“We have never had access to so much information but, more and more, people are looking for trust and reliability to know that what they are being told is true,” said the director of La Vanguardia, Jordi Juan, during the lunch-colloquium held this afternoon at the Equestrian Circle. The event was held within the framework of the new Opinion Leaders cycle, in which the directors of the main newspapers in Spain will participate, according to Enrique Lacalle, president of the entity.
In a dialogue with the lawyer and journalist Ricardo Fernández Deu, Jordi Juan has addressed different current issues, always with journalism as the common thread. Given this “infinite flow” of information in which fake news and misinformation abound, he has insisted that “brands are becoming more and more important and in that sense, newspapers like La Vanguardia have a great opportunity for the future.”
Jordi Juan has given as an example the 107,000 digital subscribers (and almost 40,000 on paper) that this newspaper currently has. “People who used to get information on the web for free and who are now willing to pay for information.” And he observes an evolution in social media followers who are realizing that they have to be the ones who go looking for information and not the other way around because an algorithm says so. “We have lost the monopoly on information but instead we have that of reliability, which makes us comfortable for the future.”
“Readers are loyal to a newspaper, although sometimes the newspaper’s editorial line on a specific topic may irritate them,” continued Jordi Juan, who acknowledged that “it is difficult to satisfy everyone, but I think people continue to “buying the newspaper for its general offer.” And in that direction, he has been proud that La Vanguardia is “a very plural newspaper, with opinions in one direction and the opposite.”
With current affairs hot on its heels (the Congress of Deputies was hosting at the same time the debate on the approval of the amnesty law), Jordi Juan has been pessimistic that Junts will end up voting in favor, which would “complicate” the current political map. Asked by Fernández Deu for his opinion on President Pedro Sánchez, whom he recently interviewed, the director of La Vanguardia said that he saw him “very sure” that the commitment to amnesty “is the most convenient thing for Spain and Catalonia to overcome this situation”.
Already in the final stretch, Fernández Deu asked him about the future of journalism. “Digital subscription is a wonderful opportunity because companies understand that you have to invest in writing to get more subscribers,” he said, adding later that “having correspondents on the ground to have differentiated information is more expensive but in the end it pays off.” and the results”. Finally, he spoke optimistically about artificial intelligence (AI): “There is a lot of fear in newsrooms about the application of AI, but I think the issue is not that it is going to replace humans, but that we journalists know how to use all the great tools.” possibilities that this technology offers us”
