''Ara'' (, meaning ''Now'' in English) is a

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

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 the autonomous community of Catalonia. All 135 seats in the Parliament were up for election. This was the first election held in Catalonia afte ...

. It is the third most read daily newspaper in

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

, 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 ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...

. 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 Antonio Soler Mulet (born 23 March 1992) is a Spanish footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder. Playing career Youth and college After playing with the Villarreal academy and having various spells in the lower leagues in Spain, Soler ...

, all known for their work with the Catalan public TV broadcaster, TV3. ''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 is 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 is the ideology asserting that the Catalans are a distinct nation. Intellectually, modern Catalan nationalism can be said to have commenced as a political philosophy in the unsuccessful attempts to establish a federal state i ...

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 coast of northeastern 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 ci ...

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 ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid with ...

, especially in the

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

and in the city of

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

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

Notes

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