pages," he hears. It's half past seven and this text you're reading still doesn't have a model.
The last redecoration of the writing located in the center of the office the team that manages the web and invented the print desk , the section that prepares the print edition of the following day. There each page is delivered when it is closed and, sometimes, the content is uploaded to the internet even before its publication on paper, something unthinkable years ago.
At 23:00 hours the first paper edition closes and the last relay has already been made on the website. Before Ana gets to the newsroom, before Trump and Kim Jong-un start doing theirs, the newspaper travels to Coslada. There is the rotary, in an industrial building that is like the Willy Wonka factory but with ink instead of chocolate . Where most of the print run of THE WORLD, Brand and Expansion is printed, La Razón , Sport or 20 minutes and dozens of newspapers from around the world are also printed. The crisis ended all suspicions.
«Before each newspaper made the distribution in its own car so that the competition did not see the cover of the other; today that is over, ”says Carlos Corralo, responsible for the night production of Editorial Unit. He has been working in printers for 44 years.
-Have you ever heard that 'stop the press!'
-Never. My mission is to reach the kiosk anyway and so far, let's touch wood, we have always arrived.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
Know more- THE WORLD
- Journalism
- media
PERIODISMOEL MUNDO launches Premium: the best content for the most loyal readers
Media: journalist Pepe Oneto dies at 77
MediaRSF demands that the attacks on journalists in Catalonia cease and asks politicians and media for responsibility to reduce tension