Introduction

This introductory chapter provides a global overview of who and what Promotora de Informaciones S.A. (Grupo Prisa) is, as well as the geopolitical and corporate context in which this company has evolved from a quality newspaper, El País, after Francisco Franco’s death into the main Spanish media conglomerate. The high parallelism between the polarized Spanish political system and the media system, the increasing dominance of finance over the real economy, including the media industry, and the main Spanish big media players, are briefly introduced. This overview reminds the reader of the singular peculiarities of the Spanish media system because of its replication of the political system deficits and provides a summary of the volume’s content.