Carlos Núñez, CEO of Prisa Media: “We, the industry itself, have to regulate ourselves”

The logic of journalism that questions politicians has been reversed this Tuesday in the halls of the Club Siglo XXI of Madrid which has hosted meetings between various power players in Spain since the Transition. During the question period with the CEO of Prisa Media, Carlos Núñez, who is making his debut at these lunchtime discussions —and whom the director of EL PAÍS, Pepa Bueno, has presented as a “leader” who she has seen “make the discourse of quality journalism his own”—, the president of the Council of State and former vice president of the first socialist coalition government, Carmen Calvo, has asked to speak and has challenged both of them: “Faced with the danger of disinformation, a mess that is already at its peak and is affecting the political system and the rule of law, what do you propose?”

Núñez has responded on three axes. “Continue doing what we do: more quality content to access a greater number of people. The big problem is how to limit the information distributors that social networks and search engines on the Internet have become, which are really media. Who is responsible for what is published there? And on the other hand, the right to information is focused on truthful information. We need to promote that media with good journalistic practices are more powerful, define them as agents that contribute to the sustainability of the democratic system. Companies would have incentives to invest in these media compared to networks —which do not do that— and commit 50% of the advertising market. That would allow us to have more journalists to make more content and would be a second initiative to reinforce this scheme. And it has to be something that the industry itself does. Someone cannot come along saying yes and no. It has to be the industry itself that regulates itself in a very complex environment and on a subject that not only affects Spain, but the whole world.”

In addition to the President of the Council of State, other politicians such as the Deputy Secretary for Autonomous and Local Coordination of the Popular Party, Elías Bendodo; the Minister of Education and Government spokesperson, Pilar Alegría; and the former Minister of Industry and spokesperson for the PSOE in the Madrid City Council, Reyes Maroto, have addressed the perspective on the social and media ecosystem of Spain outlined by the executive president of Prisa Media (publisher of this newspaper). Regarding the media of his company, Núñez states: “Our vision of the world is not monolithic. What would you say to me if a newspaper published editorials and opinion articles where, without exception, they were for or against something as controversial as amnesty, the fiscal pact for Catalonia between the PSOE and Esquerra Republicana or the appointment of a minister as governor of the Bank of Spain? In EL PAÍS you have been able to read pages and very authoritative voices against the amnesty, or the interview with a representative of the PSOE against the financing agreement and an editorial position against the appointment of the governor of the banking regulatory body.

In the prelude to Carlos Núñez’s speech, the director of EL PAÍS presented the career of this 50-year-old telecommunications engineer with more than two decades of experience in media management: “born in Segovia, raised in Alicante and a Madrilenian like all of us Madrilenians who came here one day to make a living.” And for four years he has led a company of 1,700 journalists. “He is my boss and we are very clear about the playing field in which each one operates,” said Bueno. “And I am going to share an intimate detail: it is not unusual to receive a message from Núñez at five in the morning. He is an early riser and thinks while riding his bicycle.”

On the role of Núñez at the head of Prisa Media in turbulent times for the challenge of making truthful information possible, the director of EL PAÍS argues: “It is more necessary than ever that those who have to make this expensive journalism possible, like Núñez, believe in it. And bet on monetizing only quality products, when we all know how easy it is to turn hatred, misinformation, pure noise or mere political, economic and anti-scientific spectacle into money.” In a context of digital transformation “which does not have a destination station, but is a permanent revolution,” Bueno defends “independent journalism of all powers.” “Independent of the central government, of the autonomous communities, of the city councils, of business and union organizations… And in this time that we live in, of easy applause or of the fear of being burned on a pyre of social networks. We have to make the daily effort to be independent of all that.”

Núñez then spoke about the current media landscape, highlighting Prisa Media’s leadership. “It is a media group where we develop our activity on two main pillars: the radio business, where we have leading radio stations in the countries in which we operate —Spain, Colombia, Chile and Mexico—, and the press business, with the newspaper EL PAÍS as our flagship; Ace, as one of the leading sports newspapers; Five Days, which works hand in hand with EL PAÍS; and the edition of the Huffington Post in Spain”. For Núñez, the key to the solvency of the Group he heads lies in this set of media. “We are one of the main media groups in Spanish. We have more than 25 million daily listeners, both in Spain and in America. More than 180 million unique digital users in all our headers. More than 350,000 digital subscribers in EL PAÍS. In the paper editions, EL PAÍS and Ace We sell around 100,000 copies a day in Spain. We have become the main digital audio operators in the world: last year we developed more than 2,000 episodes of podcasts and more than 51 million downloads per month on average. In addition, we have 180 million monthly video starts, while we have produced more than 800 hours of live audiovisual content on our digital platforms. We have scale and data. And in the digital field you can only survive with scale and data. In addition, there are markets in which to grow. In Spain, our leadership is undisputed and in America we have a dominant position.”

Núñez maintains that among the current challenges for the media market is “the ultra-fragmentation of audiences”, a concept that is due to the fact that “social networks have made us lose weight in the advertising market”. And this, “together with the few barriers to the digital press business makes the market very challenging”. The Prisa executive has used a figure to explain the situation: “In 2007, the size of the press market was at its maximum: 3,000 million euros, which came from advertising and sales of paper copies mainly. Today it is 1,000 million. In that year there were around 115 titles in Spain. Today there are thousands of digital titles. A market that is reduced by three and where the offer is multiplied by 50 or 100 has a fairly considerable commitment. Despite this, we have not been doing badly. We had a turnover of just over 430 million euros last year, a 13% growth compared to 2021. But we have as a handicap a not insignificant volume of debt that responds to initiatives from many years ago and that is being managed positively to continue growing. Without that handicap [al cierre del último ejercicio, la deuda bancaria neta de Prisa alcanzó los 767 millones, un 10% inferior respecto a la de 2022]we would have greater development.”

Among the immediate challenges of the media ecosystem is integrating artificial intelligence into the journalistic profession. Something that the director of EL PAÍS considers an opportunity “to monetize and do our job better.” The company led by Núñez reached an agreement with Open AI last March on artificial intelligence so that ChatGPT users can interact with Prisa Media content in Spanish. “We have direct access to the veins of that search engine and we are achieving a privileged position that if successful will be the Google “of the future,” the director says about the alliance. And he predicts: “Artificial Intelligence is not going to generate news. It is not going to anticipate anything that will happen. In no case will AI be used to replace the work that is inherent to the journalist.”