The Board of Directors of El País begins the appointment process of a new director for the newspaper. The president of El País, Joseph Oughourlian, has proposed to Jan Martínez Ahrens replacing Pepa Bueno, director since July 2021. The relay, as stated in the statute of the El País writing, has been communicated on Wednesday to the Drafting Committee and will be subjected to an advisory vote of the newspaper of the newspaper. Once the result of the consultation is received, the Board of Directors of El País will proceed to formalize the appointment.
The Board of Directors wanted to thank Pepa well for his commitment and dedication: “Pepa says goodbye to El País with more than 400,000 subscribers and six editions in America. His mandate has been key to consolidating the strategic change of the newspaper.”
Jan Martínez Ahrens entered the newspaper in 1992, in the Valencian Community. After an intense and successful tour of different sections and different responsibilities and countries, it was since 2020 director of El País in America. He has a degree in Philosophy and Master in UAM-El País journalism. It also has a PDD for the IESE Business School, it is fellow The German Marshall Fund of the United States and received classes from Gabriel García Márquez at the New Ibero -American Journalism Foundation.
He started his journalistic career in Diario 16 and in 1992 he entered the country; First in the Valencian Community and then in Madrid, as an event editor and section chief. Subsequently, he was the editor of the Society, during a period in which the newspaper was at the forefront of the coverage of gender violence and social rights.
In 2006 he was appointed deputy director of the Sunday edition and, later, of general information. During this stage, he played a fundamental role in obtaining, coordination and publication in the newspaper of the 250,000 secret documents of the State Department filtered by Wikileaks and of Guantanamo papersmore than 700 confidential reports on vexations to prisoners in the US base. In both cases, the initiative was carried out with other large international media.
In 2014, he coordinated in the country the Chinaleaks case That, from a documentary base obtained by the International Consortium of Investigation Journalists, the massive use of fiscal paradises by the Chinese communist elite uncovered.
That same year, Martínez Ahrens became correspondent in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. In this area he covered the tragedy of Ayotzinapa and the escape and capture of El Chapo. He was also an executive producer of a comic story about gangs in Honduras that won the Gabriel García Márquez Award for Innovation, awarded by the New Ibero -American Journalism Foundation.
At the beginning of 2017 he was appointed chief correspondent in the United States, there followed the pulse to the first presidency of Donald Trump and won the prize for the best Spanish correspondent abroad of the international press club. Since June 2018 he held the position of Deputy Director in Madrid and, in full transformation to the digital subscription model, he directed the current coverage, including two general elections and the enormous informative and writing challenge that the pandemic meant. Since October 2020 he has been director of El País in America and has interviewed numerous Latin American presidents such as Claudia Sheinbaum, Lula da Silva, Gabriel Boric or Gustavo Petro.
Under his command, the newspaper has experienced a successful continental expansion with six editions (America, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and the United States in Spanish and English) and has become a pillar of global information.
Fruit from this effort, the country America received in 2022 the World Association for Editors Association for the best news site in Latin America. The award, for which they competed 120 projects, was granted for “the continental commitment, expanding the writings and reinforcing their coverage with the objective of offering Latin American readers a global information, with their principles of independence and rigor, but also with a look of the most relevant facts of each country, with journalists and a wide network of reporters and analysts among the world referents in the world. As highlighted by the World Editors Association.
In these years, the newspaper has distinguished itself in America by the coverage of the great regional events, its reports on the ground and its firm defense of human rights and democracy in a particularly convulsed area. The latest bet on the continent has been the opening, before the presidential elections, of the United States (in Spanish) edition, a project destined to be the voice of Latinos in a period of political involution and persecution against migrants.
Internal talent
“Jan is a person from the house, a great reporter and a convinced practitioner of the best of journalism: rigor, independence, plurality and work on the ground. In addition, his experience in America, first as a chief correspondent in the United States and, then, as director of El País in America, is essential to recover the relevance of our newspaper in these times when the world geostrategic context marks the world. The president of El País.
For its part, Pilar Gil, CEO of El País and Hurdly Middle Informative offer, improve our arrival to new audiences and recover the relevance and need of well done journalism in these uncertain times ”.
In addition, Gil wanted to remember that, now that the newspaper turns 50, impresses the validity of the statements of the president of a hurry at the general meeting of 1977. “Jesus of Polanco said that the country must be a liberal, independent, socially solidary, national, European and attentive news The media. Readers, and for these new audiences that deserve an informative brand at the height of the complexity of this new world, whatever the format in which they choose to receive us, ”says Gil.
Eighth Director of El País
During its 49 years of history, the Directorate of El País has been exercised by seven directors: Juan Luis Cebrián (1976-1988), Joaquín Estefanía (1988-1993) Jesús Ceberio (1993-2006), Javier Moreno (in two stages: 2006-2014 and 2020-2021), Antonio Caño (2014-2018), Soledad Gallego Gallego Díaz (2018-2020) Pepa Bueno (2021-2025).
Pepa Bueno (Badajoz, 1963) began his career in RNE’s information services, went through RTVE where he ended up directing and presenting the second edition of the news until 2012 is incorporated into the SER chain. In 2019, she was appointed director of the Night Informative time 25 until in July 2021 she took over the Directorate of El País.
Throughout his extensive career, Pepa Bueno has been deserving of numerous awards; Among others, the gold microphone, average award tenor to the best news in the world, wave prize, Francisco Cerecedo prize for Journalism, European Journalism Award Salvador de Madariaga, Manu Leguineche Prize for International Journalism and Agustín Merello Award of the Association of the Press of Cádiz.
