Jaume Roures Llop (born 8 September 1950) is a Spanish businessman, film producer and media mogul from Catalonia. Roures is best known as the founder of the newspaper Público and as the CEO of the media group Mediapro. Considered a left-wing nationalist, he was a member of Trotskyist and Anti-Francoist organizations in his youth.
Jaume Roures | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Roures in 2009 | |
| Born | 8 September 1950 Barcelona, Spain |
| Occupation(s) | Businessman, film producer, political activist and media mogul |
| Known for | |
Early life
editBorn in Barcelona in 1950,[1] Roures was a member of clandestine anti-francoist organizations such as Comisiones Obreras (CC.OO.), the Workers' Front of Catalonia (FOC) and the Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist League (LCR).[2]
Arrested during the Francoist dictatorship, he spent time imprisoned in the Barcelona's Cárcel Modelo from 1969 to 1971 as a political prisoner.[3]
Roures began a career as sports journalist in TV3—the Catalan public television channel created in 1983—serving for eight years at the helm of the Department of Sports' News and Productions.[1]
Mass media businessman
editRoures founded the production company Mediapro, primarily employed at its beginnings by the Canal+'s sports productions and the newscast services of Canal Sur.[4]
In 2005, Gestora de Inversiones Audiovisuales La Sexta obtained the last of the DTT licenses granted during the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.[5] Mediapro had a stake in Grupo GAMP (the primary shareholder of the company, the other one being, at the time, Televisa).[5] The related TV channel, LaSexta, begin to broadcast in March 2006.[6]
By means of the publisher 'Mediapubli, Sociedad de Publicaciones y Ediciones S.L.' (created in February 2007), Roures and other partners such as Tatxo Benet and Gerard Romy launched the daily newspaper Público,[7] which published its first issue on 26 September 2007.[8] Vowing to draw disenchanted left-wing readers away from El País,[9] the print version of Público was successively edited by Ignacio Escolar, Félix Monteira and Jesús Maraña.[10] Despite having achieved a substantial readership growth from 2008 to 2012,[11] at the height of 2011 it had become apparent that the business model (with a heavy indebtedness) was not viable,[12] and the company filed a layoff affecting a 20% of the workforce in 2011.[12]
Having filed for receivership on 3 January 2012, Roures and his partners resolved to close the print edition of Público on 24 February 2012.[13] A group of 20 former Mediapubli employees continued publishing the online version without support from the publisher.[14] However, on 23 May 2012, the receiver granted the print and online Mediapubli properties to Display Connectors S.L, a company created in February 2012 and participated by Roures and other Mediapubli people.[15]
As of 2019, he held a 12% stake in Mediapro, primarily owned by Chinese company Orient Hontai Capital.[16]
In 2020, Roures promoted the launch of the think-tank 'Institut Sobiranies'.[17]
In October 2023, the board of Mediapro determined the exit of Roures as managing partner of the company, reportedly at request of majority shareholder Southwind Group and minority shareholder WPP.[18]
Views
editRoures is considered a left-wing nationalist.[19] He claims to preserve the ideological views from his youth.[2] Roures has stated that he is in favour of the right to self-determination of the peoples.[20] Despite claiming to have voted CUP in 2012, he has declared not to be pro-Catalan independence.[20][2]
Filmography
edit- Producer
- Mondays in the Sun (2002)[21]
- Love in Self Defense (2004)[21]
- My Quick Way Out (2005)[21]
- Princesas (2005)[21]
- Salvador (2005)[21]
- The Silly Age (2005)[21]
- Va a ser que nadie es perfecto (2006)[21]
- Camino (2008)[21]
- Sexykiller (2008)[21]
- Map of the Sounds of Tokyo (2009)[21]
- Amador (2010)[21]
- Midnight in Paris (2011)[21]
- Politics, an Instruction Manual (2016)[21]
- Sergio and Sergei (2017)[21]
- My Masterpiece (2018)[21]
- 4x4 (2019)[21]
- Rifkin's Festival (2020)[21]
- Official Competition (2021)[21]
- The Good Boss (2021)[21]
References
edit- ^ a b López-Galiacho, Juan Luis (2010). "El oligopolio catalán en los medios de comunicación españoles: un estudio longitudinal". CIC. Cuadernos de Información y Comunicación. 15. ISSN 1135-7991.
- ^ a b c Segura, Cristian (16 February 2018). "Jaume Roures, el magnate de la televisión que votó a la CUP". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 October 2021.
- ^ Cendros, Teresa (19 October 2003). "La trágica vida de Puig Antich llega al cine". El País.
- ^ López-Galiacho 2010, p. 238.
- ^ a b Pérez Serrano, María José (2009). "Movimientos mediáticos en época de crisis. De una fallida concentración a la TDT de pago" (PDF). Actas del I Congreso Internacional Latina de Comunicación Social. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-84-9941-001-2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-01-21. Retrieved 2021-10-23.
- ^ Pérez Serrano 2009, p. 5.
- ^ Fernández-Sande, Manuel (2013). "La crisis de la prensa en España: análisis del caso Público, un diario nacido a contracorriente" (PDF). Revista de Comunicación Vivat Academia. XV (122): 24–25. ISSN 1575-2844.
- ^ Fernández-Sande 2013, p. 27.
- ^ Fernández-Sande 2013, p. 260.
- ^ Fernández-Sande 2013, pp. 29–30.
- ^ Fernández-Sande 2013, p. 31.
- ^ a b Fernández-Sande 2013, p. 32.
- ^ Fernández-Sande 2013, pp. 32–33.
- ^ Fernández-Sande 2013, p. 33.
- ^ Fernández-Sande 2013, p. 34.
- ^ Fernández, Eduardo (19 December 2019). "Mediapro, la productora de Jaume Roures, compra la de Buenafuente, El Terrat". El Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 23 October 2021.
- ^ Manchón, Manel (9 June 2020). "Roures construye una alternativa política para unir a 'comuns' y la CUP". Crónica Global. El Español.
- ^ Hopewell, John (27 October 2023). "Mediapro Founder and Driving Force Jaume Roures Exits Company". Variety.
- ^ López-Galiacho 2010, p. 237.
- ^ a b "Jaume Roures: "No soy independentista"". El Plural. 11 April 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s "Jaume Roures". Cineuropa. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
External links
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