The press platform for moderate change: the discreet role of the Madrid daily Ya during the Spanish Transition

Abstract

This article analyzes one of the lesser studied aspects of the relationship between the Spanish press and the Transition: the role of the Catholic newspaper Ya, leader at the Madrid newsstands at the time of Franco’s death and democratic change. Ya occupies a singular position in the journalism landscape of the time: it is distanced from the officialist “prensa del Movimiento”, it does not belong to the monarchic tradition of ABC or La Vanguardia and it fins itself at a considerable ideological distance from the new post-Francoist press epitomised by El País. Through a content analysis of over 600 editorials at the time, this article shows how this conservative newspaper steered through difficult times and how it faced up to the challenge of supporting the road to reform, political liberalization and the new rules of the democratic game without losing its characteristic sense of moderation and political centrism.