In the last three years, some 8,500 Spanish journalists have lost their jobs. Dozens of newspapers have closed and the remaining publications are sharply cutting back as ads plummet. Independent newspapers and their owners are increasingly in debt to banks.
Media analyst Pere Rusinol says this has led to a radical shift in media control.
"After four years of crisis, all the big media — there is no exception — the main capital is from the banks in all the big media conglomerates," Rusinol says who considers the banks' influence on media coverage in Spain to be widespread.
This year alone, banks have repossessed 50,000 homes for unpaid mortgages. In fact, he says, practically all domestic news is related to banks, but newspapers focus mostly on the color or atmosphere surrounding a particular story.
"These poor people — he is not able to pay and he has no place to sleep, but nobody explains this is because this particular bank has forced that situation, and this particular bank is seeking at the same time money to the public finances because [it's] bankrupt," says Rusinol.