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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
best-sellers list. Barcelona’sEl Periódico(see above)
is the most obvious example, competing at a similar
level to Madrid giants likeEl País, despite being an
essentially Catalan affair. While the Basque papers, of
which there are many, don’t sell as many copies, they
generate plenty of controversy.The biggest Basque
paper,El Correo, based in Bilbao but printed in Castilian,
has been attacked numerous times because of a
perceived compliance with Madrid. In 2001, its offices
were petrol bombed 20 times in a single day. San
Sebastian’sGara, on the other hand, is a slightly more
liberal reincarnation ofEgin, a paper that was forced to
close in 1998 after being accused of aiding ETA. Only
one daily, the marginalEuskaldunon Egunkaria, is
actually printed in Basque. In Galicia the regional
papers,Voz de Galiciaat their head, all but exclude the
Madrid boys from the market.
Spanish magazines
Where newspapers might struggle in Spain, magazines
flourish.There’s no Spanish version ofThe SunorBild
because the tabloids could never compete with the
gossip mags.¡Hola!, Pronto, Diez MinutosandSemana
are popular examples, but there are a host of society
and gossip magazines to choose from. Current affairs
magazines were also popular in the earlyTransición,
although few survive today;Cambio 16is the best
known. And then there’s the satirical weeklies, the
interiors mags, the comics, the porn...wander past any
Spanish news-stand and you’ll see the bewildering,
colourful terracing of magazines. Sometimes the genres
are mixed; the magazineInterviúhas famously carried a
blend of hard news and nudity since the late 1970s.
Hello¡Hola!
The society gossip
magazine¡Hola!is a
rare success story from
Franco-era publishing
and is credited by some
observers with fostering
the modern day obsession
with celebrity. When
¡Hola!started life in 1944,
it was put together in the
editor’s front room with
the help of his mother
and offered a valuable
piece of escapism from
life under the regime.
In 1988, an English
language version,Hello!,
was launched. It quickly
became a huge success,
selling over 500,000
copies a week.
