ABC was first published in
Madrid on 1 January 1903[1][2] by
Torcuato Luca de Tena y Álvarez-Ossorio.[3][4] The founding publishing house was Prensa Española, which was led by the founder of the paper, Luca de Tena.[4] The paper started as a
weekly newspaper, turning daily in June 1905.[5] In 1928 ABC had two editions, one for Madrid and the other for
Seville.[4][6] The latter was named ABC de Sevilla.[4]
On 20 July 1936, shortly after the
Spanish Civil War began, ABC in Madrid was seized by the republican government, which changed the paper's politics to support the
Republicans. The same year Blanco y Negro, a magazine, became its
supplement.[7] The ABC printed in Seville was supportive of the
Nationalists. In 1939 ABC in
Madrid was given back to its original owners by
Francisco Franco.[3] During this period the paper was one of two major dailies in the country together with La Vanguardia Española.[2]
ABC is known for generally supporting
conservative political views,[13] and defending the
Spanish monarchy.[14] The paper has also a
right-wing stance.[15] Its director since 1983,
Luis María Ansón, left the paper in 1997;[9] he founded another daily, La Razón, which initially catered to even more conservative readers. Historically, it was noted in its heavy use of photography, and the front page is typically a large photo taking up to one third of the area. Recently, it has been recognized for its coverage of Spanish culture and arts.[3]
Archives
On 25 September 2009, ABC made its complete archives, dating back to 1903, available online, giving modern readers a chance to see contemporaneous news about the Spanish Civil War or
Francisco Franco's death.
Circulation and readership
In February 1970 ABC had a circulation of 212,536 copies.[16] It was 178,979 copies in February 1975,[16] 171,382 copies in 1976, 145,162 copies in 1977. and 126,952 copies in 1978.[1] The circulation of the paper was 135,380 copies in February 1980.[16]
The 1993 circulation of ABC was 334,317 copies, making it the second-best-selling newspaper in Spain.[17][18] In 1994. it was again the second-best-selling newspaper in the country with a circulation of 321,571 copies.[18][19] In the period of 1995–1996 the paper had a circulation of 321,573 copies, making again it the second-best-selling paper in the country.[20]
The circulation of ABC was 292,000 copies in 2001[21] and 262,874 copies in 2002.[12] The paper had a circulation of 263,000 copies in 2003, being the fourth best-selling newspaper in the country.[22][23] Based on the findings of the European Business Readership Survey ABC had 5,685 readers per issue in 2006.[24] Between June 2006 and July 2007 the daily had a circulation of 230,422 copies.[5] The 2008 circulation of the paper was 228,258 copies.[25] It was 243,154 copies between July 2010 and June 2011.[26]
^
abTeresa Ortiz-Gómez; Agata Ignaciuk (2013). ""Pregnancy and labour cause more deaths than oral contraceptives": The debate on the pill in the Spanish press in the 1960s and 1970s". Public Understanding of Science. 24 (6): 658–671.
doi:
10.1177/0963662513509764.
ISSN0963-6625.
PMID24259515.
S2CID28696508.
^
abc"ABC". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I: A-Ak - Bayes (15th ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 2010. p.
14.
ISBN978-1-59339-837-8.
^Richard Gunther; Jose Ramon Montero; Jose Ignacio Wert (2000).
"The media and politics in Spain". In Richard Gunther; Anthony Mughan (eds.). Democracy and the Media: A Comparative Perspective. Cambridge University Press.
ISBN9780521777438. Retrieved 27 November 2014.
^
ab"Facts of Spain". Florida International University. Archived from
the original on 21 June 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2015.
^Alvarez, Jose L.; Mazza, Carmelo; Mur, Jordi (October 1999).
"The management publishing industry in Europe"(PDF). IESE Occasional Papers. 99 (4). University of Navarra. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 30 June 2010. Retrieved 27 April 2015.