7 Apr, 2020 @ 13:44
2 mins read

We are asking that YOU help us to help you

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TRUSTED NEWS MATTERS… THE OLIVE PRESS – A BRAND YOU CAN TRUST

These are trying times for everyone in Spain. Workers are unsure of their next paycheck, business owners are laying-off their best and brightest, and retirees are getting fined for a dog walk.

We are all on survival mode as we do battle with COVID-19.

Inevitably, the coronavirus pandemic has hit the Olive Press economically, as both print and digital revenues sink by up to 80%.

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Meanwhile, our media family of 20-plus writers and journalists (to just five sales people) continue to scour every corner of the country for the latest news and we continue to print and distribute to the 20 to 25% of drops that are still open.

But we have a wider family too: our two to three million-plus community of expats in Spain, who more than ever need quality news tailored to their needs. And those millions of foreigners out there in the UK, Ireland, Holland, Sweden, America, etc, who log on to our website for news of what’s happening here every week.

We are therefore asking that YOU help us to help you.

We want to stay as independent and as strong as possible as the world continues to see a collapse of traditional media in the face of social media platforms, giving rise to false news.

We want to be able to double and triple check every story that comes in… and to ask the tricky questions, to voice our opinions and set our own agenda. We don’t want to be in hoc to politicians and town halls, nor big business.

We want to continue taking on the corrupt and crooked in Spain as we have for 14 years… and speak up for those who don’t have a voice. We want to keep fighting for the underdog.

So anything you can contribute, however small, helps us to put our professionally-trained journalists (many NCTJ Gold Standard) to probe the dodgiest town hall decision, the local boiler room fraudster and the financial sharks, that shame Spain’s costas.

We also want to give you the latest updates from Pedro Sanchez, to plug you in to Spain’s top debates and to put it all into a language we understand.

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We already do our best to keep our printed newspapers to a very maximum of 50% advertising.

What we need on our website (which gets four million plus visitors a month) is a format that will keep the news free at point-of-use but also keep our journalists glued to their TV screens and Twitter feeds, to update it. Rather than guard our content behind a paywall, which is being introduced by many global newspapers, we are asking for solidarity. We want all our content to be free and available to all, at all times.

Just €5 could mean one of our articles stops an unnecessary fine. Just €10 for a feature that could save you precious hours scouring through Spanish legal sites to navigate clunky bureaucracy. Or €20 for some advice that could save a life.

As much as you need news and information, we also need YOU.

Please give generously, as a one-off donation, or if you prefer monthly.

Yours

The Olive Press family

Click here to read more News from The Olive Press.

Jon Clarke (Publisher & Editor)

Jon Clarke is a Londoner who worked at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday as an investigative journalist before moving to Spain in 2003 where he helped set up the Olive Press.

After studying Geography at Manchester University he fell in love with Spain during a two-year stint teaching English in Madrid.

On returning to London, he studied journalism and landed his first job at the weekly Informer newspaper in Teddington, covering hundreds of stories in areas including Hounslow, Richmond and Harrow.

This led on to work at the Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Mirror, Standard and even the Sun, before he landed his first full time job at the Daily Mail.

After a year on the Newsdesk he worked as a Showbiz correspondent covering mostly music, including the rise of the Spice Girls, the rivalry between Oasis and Blur and interviewed many famous musicians such as Joe Strummer and Ray Manzarak, as well as Peter Gabriel and Bjorn from Abba on his own private island.

After a year as the News Editor at the UK’s largest-selling magazine Now, he returned to work as an investigative journalist in Features at the Mail on Sunday.

As well as tracking down Jimi Hendrix’ sole living heir in Sweden, while there he also helped lead the initial investigation into Prince Andrew’s seedy links to Jeffrey Epstein during three trips to America.

He had dozens of exclusive stories, while his travel writing took him to Jamaica, Brazil and Belarus.

He is the author of three books; Costa Killer, Dining Secrets of Andalucia and My Search for Madeleine.

Contact jon@theolivepress.es

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