To survive as a respected newspaper, you need credibility and independence. To be truly independent, you need to be profitable. But the profitability of your publication rests on a foundation of credibility.

That’s the “virtuous circle” at the heart of any newspaper’s success, says Juan Luis Cebrián, the CEO of Spain’s Grupo Prisa. He says the formula is particularly valuable for El Páis, the respected daily that is Prisa’s media flagship.

“Only those publications which are self-financing and do not require public or private subsidies are truly independent,” he explained at the World Newspaper Congress. “Thus, profitability for us was not only a consequence of the natural business activity, but also a guarantee of maintaining that independence. And vice versa, credibility and professional quality are the bases for financial profitability.”

It may sound simple, but Cebrián has to explain the reasoning to shareholders, who may be tempted to sacrifice quality for the sake of a short-term bottom line; as well as to journalists, who sometimes bristle at the idea that a newspaper has to be run as a business, not a charity. The key factor is editorial credibility: At El Páis, the editor is seen as the administrator of a public property – the right to information – and has veto power over any original material to be published, including advertising.

In the 25 years since Prisa founded El Páis, all the indicators have been moving in the right direction: Sales have gone from 2 million euros in 1976 to 320 million in 2000, circulation has risen from 128,000 to 436,000, and the number of employees has increased from 76 to 974. Even in the brave new world of the Internet, El Páis is holding its own, with page views rising from 8.3 million in March 1998 to 50.1 million in March 2001.

The trends toward multiple media platforms, globalization and industry concentration has brought new challenges for Prisa and El Páis. Today, Prisa has a media presence in 22 countries in Europe and the Americas – including partnerships with other companies in the fields of pay TV, broadcast production and distribution, and Latin music distribution. Cebrián said the future frontier for Prisa’s growth was more likely to involve radio, the Internet and visual media than print media.

“Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and the Spanish-speaking market of the United States is where we should preferably focus activity over the next few years,” he said.

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