The Generalitat Will Give €14 Million in Grants to Catalan Media, More Than in 2024

The favorite time of the year arrives for the subsidized press in Catalonia. Generalitat has enabled several lines of subsidies for Catalan media, and attention because this year they are generous. Compared to the 13.2 million euros granted last year by ERC, Salvador Illa's Govern increases the amount to 14.1 million euros.

Generalitat offers substantial sums of money in the form of structural subsidies and project subsidies. The former aim to promote Catalan in the media field, while the latter are granted for specific initiatives. In practice, they serve to support a media ecosystem favorable to power.

More Money for Structural Subsidies

This year, 11 million euros will be allocated for structural subsidies. Print publications will be eligible for 5.6 million (3.2 for printed dailies and 2.3 for non-daily publications). This sector will be especially benefited, as it is a third more than the 4.2 million from last year.

As for digital media, 3.3 million will be allocated compared to 2.9 in 2024. Radios, which received 728,000 euros last year, will receive 1.2 million this year. Televisions will receive one million euros, compared to 675,000 last year.

To compensate for the increase in structural subsidies, project subsidies have been reduced from 4.7 to 2.8 million euros this year. Most will be allocated to press publishers, while the rest will go to radio and television.

But it doesn't end here. The central government will also make 124 million euros available to advance the digital transformation of media. Additionally, the State plans to allocate 270 million euros to institutional advertising.

Catalan media will also be able to apply for these lines of subsidies. 

Godó and Prensa Ibérica, the Most Benefited

The subsidies to Catalan media, generously increased during Pere Aragonès's Govern, are wrapped in controversy. Although they supposedly respond to objective criteria, such as relevance or the number of visits, in practice they are instruments of control over the published information.

This explains why there are media with very low numbers of visits that nevertheless receive substantial subsidies. Thanks to the subsidies and institutional advertising, the Catalan establishment has managed to establish an official narrative. Hence the animosity they have toward media dissent and social media as free information channels.

Grup Godó (La Vanguardia) and Prensa Ibérica (El Periódico) were the most benefited by public money last year. They are accompanied by media such as Ara, NacióDigital, Abacus, Vilaweb, and El Nacional. All of them with a clear editorial line, favorable to power.