'Terres de Lleida': a hundred commitments with the territory

LleidaThe newspaper ARA is currently the only written medium of national scope for general information that regularly publishes supplements in the three Catalan provinces outside the metropolitan area of Barcelona. On Wednesday, September 27, 2017, the first issue of Ara Terres de Lleida appeared in kiosks, which thus joined the supplements Comarques Gironines and Camp de Tarragona, all of them inserted within the national edition of ARA and available to all readers in the country.

The Terres de Lleida initiative reaches its 100th issue today, a round number that allows for an assessment with a look back.

The publication arose from a collaboration between the newspaper ARA and the Lleida-based communication company 7Accents, which since 2014 had its own masthead. 7Accents was a free medium (first weekly and then monthly) that had a three-year run analyzing current events with a critical spirit and a transversal look at all issues in the province, especially cultural and political ones.

From its synergy with the newspaper ARA, a monthly supplement was born that would have a much wider distribution, with in-depth interviews and reports as its main banner.

Directed by journalist Gerard Martínez, issue 1 of the Ponent supplement opened fire by analyzing the disappeared Fira de Sant Miquel, which in that year 2017 celebrated its 63rd edition, including an interview with its director Oriol Oró. From then on, the supplement has remained faithful to its readers monthly, even during the most critical periods of the pandemic when coverage of topics became really complicated. The primary sector, industry, education, culture, tourism, and politics have been some of the recurring themes in the pages of Terres de Lleida, with a special commitment to aspects that denote social inequalities and deniable facts that Ponent has suffered, such as in transport, energy policy, feminism, and the environment.

A good handful of professionals have passed through the pages of Terres de Lleida, from journalists-reporters Imma González, Abel Pujol, Laia Pulido, Pere M. Gilart, Cristina Montgay, and Albert González Farran, among others, and photographer Santi Iglesias (still active with ARA), to collaborators such as Noemí Vilaseca, poet Amat Baró, writers Eduard Ribera and Gabriel Pena, cultural prescriber Silvina Sànchez, and graphic humorist Lo Migueló.

The supplement has closely followed all electoral contests, especially municipal ones, in which it has played a fundamental role in organizing in-person debates with the lead candidates of the city of Lleida, even moderated by the deputy directors of ARA, Antoni Bassas (in May 2019) and Carla Turró (in May 2023).

Some of the reports from the supplement Terres de Lleida have made important changes possible that have had a direct impact on the society of Lleida. One of the most remembered is the report published in September 2024 about the precarious situation of the obstetrics area at Arnau de Vilanova Hospital, a space that did not comply with the protocol of the Department of Health and the recommendations of the WHO. That report, in addition to winning the Mila Journalism Award for Gender Equality of Lleida, generated a political tsunami that forced the Government to execute an urgent plan for improvements that were completed this June.

With the firm commitment to continue generating quality and local information, the supplement Terres de Lleida will be faithful to its monthly appointment and trusts in organizing a larger commemoration next September when it celebrates its tenth anniversary.