La Voz de Galicia
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Berliner |
| Owner(s) | Corporación Voz de Galicia |
| Founder(s) | Juan Fernández Latorre |
| Editor | Santiago Rey Fernández-Latorre |
| Editor-in-chief | Xosé Luís Vilela Conde |
| Founded | 4 January 1882 |
| Political alignment |
Current: Conservatism Regionalism Originally (before 1936): Republicanism Progressivism Galicianism |
| Language | Spanish, Galician |
| Headquarters | A Coruña, Galicia |
| Circulation | 94,844 (2011) |
| Website | La Voz de Galicia |
La Voz de Galicia (English: The Voice of Galicia) is a Spanish daily newspaper owned by the Corporación Voz de Galicia. La Voz is highest circulation newspaper in Galicia and the eighth-highest circulation general-interest daily newspaper in Spain. It is written primarily in Spanish with Galician used in the cultural and opinion sections.[1]
The newspaper was founded in 1882 by Juan Fernández Latorre and is published in A Coruña, Galicia.
The paper has a digital version available in Spanish and Galician, however the Galician version is an automatic translation, the original articles are written exclusively in Spanish.
History and profile
Juan Fernández Latorre founded La Voz de Galicia in 1882 as a republican, progressive and open-minded newspaper. Consolidated in the republican era with a circulation of more than 20.000 daily copies, it was not until the 1960s, when Santiago Rey Fernandez-Latorre, the founder’s grandson took over as manager, that La Voz began its expansion. Under the management of who today is the newspaper’s editor and president of the Corporación Voz de Galicia, the Galician head conquered its greatest challenges: it underwent a complete technical updating renovation, it surpassed the 100.000 copy circulation barrier, it became the 6th leading Spanish newspaper in circulation ranking, it created a system of editions that covers all of Galicia and inaugurated in 1992 an intelligent building which houses the printing plant in Sabon which today is the group’s main headquarters.
In line with this, in the mid 1980s the company went multimedia and acquired eight radio stations, the editorial Biblioteca Gallega (contemporary with the foundation of newspaper), the Galician Yearbook, Voz Noticias, a graphic arts division (Galicia Editoral, S.A.) and a production studio called Voz Audiovisual, one of the first production companies in the country. In the early 1990s, the Instituto Sociolóxico Galegos (Sondaxe) started its activities and Radio Voz began to broadcast. In 1997 the Fundacion Santiago Rey Fernández-Latorre WAs established as a means of ensuring the continuity of the ownership and the editorial line of La Voz de Galicia and its corporation. One year later, Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, inaugurated the museum of the press and graphic arts built in the headquarters of La Voz, whose list of titles gathered close to 5.000 copies of different newspapers and magazines and 38 types of printing machines.
In May 2010, La Voz launched its Digital Terrestrial Television project: V Televisión. The Fundación Santiago Rey Fernández-Latorre manages, besides the museum, the programs of Voz Natura and Prensa-Escuela which, on one side tries to involve the education community in the recovery and defense of natural environment, and on the other, encourages the use of the newspaper as an educational tool which contributes to build critical awareness among schoolchildren; Master in Journal Edition (MEP), Master in Audiovisual Production and Management (MPXA) and the Post grad course on International Commerce of Audiovisual Contents (CICA).
In 1993 the circulation of La Voz was 107,446 copies.[2][3] The paper had a circulation of 111,000 copies in 2003.[4] The 2008 circulation of the paper was 103,341 copies.[5] It was 94,844 copies in 2011.[6]
Political allegiance
Like the majority of Galician newspapers, La Voz de Galicia relies on regional government subsidies for its survival, heavily compromising its editorial independence.[7] Following the 2009 Galician parliamentary elections in which the center-right People's Party of Galicia defeated the center-left Spanish Socialist Workers' Party-Bloque Nacionalista Galego coalition, the newspaper was awarded more than 4 million euros in subsidies. Other Galician media, like the defunct newspaper Xornal de Galicia, born to compete with La Voz de Galicia, claimed that this was reward for its political bias towards the ruling People's Party.[8][9] This kept the paper alive, while other media disappeared because they lacked the financial support that they were entitled to as Galician language papers (the Spanish government provides extra funding to regions with several official languages in order to support their promotion).[10]
Editions
The newspaper publishes 14 editions every day, carried out by journalists from 26 different areas and resources (branch offices, sub-branches and correspondents) which allows the reader to obtain the closest information on everyday reality. Each edition is singled out by an insert within the newspaper which gathers all local information, a specific first page for each area and targeted information within the main body of the newspaper, specially in the sports section. This personalization implies the production of nearly 400 daily pages processed by the editorial staff and the printing department, of these the reader gets to see an average of 96 pages in his local edition.
With the opening of the Ferrol branch office in 1953, La Voz de Galicia was the first newspaper to undertake this editorial system which served as model to other newspapers outside Galicia. From that moment on, the expansion was carried out in various phases. In 1959 the Santiago branch was opened, in 1964 the one in Carballo and so on up to 1978, when the seven Galician cities had their own local editorial office. By 1990 the other main regions were also covered and short after the editorial staff office in Madrid was inaugurated, city that has a numerous Galician population.
This territorial organization allows La Voz de Galicia to have representatives in these areas in order to meet the necessities and interests of each city and region: the delegates are who manage the manpower appointed to each branch office and who defend the interests of the Corporación Voz and its readers.
La Voz has also a weekly supplement, Golfiño.[11]
Digital edition
On 17 May 2000, coinciding with the celebration of the Día das Letras Galegas (Galician Literature Day), honouring the figure of the Galician writer, Manuel Murguía, La Voz de Galicia launched its web page. During these past years, lavozdegalicia.es has been consolidated as Galicia’s most visited website and one of Spain’s best reference sources in digital newspapers, with 25 million visits monthly and 2 million exclusive users. Part of its success lies in the fact that the constant updating of information complies with the users needs for an accurate and speedy news development. From the early morning hours till way past midnight, navigators can keep up with last minute information. And the visitors can not only keep themselves informed on what’s occurring in the world, but can also go beyond the news. The team of professionals in charge of the web, add on to the most relevant news events of the day, photographs, text analysis, computer graphics, photo galleries, videos or links to other websites.
The desire to adapt to the society’s needs for complete up-to-date news has caused a sustained growth of audience during these last years, where significant increases in visits are registered in those days of intensive information, as occurred, for example, during the Galician elections in 2009, which caused a record of 245.000 visits the day following election day.
Besides news articles, La Voz’s web makes use of interactive and multimedia formats normally applied in the Internet, to elaborate special reports that give visitors a follow-up of the top stories, such as the celebration of elections, war conflicts o notorious sports events.
The web also offers its users different services, such as weather forecasts which are updated four times a day, stock quotes in real time, the newspaper’s library or the Buscavoz, which is the web’s search engine to locate a specific event or article. It also counts with a specific version for mobile devices and it hosts a community blog, where readers can participate with their opinions.
Commentators and columnists
Intellectuals Manuel Murguía and Emilia Pardo Bazán were commentators during the early stage of the newspaper. Other contributors included Santiago Casares Quiroga, Andrés Martínez Salazar, Manuel Aznar (grandfather of Spanish President José María Aznar), Ramón Otero Pedraio, and Castelao. The Second Republic (1931–1936) is considered to have been the paper’s golden age as far as its columnists are concerned, with articles written by some of the period’s most relevant personalities, such as Josep Pla, Julio Camba, Gregorio Marañón, Azorín and Ramón Pérez de Ayala.
During the 1950s the readers were able to enjoy the comments written by Alvaro Cunqueiro, as well as those provided by international commentators such as Walter Lippman and Augusto Assia. Afterwards, during the transition, they were able to appreciate the works of Francisco Umbral, a well-known Spanish writer.
The over one hundred columnists and commentators who collaborate with La Voz follow the same pluralistic line, including Xavier Alcalá, Xaquín Alvarez Corbacho, José Ramón Amor Pan, Manel Antelo, Xosé Carlos Arias, Xosé Luis Barreiro Rivas, Ignacio Bermúdez, Roberto Blanco Valdés, Xosé Carlos Caneiro, María Canosa, Manuel Luis Casalderrey, Jorge del Corral, Isaac Díaz Pardo, Federico Fernández de Buján, Lourenzo Fernández Prieto, X.L. Franco Grande, Victor F. Freixanes, Juan Gómez-Jurado, Uxío Labarta, Inma López Silva, Marina Mayoral, José Luis Meilán, Juan J. Moralejo, Pablo Mosquera, Miguel Anxo Murado, Gonzalo Ocampo, Fernando Onega, José Manuel Otero Lastres, Gonzalo Parente, Ventura Pérez Mariño, Ramón Pernas, Albino Prada, Andrés Precedo Ledo, Carlos Reigosa, Ernesto Sánchez Pombo, Yashmina Shawki, Inocencio F. Arias, Domingo Bello Janeiro, José C. Bermejo Barrera, Manuel Blanco Desar, Jaime Concheiro, Celso Currás, Manuel Fernández Blanco, Esperanza Guisán, Javier Guitián, Pedro González-Trevijano, Ramón Irigoyen, Antonio Iaquiero, Arturo Maneiro, Manuel Menor Currás, Victor Moro, Carlos Nárdiz, and José Antonio Vázquez Taín.
References
- ↑ Seth Lewis (15 March 2006). "Delivering the News in Two Languages". Nieman Reports. Retrieved 7 June 2015.
- ↑ Edward F. Stanton (1999). Handbook of Spanish Popular Culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 199. Retrieved 22 February 2015. – via Questia (subscription required)
- ↑ "The Daily Press". Contenidos. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
- ↑ "World Press Trends" (PDF). World Association of Newspapers. Paris. 2004. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
- ↑ Alan Albarran (10 September 2009). Handbook of Spanish Language Media. Routledge. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-135-85430-0. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
- ↑ Figures covering July 2010 to June 2011 in Spain, Oficina de Justificación de la Difusión. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
- ↑ Os medios de comunicación galegos
- ↑ Article in Xornal de Galicia 14 August 2009.
- ↑ Historia de la empresa de La Voz de Galicia
- ↑ A Nosa Terra goes digital 1 September 2010.
- ↑ Antonio J. Gil González (2011). "Comics and the Graphic Novel in Spain and Iberian Galicia". CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture. 13 (5). Retrieved 30 December 2014.
External links
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