The Covid crisis has put the ability to resist and redefine itself to the test of many companies and has precipitated some processes that were already being implemented. Also in the media, where adaptation has taken place at a forced march, in the midst of a storm of audiences
, a revolution in consumer habits
and a general drop in advertising revenue as a result of the stoppage of economic activity. In the words of
Francisco Rosell
, director of EL MUNDO, companies in the sector must now overcome what he called
Noah's Ark syndrome
: "At last the storm has passed and we discovered that we have survived."
Also
Ignacio Escolar
, director of
elDiario.es
, uses a metaphor to describe the feeling that has spread in the profession as a result of the pandemic: "We have gone through a time tunnel, in which we entered 2020, and from which we have It came out as if 10 or 20 years had passed. " But what are those processes that have been accelerated? Well, on the one hand, the digitization of the reader and, on the other, the payment for content. Rosell and Escolar participated this Tuesday in a talk about
Journalism before, during and after the Covid
, which is part of the program of conferences and debates of the
Summer Courses that the Pablo de Olavide University
organized in Carmona (Seville), and which was moderated by the president of the Seville Press Association,
Rafael Rodríguez
.
Rosell explained that the writing of EL MUNDO was caught by the Covid crisis in the midst of a transition to a new
premium
model
and in the middle of a
campaign to attract subscribers.
with which the newspaper sought to guarantee its viability at a time of redefinition of the business in all traditional print media. The head office management decided to maintain the bet despite everything and consolidate its offer of information of differentiated quality, which has served to add 70,000 subscribers, "which is a still modest figure in our ambition but growing day by day" and it allows us to be "optimistic" because it "marks a change in trend," said Rosell, who admitted the "mistake" that was made in the early stages of the technological revolution to convey to readers the message that information
could be accessed for free
.
"We came from kiosk sales of 400,000 copies and the network opened a window for us through which millions of users began to enter. It seemed that we had found the Golden Fleece, but it was a book error that compromised the viability of the companies" , recalls the director of EL MUNDO. "I no longer worry so much
if the paper editions are going to survive more or less
; that will be decided by the readers. I worry that the essence of journalism will be maintained, which is to interpret reality with rigor and prioritize the news. It doesn't matter. the wineskin in which it is sold is the wine that has to be good, "he said. "The information has to be incisive, rigorous and the journalist does not have to be obsessed with being the first but above all with giving the best content," he added.
Rosell told how the EL MUNDO headquarters was practically emptied as a result of the Covid protocols and how 50% of the workforce is still teleworking.
But, although there are tools that allow
agility to telecommute
when necessary, he defended the synergies and teamwork of the newsrooms.
The journalist, who recalled that he started in the profession as a fellow of
El Correo de Andalucía
, believes that the pandemic has also been an occasion for the revaluation of the power of brands and "journalism with signature", because the reader, "more demanding ", he looks for" references "in a world highly intoxicated by social networks and fake news," that if they are false they are not news ".
Ignacio Escolar agreed with Rosell on
the perverse effect of social networks,
which have become "a polluting industry." The director of
elDiario.es
used the words of the filmmaker
Nacho Vigalondo
to compare the first users who started using social networks "with those first smokers who started using tobacco without knowing that it caused cancer." "Society was not prepared for the effect that social networks would cause; it did not have the antibodies to protect it from certain uses and undesirable effects." "For a long time the debates on the networks have been foreign to the people," he concluded on this matter.
Escolar also believes that the obsession with accessing
massive audiences in digital editions
did a lot of damage
, to the point that publishing companies offered content on their websites that would never have been put on paper due to lack of quality. And, "when readers are measured by weight, the one who commands is the advertiser," he said.
The director of
elDiario.es
also spoke of
the "subscriber dictatorship"
as one of the risks of the partner model implemented by his head. And the
"Snow White mirror"
effect
that leads readers to want to read only what is right and fits their opinions and also their prejudices. "You have to oppose even your readers," he insisted. But even so, he is "convinced that a good time is coming for journalism: something very close to a golden age."
"Journalists are administrators of a foreign right that corresponds to citizens," recalled Rosell, who claimed the role of the media as
"an umbrella to facilitate debate,"
a framework that favors a "climate of understanding" in a moment in which "populisms try to discredit the press as an intermediary in the management of information."
The tension and polarization are not exclusive to our time, he pointed out, recalling the bitter farewell of an
Adolfo Suárez
harassed in his party and in the media, but "quality journalism, which provides added value, is a guarantee for the democratic states in times of enormous confusion ".
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