The director of EL PAÍS, in a conversation with readers: "We need to reach out to young people on their channels and speak to them in their langu
Spain“We are active in journalism,” says Martínez Ahrens in an auditorium of more than 200 people in Barcelona.
Meeting | Jan Martínez Ahrens, with subscribers from Barcelona
The director, appointed four months ago, opened the debate by recalling the values that govern EL PAÍS—“democracy, dialogue, consensus”—which have not changed in its half-century of history. “Our tradition allows no room for change or sudden changes.” Among those obligations, he defended the need to portray the complex current situation, in which “Vox is the main political force for people under 35.” “We must confront the far-right phenomenon; we must talk to them, with the precautions of serious journalism,” argued the director, who insisted that “it's not about giving a platform to those who generate hate speech,” but rather about not hiding the reality.
In response to subscribers' concerns about the strategy for reaching these young people, Martínez Ahrens asserted that this is also a concern for the newspaper's management. "We have never been a youth newspaper," the director admitted, but noted that EL PAÍS has three million subscribers on YouTube, making it a leader in Europe. "The new networks generate answers before they ask for them and close off the universe of diversity ," he analyzed, referring to the magma in which they operate. And he advocated "being on all platforms" and making the effort to speak to them in "the new languages" used by younger people, in a world where "there is a link between misinformation and radicalization." "I've heard 20-year-olds say in my classes 'democracy doesn't solve my problems,'" lamented a university professor who attended the meeting. Another subscriber referred to the "disengagement" of young people. "Society has breached the foundation of the social contract: if you comply, if you work, if you strive, you will be rewarded," Martínez Ahrens summarized.
The director of EL PAÍS warned that the new "era of mass disinformation" is here to stay. But he also highlighted the existence of "increasingly strong, serious media outlets, with larger audiences than ever," such as the more than 70 million daily readers of EL PAÍS across all its print and online editions. In this context, artificial intelligence is one of the major challenges. "The first thing is transparency, and then, also building our technological foundations as a media outlet," he clarified, referring to the newspaper's "very limited" use of AI.
The red lines, however, remain very clear. "We're not here to satisfy the public's need for dopamine, but to inform," he responded to one of the subscribers, who pointed out the new consumer logic of scrolling . The editor noted that the newspaper generates more news more quickly, but defended the basic principle of offering "good, well-organized information" to readers. A defense of the classic values of the profession. "We don't believe in clicks for the sake of clicks," he repeated in his speech, in which he warned that "click bait is an empty universe," in which news is opened but not read. The editor of EL PAÍS insisted that his goal is to create a community of critical readers.
The debate also addressed new trends that criticize a doom-laden, negative-news journalism. "Be careful with this idea that journalists report too much bad news; when I hear that, my red flags go off," the editor warned, referring to the fundamentals of the profession: "Bad things happen, and our duty is to report on them, and also to be uncomfortable," he insisted, recalling that portraying only "a brave new world" is the desire of any politician. Despite this, the editor of EL PAÍS defended the need to "know how to report, and report well," the world of culture, art, and science. "Our duty is to explain what readers want, which is the truth, and that is a difficult job," he summarized.
In this context, the discussion also touched on the challenges of cultural "prospection" as well as cultural "prescription." It also touched on the perspective of EL PAÍS as a global newspaper. "We need to provide more information about the Americas in Spain," the director stated, as one of his "efforts" to "raise our gaze and see what's happening on the other side of the Atlantic." The debate also included subscribers concerned about the coverage of the war in Gaza. "We find the situation in Palestine terrible and we have denounced it daily," the director asserted, praising the work of the three editors stationed in the area.
“We are not members of any party, any government, nor do we give a blank check to anyone. We are journalists,” insisted Martínez Ahrens, addressing the recurring criticism of EL PAÍS from certain quarters. A debate in which the director emphasized the major transformations the media have undergone in recent years, to the point of struggling for their survival. “In the newsrooms, we were scared, there were layoffs, there were mass layoffs, there were times when we saw that our continuity was uncertain,” he explained. “Subscribers have been our lifeline in the face of a model that has collapsed,” he said. “And just when we were relatively calm and settled, sailing in this new world with a fair wind, AI has appeared, and we don't know where it will take us,” he concluded.
Rebeca Carranco , El Pais, Spain