ARA reinforces the subscription model and a strong community of readers

BarcelonaARA begins a new stage to reinforce a successful model focused on subscriptions and its community of readers. Patrícia Junyent will be the new general business manager of the publication, thus assuming a large part of the duties of Pablo Casals, who held the position of general manager for almost two years. Casals, who has been part of ARA for nine years, will focus on new professional projects not linked to the newspaper. For her part, in recent months Junyent had already been collaborating with ARA and is now strengthening the relationship.

In her new position as general business manager, Junyent establishes three objectives. "We want to maximize the newspaper's revenue and monetization to ensure its sustainability; maximize audiences and the positive experience of readers, subscribers, advertisers, and institutions, and establish the foundations for growth," she explains. To achieve these goals, work will be carried out primarily with the areas of marketing, advertising, acquisition and subscriptions, customer services, and data and technology. Junyent admits that the context of the sector –with tech companies, journalism consumption habits, and disinformation– is complex, but she considers that the newspaper has a solid base to face it.

The new general business manager has more than fifteen years of experience in strategy, marketing, transformation, and business growth in both local and international environments. With a degree in telecommunications engineering, she holds an MBA from IESE and has completed her training in the United States and France.

"In recent years, the management team has worked hard to make the newspaper a sustainable business. We have always opted for a qualitative model, and that implies a lot of effort, because you have to go against what others are doing. Now quality is starting to carry more weight than quantity, and that favors ARA, which has a very strong base of subscribers," reflects Casals, who closes his stage at ARA with notable growth in the number of subscribers. For Casals, one of ARA's strengths is having "an ironclad community," and he is convinced that the newspaper has a lot of momentum.

To continue the path focused on subscriptions and the ARA community, the newspaper will also implement other organizational changes. In this regard, Xavi Linares, corporate financial director, will assume some of the functions previously held by Pablo Casals, and Marçal Sarrats, who joined the newspaper a few months ago as head of community and institutional relations, will strengthen his role in this area.