On the 4th May 1976 the daily newspaper "El País" was born, a part of the media which made a committed contribution during the Spanish transition to the definitive consolidation of constitutional democracy in Spain. It is now the most widely-read daily newspaper in Spain, with a press-run of over 380,000 copies, rising to one million on Sundays.

It was founded by a group of Spanish professionals headed by José Ortega Spottorno, now honourary chairman, and the editor Jesús Polanco, currently chairman. Its first director was Juan Luis Cebrián, who, in its first edition defended the independent character of the newspaper and supported the democratic co-existence of all citizens.

"El País" is possible," wrote Cebrián, "because there are many thousands -I would say hundreds of thousands- of Spaniards who are neither right- nor left-wing or, to put it another way, are right- or left-wing but who decline to lay exclusive claim to patriotism, nor think that the best form of co-existence is that which unfortunately the past has tried to teach us, the suppression of the adversary."

This support of democracy and liberties had its moment of special relevance for "El País" on the night of the 23rd February 1981, when its front page, ran the headline "El País con la Constitución" (The Country behind the Constitution) while the government and the parliamentary deputies were held prisoner in the Cortes, the Spanish parliament. This defence of freedom continues in force. It was recalled on the occasion of the edition number 5,000 ny its current director since 1988, Joaquín Estefanía.

The consolidation of "El País" as the number one national newspaper allowed in to open in 1982 new editorial offices outside Madrid, with the aim of becoming a truly national Spanish paper. That same year the editorial office in Catalonia entered operation, and later those of Andalusia and the Valencia region, adopting the most sophisticated methods of coordination and transmission, at the same time as it became a pioneer of the application of information technology to journalism in Spain.

Its news content is reinforced by different supplements which appear one day a week: Travel, Books, Sport, Education, The Future, Modern Issues, Entertainments, Arts, Business and Sunday. In Catalonia, furthermore, it publishes "Quadern", in the Catalan language. Nonetheless, its supplement "par excellence" is "El País Semanal", the weekend supplement, which has already passed through various stages.

The successive balance sheets are a faithful reflection of the economic vitality of the newspaper, with profits exceeding six thousand million pesetas in the last financial year at the time of writing. Its workforce consists of almost a thousand employees. Together with the Italian daily "La Repubblica", it forms part of the capital of "The Independent" daily paper (UK). At the same time it maintains cooperation agreements with various other media.

"El País", as well as contributing to the consolidation of a new style in Spanish journalism, has set up new mechanisms, previously unheard- of in Spain, which tend to improve the professionalism of the writers. To do this, it has established a Masters in Journalism, published a "Manual of Style" and appointed a readers´ Ombudsman. Likewise, is has made an "Statute for writers and editors" available.

The firm which publishes "El País" is the "Prisa" multimedia group, which at the time of writing controls the "Cadena Ser" radio station, "Canal Plus" television channel, the economic daily paper "Cinco Días" and the publishers "Edipaís", among others.