La Vanguardia

History and profile

Beginnings

On 1 February 1881 in Barcelona, two businessmen from Igualada, Carlos and Bartolomé Godó, first published the paper. It was defined as a Diario político de avisos y notícias (Political Newspaper of Announcements and News), intended as a means of communication for a faction of the Liberal Party that wanted to gain control over the Barcelona city council.

La Vanguardia is one of the oldest papers in Spain as well as the only Catalan newspaper that has survived all the Spanish regime changes, from the restoration of Alfonso XII to the 21st century.

La Vanguardia is part of the Grupo Godó. Carlos Godó Valls took over the business in 1931. His death was one year after the death of his wife, Montserrat Muntañola Trinxet, succeeding as president his son Javier Godó Muntañola in 1987.

Title inclusion

From 1939 to 1978, its title included the word Española to accommodate a better state ideology. The paper was one of two major dailies in Francoist Spain together with ABC.

In 1987, La Vanguardia received the second largest amount of state aid. La Vanguardia was published in berliner format until 2 October 2007 when it began to use tabloid format. The daily was awarded the World's Best Designed Newspaper for 1994 by the Society for News Design (SND).

Circulation

The circulation of La Vanguardia was 221,451 copies in February 1970 and 218,390 copies in February 1975. Five years later, the circulation of the paper was 188,555 copies in February 1980.

In 1993, La Vanguardia had a circulation of 208,029 copies, making it the fifth best-selling newspaper in Spain. In 1994 it was the fourth best selling newspaper in the country with a circulation of 207,112 copies.

La Vanguardia had a circulation of 205,000 copies in 2001. Its circulation was 203,000 copies in 2003. Between June 2006 and July 2007 the daily had a circulation of 209,735 copies. The 2008 circulation of the paper was 213,413 copies. It sold 196,824 copies in 2011.

Language

The newspaper has printed daily in two parallel editions, one in Spanish and, since 3 May 2011, another in Catalan. The Spanish name La Vanguardia is used for both editions (rather than L'Avantguarda, the Catalan translation). Before the birth of the Catalan edition, letters to the editor submitted in Catalan were always left untranslated.

La Vanguardia has been open about their use of an automatic translation tool to produce both language editions, claiming that "an average of 80,000 words are translated from Spanish to Catalan or vice versa each day".

Premios Vanguardia

The Premios Vanguardia known in English as the Vanguardia Awards or La Vanguardia Prizes, are annual awards presented by the newspaper. The awards aim to recognise the work of organisations and people who are high achievers in the social, economic, political, or cultural fields. The jury consists of several prominent people, along with members of La Vanguardia's editorial staff.

The awards were created in 2023 by the Godó Group to celebrate the recent 140th anniversary of the newspaper. The inaugural awards were presented at the National Museum of Art of Catalonia in Barcelona in 2023, and attended by the King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain.

2023

In the inaugural edition in 2023, they were presented by the King of Spain, to the following winners:

• Premio Empresaria del Año (Businesswoman of the Year): Sol Daurella
• Premio Empresario del Año (Businessman of the Year): Marc Puig, CEO of fashion company Puig
• Premio Innovación (Innovation): Ignacio Cirac, physicist
• Premio Talento Joven Internacional (Young Talent Award): Bad Gyal, Spanish singer-songwriter
• Premio Cultura (Culture): Lita Cabellut, painter
• Premio Impulso Ciudades (Impulse Cities): Grant Dalton, New Zealand sailor
• Premio In Memoriam: Josep Piqué, Spanish politician, and Juan Antonio Samaranch, Spanish sports administrator

2024

In 2024 they were presented on 16 September by the prime minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez.

• Premio Sostenibilidad (Sustainability): Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO
• Premio Empresario del Año (Entrepreneur of the Year): Gabriel Escarrer, CEO of Melià Hotels Internacional,
• Premio Innovación y Ciencia (Innovation and Science): Mateo Valero, director of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center
• Premio Impulso Ciudades (Impulse Cities): , president of Fira de Barcelona trade fair
• Premio Cultura (Culture): Eduardo Mendoza, writer
• Premio In Memoriam: Joan Oró, biochemist
• Premio Internacional: Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, president of the Anti-Corruption Foundation

Notable contributors

• John Carlin
• Julià Guillamon
• Quim Monzó
• Fernando Krahn
• Pedro Madueño
• Sergi Pàmies

References

References

1. "'La Vanguardia' se editará también en catalán a partir de mayo". La Vanguardia.
2. "Spain Media". Country Studies.
3. Armstrong Crow, John. (2005). "Spain: The Root and the Flower: an Interpretation of Spain and the Spanish People". University of California Press.
4. (1 January 2000). "Más de cien años de historia". La Vanguardia.
5. (2005). "Spanish media facing new media: a challenge to journalists?". International Journal of Iberian Studies.
6. "Country Profile: Spain". Institute of Media and Communications Study.
7. (2013). ""Pregnancy and labour cause more deaths than oral contraceptives": The debate on the pill in the Spanish press in the 1960s and 1970s". Public Understanding of Science.
8. (2014). "All News is Bad News: Newspaper Coverage of Political Parties in Spain". Political Communication.
9. de Mateo, Rosario. (1989). "The evaolution of the newspaper industry in Spain, 1939–87". European Journal of Communication.
10. "The Berliner format". [[The Guardian]].
11. Harcup, Tony. (May 2014). "A Dictionary of Journalism". Oxford University Press.
12. (2011). "Typography and colour: A comparative analysis of the free and paid-for newspapers in Spain". Revista Latina de Comunicacion Social.
13. (23 February 2011). "World's Best-Designed winners (2006)". Society for News Design.
14. (1983). "The Press and the Rebirth of Iberian Democracy". Greenwood Press.
15. "The Daily Press". Contenidos.
16. "Facts of Spain". Florida International University.
17. (October 1999). "The management publishing industry in Europe". University of Navarra.
18. (16 November 2001). "Top 100 dailies 2000". campaign.
19. Schroeder, Roland. (2004). "Interactive Info Graphics in Europe-- added value to online mass media: a preliminary survey". Journalism Studies.
20. (2004). "World Press Trends". World Association of Newspapers.
21. (2009). "Press Freedom and Pluralism in Europe: Concepts and Conditions". Intellect Books.
22. Albarran, Alan. (10 September 2009). "Handbook of Spanish Language Media". Routledge.
23. "Figures covering July 2010 to June 2011 in Spain". Oficina de Justificación de la Difusión.
24. (27 February 2011). "''La Vanguardia'', una mirada al mundo en dos lenguas". La Vanguardia.
25. "Diez años de 'La Vanguardia' en catalán". La Vanguardia.
26. "''La Vanguardia'' en catalán cumple cinco años". La Vanguardia.
27. Abad, Martí. (1 October 2024). "Premios Vanguardia 2024: la opositora rusa Yulia Naválnaya, premio Internacional". La Vanguardia.
28. (30 September 2024). "The President of the Government stresses the importance of protecting the free press to defend democracy with the force of reason and law".
29. (30 September 2024). "UNESCO awarded for its action to protect the ocean".
30. (18 September 2023). "Entrega de la primera edición de los "Premios La Vanguardia"".
31. Abad, Martí. (1 October 2024). "Premios Vanguardia 2024: la opositora rusa Yulia Naválnaya, premio Internacional". La Vanguardia.
32. (24 May 2024). "Navalnaya Receives Vanguardia International Award".