DIGITAL MEDIA IN SMALL CITIES

We talk with César Fernandez, a journalist in the digital newspaper ILEON - Noticias de León. El diario digital de León y sus comarcas and how he has lived the change to digital media, especially in a small city.

César ended his degree in 2002. Digital journalism was still very recent. " the last years we had few subjects related to digitality and websites. Most of my career has been in paper journalism. When I began the profession, social networks and digital newspapers were very incipient." It was not until 2018 he started working in Ileón, a digital media of news of León, El Bierzo, and Ponferrada. Before that, he did paper press but with few help from the institutions and few benefits these newspapers were doomed to close. " It was because the newspapers in which I worked closed that I started in Ileon.It wasn't a difficult adaptation, just different."

"Digital journalism is an easy means to transmit local information to all those who are outside who may know about their city without frontiers," he states. León suffers a lot of population loss due to studies and work. Now it is not necessary to subscribe and receive via mail the newspaper. It is only a click away to know the latest news about your home.

As León has an elderly population, changes involving digital developments are still hard. "Facebook has helped a lot because even though young people don´t use it anymore is a useful portal for the elderly. Every newspaper has Facebook, and in this social media there are still a lot of older readers." People retire and grandchildren or children convince them to buy new phones or tablets and thus increase the niche market of the digital newspaper.

Also for a city with not as much money circulating as Madrid for example, digital media is a cheaper and more effective way to reach the readers. " A daily newspaper generates a lot of costs and advertising has been reduced. However, printing costs are reduced in a digital medium, for example."

Like many others, César believes that traditional newspapers are going to disappear at some point. "I think it's going to die with the older people who buy it. When I do not work I like to buy the newspaper and I am the youngest person who does it and I am 47 years old. It is clear that the press as we know it will disappear but that does not mean that it will be reconfigured to another model."

He is also concerned with the quality of journalism due to the new idea of getting "clicks" and visualizations. "You have to be very careful. It depends a lot on the audience and advertising. Now you know the impact of your news at the moment. The media have to be responsible and protect quality journalism. The media must avoid falling into the trap of the easy."