La desaparición de El Independiente: tramas, competencia y fracaso empresarial

Abstract

The disappearance of El Independiente (Madrid, 20/6/1987-31/10/1991), one of the most critical newspapers in the recent democratic history of Spain, resulted not only because it "troubled the power establishment" or because The National Organization for the Blind (ONCE) had decided to "close it", as their managers contended, faced with the pressures of other media; that is to say, it didn't succumb solely in response to political or business strategies. It disappeared because of the convergence of other causes or factors which made it unfeasible from an economic point of view: as a result of tough competition in the journalistic field, of media concentration and low readership; because of its failure to increase revenue by means of sales and publicity — very modest compared to competitors such as El Mundo — and its elevated production costs. We attempt to show that ONCE Diversia lost almost 4.000 million pesetas as principal shareholder, that it failed to consolidate the great media group it was forming and that economic factors were decisive in the close.