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Jesús Polanco Gutiérrez, also known as Jesús de Polanco (November 7, 1929 – July 21, 2007) was a businessman from
Prisa Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polanco, Jesus De 1929 births 2007 deaths Businesspeople from Cantabria Spanish mass media owners 20th-century Spanish businesspeople Spanish newspaper publishers (people) PRISA Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts 21st-century Spanish businesspeople
Jesús Polanco Gutiérrez, also known as Jesús de Polanco (November 7, 1929 – July 21, 2007) was a businessman from Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
who built one of the largest media empires in the world. In 2005, he was ranked 3rd richest person in Spain and at number 210 in ''Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...
'' World's Richest People list, and was number 258 in 2006.
Media holdings
Born inMadrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
to a military family from Santillana del Mar
Santillana del Mar () is a historic town situated in Cantabria, Spain. Its many historic buildings attract thousands of holidaymakers every year.
There is an old saying that Santillana del Mar is ''The Town of Three Lies'', since it is neither a ...
, Cantabria
Cantabria (, also , , Cantabrian: ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain with Santander as its capital city. It is called a ''comunidad histórica'', a historic community, in its current Statute of Autonomy. It is bordered on the east ...
, Polanco was estimated to own 64% of the Prisa group, a conglomerate which includes El País; the radio channel Cadena SER
La Cadena SER (the SER Network) is Spain's premier radio network in terms of both seniority (it was created in 1924) and audience share (it had a regular listenership in 2018 of 4,139,000). The acronym SER stands for ''Sociedad Española de Radi ...
; the TV channel Cuatro (TV)
Cuatro (stylized as cuatro°, "Four") is a Spanish free-to-air television channel that was launched in November 2005. Owned by Mediaset España, the Spanish subsidiary of the Italian Mediaset group, it is broadcast on TV frequencies licensed to ...
, the digital TV platform Digital+
Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits.
Technology and computing Hardware
*Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals
**Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...
(including Canal+
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...
), which has a monopoly on Spain's digital TV and a number of radio channels and local televisions. Prisa also had important interests in editing books and owned Grupo Santillana
Grupo Santillana, formerly Santillana Ediciones Generales, is a Spanish publisher founded in 1959 by Jesús de Polanco and Francisco Pérez González.
From 2008 and due to the high debts of the group PRISA, Santillana made disinvestments to guid ...
, Ediciones El País, El País Aguilar, Alfaguara, Altea, Tiendas Crisol, I.B. Tauris
I.B. Tauris is an educational publishing house and imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. It was an independent publishing house with offices in London and New York City until its purchase in May 2018 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
It specialises in non ...
and Richmon Publishing. His nickname became 'Jesús del Gran Poder' for his role behind the political scene.
Polanco's media interests were known for being progressive or left-wing. More conservative and clerical rivals in the media, such as the newspapers ''ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
'' and '' El Mundo'' or the radio station COPE
The cope (known in Latin as ''pluviale'' 'rain coat' or ''cappa'' 'cape') is a liturgical vestment, more precisely a long mantle or cloak, open in front and fastened at the breast with a band or clasp. It may be of any liturgical colour.
A c ...
, have at times accused Polanco's related media of having a monopoly on Spanish information and being capable of presenting biased reporting. Some of these have also accused PRISA of influencing public opinion against the People's Party (PP) government's management and response to the Madrid train bomb attacks of March 11, 2004. The People's Party, led into the campaign by Mariano Rajoy
Mariano Rajoy Brey (; born 27 March 1955) is a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 2011 to 2018, when a vote of no confidence ousted his government. On 5 June 2018, he announced his resignation as People's Party lead ...
, ultimately lost the 2004 Spanish elections to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources:
*
*
*
* political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gove ...
(PSOE), led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
In 2005 Prisa asked the Spanish Government for a license to transform the pay TV channel Canal+
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...
into an open channel. The Government conceded this license and Cuatro (TV)
Cuatro (stylized as cuatro°, "Four") is a Spanish free-to-air television channel that was launched in November 2005. Owned by Mediaset España, the Spanish subsidiary of the Italian Mediaset group, it is broadcast on TV frequencies licensed to ...
channel started broadcasting in November 2005. Subsequently, opposition was expressed about the lack of dialogue on this subject.
In 2007, responding to the accusations of his media being biased, Polanco said that it was difficult to be impartial when there is a party which would do anything to go back into power. The Spanish People's Party reacted by promoting a boycott of all Polanco's media channels and shareholders. This initiative was criticised by all European democratic parties.
On July 21, 2007 Polanco died at the age of 77 in Madrid.
References
External links
Prisa Group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polanco, Jesus De 1929 births 2007 deaths Businesspeople from Cantabria Spanish mass media owners 20th-century Spanish businesspeople Spanish newspaper publishers (people) PRISA Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts 21st-century Spanish businesspeople