elDiario.es

"At elDiario.es, we are convinced that the main pending innovation in journalism is to reconnect with society." Driven by this idea expressed by deputy editor Juanlu Sánchez amid an economic crisis and social turmoil in Spain, in 2012 a group of unemployed journalists saw an opportunity to deal with political and social issues in a way that the traditional media did not.Led by their executive director, Ignacio Escolar, they invested their savings to found a company and made it profitable from the first year without needing bank loans or other debts, thus guaranteeing their independence. In 2018, Escolar received the Gabriel García Márquez Prize for Journalism.elDiario.es is "an independent, left-wing information initiative committed to social values, transparency and which believes in journalism as a public service, avoiding falling into ideological and partisan clichés," Sánchez explained.The outlet operates a membership model that today has 60,000 paying members who contribute an average of 82 euros per year. Half of its revenue comes from members and the other half from advertising. According to its accounts, the organisation reinvests its profits in hiring journalists, improving salaries, and technology.In addition to its website, it publishes a quarterly printed magazine, and it has two additional daily products: a morning newsletter that reaches more than 100,000 subscribers, and a podcast where journalists explain current affairs to 20,000 daily listeners.During the pandemic and in the face of the advertising crisis, elDiario.es asked its readers for help and 22,000 new members signed up. As the team explains on its website, without this growth, for the first time a year would have ended with losses. "We maintain an emotional relationship, rather than a transactional one [where people] not only pay for the news, but they also defend us from pressures so that we can do our work independently," Sánchez said.