''Ara'' (, meaning ''Now'' in English) is a Catalan daily Spanish newspaper that began publication on 28 November 2010, coinciding with the

2010 Catalan regional election The 2010 Catalan regional election was held on Sunday, 28 November 2010, to elect the 9th Parliament of Catalonia, Parliament of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for e ...

. It is the third most read daily newspaper in

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

, and the most read daily newspaper written exclusively in the Catalan language. Its regional edition, ''Ara Balears'', is the most popular Catalan language newspaper on the

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands are an archipelago in the western Mediterranean Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago forms a Provinces of Spain, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain, ...

. ARA's online edition had nearly 3.2M visitors in September 2017, making it the most popular online newspaper in Catalan language. The founding editor was

Carles Capdevila Carles Capdevila i Plandiura (Els Hostalets de Balenyà, Osona, 13 August 1965 – Barcelona, 1 June 2017) was a Catalan journalist and writer, director of the newspaper '' Ara'' for its first five years and from 28 November 2015 onwards founding ...

and the current editor is Esther Vera. The president is Ferran Rodés and the CEO is Salvador Garcia. The newspaper's advisory council includes journalists Antoni Bassas, Albert Om and Toni Soler, all known for their work with the Catalan public TV broadcaster,

TV3 Channel 3 or TV 3 may refer to: Television *Canal 3 (Burkina Faso), a commercial television channel in Burkina Faso * Canal 3 Niger, a commercial television channel in Niger * Canal 3 (Guatemala), a commercial television channel in Guatemala * Can ...

. ''Aras content includes Catalan translations of reports and articles from the ''

New York Times International Edition ''The New York Times International Edition'' is an English-language daily newspaper distributed internationally by the New York Times Company. It has been published in two separate periods, one from 1943 to 1967 and one from 2013 to the prese ...

''. ''Aras founding shareholders were, among others, Ferran Rodés, Fundació Carulla, Víctor Font and the group Cultura 03, which also publishes magazines ''Sàpiens'', ''TimeOut Barcelona'', ''Descobrir'' and ''Cuina''. Cultura 03 is no longer a shareholder. In September 2010, Antoni Bassas announced that he would participate as a shareholder.

History and profile

The first issue of ''Ara'' came out on 28 November 2010, selling out all 120,000 print copies. ''Ara'', as 2017, has 40.000 subscribers. Subscriptions are ''Ara''s main source of income (41 per cent), having surpassed advertising revenue in 2015. Revenue from readers is also 2.5 times more significant than income from newsstand sales. In 2017 ARA grew by 10 per cent and was the only newspaper based in Barcelona or Madrid that managed to grow at all. In March 2018 its readership rose to 129K readers, which represents a 57.3 per cent growth, year-on-year. ''Ara'' has received multiple awards including : * 2013 – (Premi Nacional de Mitjans d’arrel digital category ) * * 2015 –

European Newspaper Award European Newspaper Award is a design competition for European newspapers. The competition was founded and organized by newspaper designer Norbert Küpper from Meerbusch, Germany. He co-operates with the journalist magazines '' Medium Magazin'' ( ...

, in the regional newspaper category * 2015 – award, in Media category, for Carles Capdevila, with a reference on his role as one of ARA's founders * 2016 – award for Carles Capdevila, with a reference on his role as one of ARA's founders * 2017 – 11 awards in the 19th edition of the European Newspaper Awards, three of which for innovation, thanks to the special issues where drawings or works of art were used instead of photographs. * 2017 – ARA received three ÑH newspaper design prizes (awarded by the Society for News Design) for its online reporting work.

Editorial policy and political alignment

''Ara''s editorial policies are not considered to be supportive of any particular party or specific political ideology. Hence, the newspaper is generally considered as centrist regarding the left-right divide and strongly

Catalanist Catalan nationalism promotes the idea that the Catalan people form a distinct nation and national identity. A related term is Catalanism (, ), which is more related to regionalism and tends to have a wider meaning, most people who define themsel ...

regarding the issue of relations between Spain and Catalonia. ''Ara'' aims to cater to the community of socially committed, politically concerned and culturally active citizens.

Expansion

The newspaper is printed in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

and distributed throughout Catalonia. Since 2011, distribution was launched also on the

, soon becoming the most widely-read newspaper in Catalan language in the region. In February 2012, distribution was extended to some areas of the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid wit ...

, especially in the

Province of Castelló A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provin ...

and in the city of

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

. ''Ara'' offers selected news items i
English
an
Spanish

References

{{Catalonia newspapers 2010 establishments in Catalonia Newspapers published in Barcelona Daily newspapers published in Spain Newspapers established in 2010 Catalan-language newspapers