El País

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

El País was founded in May 1976 by a team at PRISA which included Jesus de Polanco, José Ortega Spottorno, and Carlos Mendo. The paper was designed by Reinhard Gade and Julio Alonso. Its first editor-in-chief was Juan Luis Cebrián. Circulation was 116,600 copies in its first year, rising to 138,000 copies in 1977. In 1978, El País suffered a far-right terrorist attack due to political upheaval. Four people were injured, two greatly, and one died. The building also suffered structural damage. El País filled a gap in the market and became the newspaper of Spanish democracy, for which role it was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and the Humanities in 1983. Its reputation as a bastion of Spanish democracy was established during the attempted coup d'état by Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero on 23 February 1981. During the uncertain situation of the night of 23 February 1981, El País published a special edition called 'El País, for the Constitution.' It was the first available daily paper during the situation with a pro-democracy position. It called on citizens to demonstrate in favor of democracy. Along with its commitment to democracy before the attempted coup, the electoral victory of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) in 1982 with an absolute majority and its open support for the government of Felipe González meant that El País consolidated its position during the 1980s as the Spanish newspaper with the most sales ahead of the conservative leaning ABC. In 1986, El País was the recipient of the Four Freedoms Award for the Freedom of Speech by the Roosevelt Institute.

Reader's Guide

El País was the first Spanish newspaper to establish internal quality control standards, the first Spanish daily to create the role of 'Reader's Advocate', and the first to publish a 'Style Guide' that has since become a quality benchmark among journalists. It has established a number of collaborative agreements with other European newspapers with a social democratic viewpoint. In 1989, El País participated in the creation of a common network of information resources with La Repubblica in Italy and Le Monde in France. On March 11, 2004, Spain suffered Europe's first jihadist terror attack. The day of the attacks, then prime minister José María Aznar called El País editor in chief Jesús Ceberio and gave him assurances that the attacks had been planned and executed by the Basque terrorist group ETA. Despite having no other confirmation, Ceberio ran a front page blaming ETA for the attack, having to correct course the following day. Ceberio published an editorial piece accusing Aznar of manipulating him. El País was awarded the World's Best Designed Newspaper for 2006 by the Society for News Design (SND). On 24 January 2013, El País published a wrong report about the health status of then Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, with photography of an unknown man from a 2008 YouTube video, provided by the news agency Gtres Online and published on the front page of the paper's print edition as a picture of the Venezuelan president. In August 2019, the newspaper's online edition published an obituary of King Juan Carlos I even though the former monarch was actually recovering from major cardiac surgery. The El País management explained that the article was published due to an 'algorithm error.' On 23 May 2024, El País started publishing a US edition in both Spanish and English, aimed at Spanish-speakers residing in the US.

Did You Know?

• El País was the first pro-democracy newspaper in Spain, first published on 4 May 1976, six months after the death of dictator Francisco Franco.
• During the 1981 coup attempt, El País published a special edition called 'El País, for the Constitution' before the king's televised address, calling for pro-democracy demonstrations.
• In 1978, El País suffered a far-right terrorist attack that killed one person and injured four, two of them seriously.
• El País was the first Spanish daily to create the role of 'Reader's Advocate' and to publish a 'Style Guide' for journalists.
• On 23 May 2024, El País launched a US edition, El País US, aimed at Hispanic readers.

Birth in the Shadow of Dictatorship

El País emerged from the rubble of Franco's regime, first hitting newsstands on 4 May 1976—just six months after the dictator's death and at the very threshold of Spain's democratic transition. A team at the PRISA media conglomerate, including Jesús de Polanco, José Ortega Spottorno, and Carlos Mendo, conceived the paper, while Reinhard Gade and Julio Alonso shaped its visual identity. Juan Luis Cebrián, arriving from Informaciones, took the helm as first editor-in-chief. What made El País singular was its editorial stance: in a press landscape still saturated with Francoist ideology, it was the first daily to openly champion democracy. That conviction translated into readership almost immediately. Circulation climbed from 116,600 copies in its inaugural year to 138,000 by 1977. Yet the paper's democratic commitment carried real danger. In 1978, amid the political turbulence of the transition, a far-right terrorist attack struck the building, leaving four people injured—two seriously—and one dead, while the structure itself sustained significant damage.

The Night That Forged a Legacy

The night of 23 February 1981 remains El País's most defining hour. When Lieutenant Colonel Antonio Tejero of the Guardia Civil stormed the Congress of Deputies, holding all members of parliament hostage while tanks rolled through Valencia, Spain teetered on the edge of civil war. Before King Juan Carlos I could reach viewers through state television to condemn the coup, El País had already printed and distributed a special edition titled 'El País, for the Constitution.' It was the first daily available that night carrying an explicit pro-democracy position, and it urged citizens to take to the streets in defense of democratic institutions. The edition generated such intense media discussion that editor Juan Luis Cebrián phoned Pedro J. Ramírez, then heading Diario 16, to propose a joint pro-democracy publication. Ramírez declined, saying he preferred to wait and see how events unfolded. Diario 16 did not appear until after the king's televised address. El País's swift, unambiguous stand that night cemented its reputation as the institutional voice of Spanish democracy.

Setting the Standard for Spanish Journalism

El País didn't just report the news; it built the infrastructure of professional journalism in Spain. It was the first Spanish newspaper to implement internal quality-control standards, the first to appoint a 'Reader's Advocate,' and the first to publish a formal Style Guide—a document that subsequently became a reference benchmark for journalists across the country. These institutional innovations, combined with rigorous editorial standards, elevated the paper's standing well beyond its circulation figures. Recognition followed: the Prince of Asturias Award for Communication and the Humanities in 1983, and the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech from the Roosevelt Institute in 1986. El País also reached beyond Spain's borders. In 1989, it joined La Repubblica of Italy and Le Monde of France in creating a shared network of information resources among European social-democratic dailies. Since October 2001, an English-language supplement has appeared within the Spanish edition of the International Herald Tribune, extending the paper's reach to international readers. The paper's headquarters remain in Madrid, though editorial presences extend to other Spanish cities, and it now produces an America edition with subeditions for Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina, plus a US edition launched in 2024 targeting Hispanic readers.

Circulation Dominance and Political Crossfire

From the mid-1980s through the early 2000s, El País held the crown of Spain's best-selling generalist daily. Its open support for the PSOE government of Felipe González, following the party's absolute-majority victory in 1982, helped consolidate that lead over the conservative ABC. Circulation figures tell the story: 401,258 copies in 1993, 408,267 in 1994, 420,934 in the 1995–96 period, 433,617 in 2001, and 435,298 the following year. Yet that same political alignment drew sustained accusation. The People's Party and its allied media repeatedly charged El País and the wider PRISA group, including Sogecable, with serving PSOE interests. The tension sharpened in the early 1990s as corruption scandals surrounding the González government polarized both the political class and the left-right press divide. Despite the controversy, El País maintained its top position in print. By the 2025–2026 period, it remained the most-read general-interest daily in Spain's print press with 854,000 readers per the EGM survey, and ranked fourth among the country's most-read digital newspapers with 17.6 million unique users according to GfK DAM data.