A short walk from Suanzes metro is every aspiring journalist and Hispanophile’s dream: El País HQ. To meet me in the entrance, which is filled with framings of historic front pages as far back as the end of Franco, is Simon Hunter, editor of the English version of El País.
In the staff café, which is very typically Spanish with pinchos de tortilla and a small bar, Simon and I got chatting about how he’d ended up working for the biggest media company in all of Spain.
Studying English and American Studies at the University of Hull, Simon envied his peers on year abroads and, after a week’s visit seeing a friend in Madrid, he “fell in love” with the city and moved down as soon as he could. Starting out as an English teacher, Simon then began his career in journalism with In Madrid magazine and later also working for Time Out. “I also got to edit In Madrid – in Madrid,” he laughs, “which was really great.” Then, around eight years ago, he made the move over to El País to do sub-editing and soon began researching his own stories and translating articles for the printed, English edition. Things have changed, however, and due to the economic troubles had by Prisa (the media company which owns the Spanish newspaper, as well as Rolling Stone magazine, Cadana SER radio station and Diario AS, among others), the English version no longer exists in print and Simon’s team has more than halved, switching focus to solely the web.
Flicking through old editions, Simon tells me he misses the printed version. There is something satisfying about seeing your name in print, I say. He agrees, reminiscing about how great it was to see what he’d achieved the day before printed out in front of him. The days of organising the layout of the printed supplement and liaising with the design team are now gone, and Simon shows me how he manages the online content from his desktop, playing around with what will feature in the Editor’s Pick, Trans-Iberian blog and Latin America sections. The latter, he says, is an increasingly important focus for El País as it’s attempting to break into the American market as a way out from its financial problems.
“Eddie Izzard came to Madrid recently,” he says excitedly, “and I got to interview him.” I ask Simon more about the kind of content he enjoys producing. It’s bittersweet, he tells me, as often the most exciting stuff is the more tragic, like last year’s train crash in Galicia and the Barajas plane crash – which happened in August, when hardly anyone was around, so he had a great opportunity for coverage, he explains. “CNN, the BBC, all sorts were phoning up for information.”
Never having studied Spanish at university, Simon picked it up on the go, living and working in the capital. He now translates stories for English readers. There’s a difference between just translating, however, and adapting something journalistic to turn it into a news story for an English reader, he says.
At 1pm it’s time for us to go up to the editorial meeting (one of three, daily). Sitting in on a 40-minute discussion between editors of Spain’s widest read national newspaper was exhilarating. With video calls coming in from Barcelona, Valencia and Galicia, we heard plans to cover El Prado’s missing paintings scandal and the political weighting of the plane disaster in Ukraine, which had happened just hours before. Economía and Cultura editors also briefed on their sections, while Simon made notes next to me, on which stories would become the highlights of the English edition later that day.
Aiming for around 5 articles a day, one of the stories Simon says he may feature is the report claiming pieces of art aren’t being properly cared for at El Prado. Sounds like a big story, I say, especially as this is quite possibly Spain’s most prestigious art gallery. “Yes, definitely,” he agrees, “if it all turns out to be true, then it’s huge.”
I ask him what he thinks about the Catalonia independence debate. He seems sceptical about any radical change, commenting that he doubts it’ll even get to referendum stage because it’s “unconstitutional.” Still, a contentious issue, he doesn’t doubt.
I then meet David Nelson, a Scottish journalist for Diario AS, who also works translating English news stories. David, like Simon, didn’t start out studying journalism (none of the best journalists do, they both tell me), but began working as a lawyer. When he became disillusioned about working in tax and accounting, he decided to apply for the El País masters course, which comes with a year’s internship. He takes me around the masters office – showing me the radio studio, lecture theatre and computer rooms – where students learn first-hand how to find original stories and write to tight deadlines, ready for editors’ (sometimes brutal) feedback. The deadlines felt even tighter for him, he tells me, as a non-native speaker who worked alongside fluent, Spanish peers.
David now mainly translates sport pieces, although also gets to run the Twitter account, he tells me with great enthusiasm.
Then it was back down through the newsroom, which is also home to a small studio ready for live broadcasts and interview photo shoots, to Simon’s desk and time for a very big thank you for a fantastic introduction to El País and an unforgettable insight into its running.
Madrid for beginners 