La Vanguardia is a Spanish daily newspaper founded in 1881. It is printed in both Spanish and Catalan and has its headquarters in Barcelona. It is Catalonia’s leading newspaper and has the fourth-highest circulation among general-interest newspapers in Spain. Its editorial line leans to the center of politics and is moderate in its opinions.
La Vanguardia was first published in Barcelona in 1881 by two businessmen from Igualada. It was a Diario político de avisos y notícias (Political Newspaper of Announcements and News). On the first day of the Universal Exposition of Barcelona, it presented a new, politically independent format with morning and afternoon editions.
La Vanguardia is one of the oldest papers in Spain and is the only Catalan newspaper that has survived all Spanish regime changes. It is part of the Grupo Godó, run by Carlos Godó Valls since 1931. The paper was one of two major dailies in Francoist Spain and had close connections with Convergence and Union alliance in the late 1970s and 1980s.
La Vanguardia is a newspaper published in Spain. In 1987, it received the second-largest amount of state aid. It was printed in Berliner format until 2007 when it switched to tabloid format. In 1994, the Society for News Design awarded La Vanguardia with the World’s Best Designed Newspaper award.
La Vanguardia had a circulation of 221,451 copies in 1970 and 218,390 copies in 1975. In 2001, its circulation was 205,000 copies, and 203,000 copies in 2003. Between 2006-2007 it had a circulation of 209,735 and 213,413 copies in 2008. In 2011, its circulation was 196,824 copies.
The newspaper La Vanguardia prints daily in two parallel editions: Spanish and Catalan. Before the Catalan edition was introduced, letters to the editor submitted in Catalan were not translated.