On Monday, January 22, 2024, the POLCOM-GRP research group organizes the research seminar “Journalism and politics during the Transition. Antonio Franco and newspaper management”. The event will take place in Sala Nau at the Communication Campus of Pompeu Fabra University from 10 am to 1.30 pm and is open to professors, researchers and doctoral students. The event is free. You must register here.

The seminar will involve journalists who worked with Antonio Franco at some point in his career: Lluís Bassets (Tele/eXprés, Diario de Barcelona, El Món and El País), Andreu Missé (El Periódico de Catalunya and El País), Milagros Pérez Oliva (El Periódico de Catalunya and El País), Xavier Roig (Diario de Barcelona, Tele/eXprés and Catalunya Express) and Xavier Vidal-Folch (El Periódico de Catalunya and El País). In the first part of the seminar these journalists will talk about the role of newspaper directors during the Democratic Transition, the relationship with authorities and political parties and the internal conflicts in the newsrooms due to political issues. In the second part there will be a colloquium open to all attendees.

Antonio Franco Estadella (Barcelona, 1947-2021) was assistant director of the Diario de Barcelona (1976), founder and director of El Periódico de Catalunya in two periods (1982-1986 and 1988-2006, and from 1997 to 2006 also of the Catalan edition), adjunct director of the Barcelona edition of El País (1982-1988) and deputy director of the Catalan cultural supplement of this newspaper, Quadern (1982). This seminar is a continuation of the line of research on the political behavior of newspapers and magazines during the Democratic Transition initiated with PRETRANS and REVTRANS research projects conducted by POLCOM-GRP.