VilaWeb

VilaWeb (Valencian pronunciation: [ˌvilaˈwɛp]) is a Catalan-language web portal and daily news outlet, founded in May 1995 by the journalists Vicent Partal and Assumpció Maresma. It was the first online medium produced completely in Catalan,[1] and the first news media in Spain to be based entirely online.[2]

History

VilaWeb grew out of an online directory in Catalan called Infopista, set up by Partal in 1995. Before embarking on his venture, Partal had been responsible for directing the digital edition of the Spanish magazine, El Temps. Written in Catalan, with the publication of this digital edition in 1994 the magazine was the first media outlet in Spain to establish material and a presence on the World Wide Web.[3]

In 2007 VilaWeb TV was open as a web TV initiative. From this time on the number of videos has been increasing in the website that got a radical change of layout in 2010. VilaWeb TV is also available as a YouTube channel and in iTunes.

VilaWeb is considered to be the leading Catalan digital newspaper with an audience of around 750.000 unique users.[4] VilaWeb is regarded as a quality newspaper being awarded with some of the most important awards in Catalonia such as the City of Barcelona Award in Journalism and the National Award in Journalism.

Content

VilaWeb includes a web directory, local editions, forums and other facilities. It also hosted until 2009 the digital version of the Catalan newspaper El Punt.

The main service it is VilaWeb itself. The newspaper run news from the Catalan countries and all over the world 24 hours a day. There is also special sections on culture, music, technology or economy. News from several news agencies are also available.

Now and then VilaWeb issues articles in other languages, mainly in English.

Ed-op pages in the newspaper consist mainly on a daily article by Vicent Partal and weekly articles from other writers like Marta Rojals, Andreu Barnils, Xavier Montanyà, Pere Cardús or Martxelo Otamendi.

VilaWeb TV presents all the videos produced by VilaWeb. Every week VilaWeb host also L'internauta radio program, broadcast by more than one hundred radio stations across the Catalan Countries.

+VilaWeb is the name of the subscription area of the newspaper. +VilaWeb members got constant information from the newsroom, can create a personal blog and participate in a number of initiatives related to the Citizen Journalism concept. +VilaWeb members pay from 60 to 500 euros a year.

Newsroom

In September 2009 VilaWeb opened [5] a new newsroom, in downtown Barcelona, close to the Rambla. The building hosts the activities of the journalists and also a public space where events and other activities could be done. The newsroom is optimized for live TV broadcast. Following the Open Newsroom concept readers can visit the newsroom that host a very popular shop with books and cultural products.

In 2010 University of Alacant professor Mar Iglesias wrote her PhD about VilaWeb.[6]

Global Edition in English

In January 2014 VilaWeb started a Global Edition in English [7] coordinated by American journalist and editor Liz Castro. According to VilaWeb publishers Global Edition want to become a hotspot of information on Catalonia.

Notes

  1. ↑ Micó & Masip 2009: 125
  2. ↑ Micó & Masip 2009: 121
  3. ↑ Micó & Masip 2009: 120–121
  4. ↑ OJD-Nielsen *
  5. ↑ Flickr *
  6. ↑ pdf * Archived October 7, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ *

References

Micó, Josep Lluís; Pere Masip (2009). "The fight of a minority language against the force of globalization: the case of Catalan on the Internet". In Gerard Goggin and Mark McLelland (eds.). Internationalizing Internet Studies: Beyond Anglophone Paradigms. Routledge advances in internationalizing media studies series, no. 2 (1st hbk edn. of Taylor & Francis e-Library [2008] ed.). New York: Routledge. pp. 112–127. ISBN 978-0-415-95625-3. OCLC 288894064. 
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