Circulation of Spanish newspapers continues to shrink, leaving many dependent on government advertising and a few major businesses. Last year, El País lost 11% of sales in print, and El Mundo 13%. Freesheet 20 minutos is available in print in the biggest cities, and it acts as a purely online brand elsewhere. Regional and local newspapers remained moderately healthy, but many still have to catch up online. Television channel La Sexta, with a broad range of news and current affairs programmes, shows the biggest increase among traditional media, while Cadena SER is the leading radio network online and offline.

Online, pure-players gained ground in the last year at the expense of traditional newspapers. El Confidencial – now profitable – is the most read online-only newspaper in Spain, followed by Público.es, which carries the brand of a print daily that ceased publication in 2012. News start-up Eldiario.es reached break-even early and keeps growing with an extensive network of collaborators and partnerships. But El País and El Mundo continue to be the papers of record in Spain, both offline and online, where they attract audiences three times the size of even the most successful digital-born companies.

Apart from digital newsstands, most publishers continued to keep their online content ad-supported and free for all, with El Mundo operating a generous metered paywall. Digital-born media have experimented with crowdfunding and reader-shareholder schemes and some have promoted memberships and donations in order to reduce dependence on advertisers.

The Spanish Google News portal was removed in December 2014 in response to a state law that intended to tax the service, driven by the newspaper publishing lobby. Google Search still displays ‘In the news’ results and a ‘News’ tab for specific queries, with a limited selection of stories, which is why it is still showing at 15%.

The increase in sharing news can be attributed first to the growth in mobile and social consumption, and secondly to intense public interest in the turbulent political issues in Spain. Television, though, remains a key driver of debate, with Podemos and Ciudadanos as new political actors. Current affairs programmes in particular are widely discussed on social media.

SN, AV, AA