'La Razón' forgets that it is 'La Razón'

This Sunday's front page of La Razón was truly singular. Isabel Díaz Ayuso was on the cover, interviewed, with the headline that read: “Sánchez is a phony, he seeks profitability and whitewashing with the Pope's visit”. One of the subheadings was: “He doesn't go to mass, he has denied state funerals in churches and now all that's missing is the mantilla”. Obviously, Ayuso being on the front page didn't make that front page singular. And we'll agree that, from the perspective of journalistic revelation, that the PSOE leader isn't much of a churchgoer wasn't highly valued at Bet&Win. None of that. What was unheard of is that the newspaper did not include its masthead on that page. Only if someone looked at the bottom left corner, turned the newspaper 90 degrees, and took out a magnifying glass, would they then see an inscription reminding them that it was La Razón, next to the date. The masthead is a sacred element, which contains the main corporate image of a written medium. It usually only stands out in the case of those sponsored front pages that make journalists and readers a bit uncomfortable (but which cannot be casually rejected, considering how the press is doing).

That the Planeta newspaper comes out on Sunday with a front page without a header leads one to speculate whether this is the way the newspaper indicates that the interview is paid for or is part of an agreement instigated by the Community of Madrid on the occasion of the Pope's visit. In other words, the cover is as advertising as when it is Repsol or whoever colonizes the noblest page of the day. I suppose it will eventually be discovered, if there is a contract involved. If not, semiotically they have resolved it in the worst possible way, with that infinitesimal mention in the little corner, right next to the solemn motto Diario independiente de información general.