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I have often been asked in recent months what El Nacional would be like and what features would set it apart from other newspapers. My reply has always pointed to three cues that would identify us. First of all, obsession with information. We hope that the site occupies the centre stage of the country with outstanding information. We live in a time when information is slipping away from journalists’ hands. The more media, the less information. It is necessary to break this equation that seriously damages the profession. And that can only be done to the extent that news media are of the people and for the people.

The profound crisis of communication companies has tinged the traditional role of newspapers grey. This is very often the predominant colour today, especially when writing about institutions and politics. Insecurity, conformism and indifference, three ingredients that do not satisfy the reader.

Secondly, we want to be a Catalan and European newspaper. There is a lot going on in Catalonia and the country is bubbling. In healthy, ambitious effervescence, about to make a leap before a very limited regime of self-government, translated on September 27 as the victory of the pro-independence parties at the ballot. This scenario is what we want to explain as it happens. With its complexity and from the different points of view of a society that is plural but that has said enough. Our ADN is Catalan but, just as we aspire to be a reference news site in Catalonia, we want to be the vehicle that explains the reality of Catalonia outside of Catalonia in Spanish and English. And we want to do it without beating about the bush with half truths, even if they do not like it elsewhere. The media must inform and not confuse. A newspaper must be inclusive and not exclusive. The press must be truthful before it is mordant. A newspaper is not a parliament, but everyone must be able to speak. At El Nacional everyone is welcome.

Our third symbol of identity, and undoubtedly the most visible, is the design of the site, developed by Mark Porter and Pablo Martín, both professionals with an enduring successful career in Europe. From the beginning, we wanted to make the design and adaptability to the different mobile, tablet and computer platforms outstanding.

At a time when politics and society are being questioned down to their very foundations, the press is also obliged to plunge head first into this debate. And we modestly want to contribute with our grain of sand.