Periodismo económico in Spain: Better or worse than the United States?

After spending a week in Spain teaching, reading and watching business journalism (periodismo económico), here are some thoughts:

1. Business journalism watchers in Spain believe that some of the country’s largest and most well-known companies get a pass from the Spanish business media for fear of antagonizing them. For example, it is the belief of these watchers that Banco Santander is not covered as aggressively by the Spanish business media as the bank is covered by the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal.

The recent revelation that convicted Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff met with executives at Santander was downplayed by the Spanish business media.

2. A business journalist recently called a regional bank to get a comment from its PR people for a story he was about to run. The business journalist was told that the PR person would call back in an hour with the response. The journalist waited five hours and then discovered that the bank had given the story to another media organization and then sent out a press release to the rest of the media. It was the second time this bank’s corporate communications staff had used such a strategy.

That would never happen in the United States, right?

3. In the 1990s, a financial journalist in Spain discovered that a bank in the country was about to be taken over by the government. What did he do with this information? He and his relatives immediately went to the bank and took out their savings before the word got out. He was not prosecuted. In fact, some consider him a hero.

4. The business reporting class taught at the University of Navarra in Pamplona will become a required course for all journalism students beginning in the next academic year.