Javier Moll, president of Prensa Ibérica: “In the pages of Faro history has been written and the future will be written”
The leading newspaper of the Spanish press, Vigo Lighthousebrought together nearly half a thousand guests this Thursday to celebrate his 170th anniversary. The Mar de Vigo Auditorium was the setting chosen to celebrate the fact that on November 3rd the 170 years since that Thursday in 1853 in which the promoters of the newspaper committed in their first issue to “contribute to the promotion of the interests of Galicia.”
The event started after the inauguration in the heart of Vigo of an exhibition with a selection of covers that document the role of the newspaper as a privileged witness of what happened in 17 decades of three different centuries. Javier Moll and Arantza Sarasola, president and vice president of Prensa Ibérica, the publishing group to which Faro belongs, opened the event to reiterate their commitment to a newspaper, a city, autonomy and a mode of communication that has made the newspaper one of the group’s flagships and a reference for the regional press in Spain and Europe. “Such is the prestige of the newspaper, that in the 80s it became strategic axis of Prensa Ibérica“said Javier Moll. “It is only fair,” Arantza Sarasola emphasized, “to thank the readers of yesterday and today for their loyalty.” “In the pages of Faro history has been written and the future will be written,” added Moll. , which establishes the dean in “a watchman of the city and on a banner of freedom“.
In addition to Javier Moll and Arantza Sarasola, the mayor of Vigo spoke, Abel Caballero; the editor of the newspaper, Rogelio Garrido; and the president of the Xunta de Galicia, Alfonso Rueda. The first Vigo authority asserted that “the newspaper is our soul, our strength, always in defense of Vigo. It was born to demand, inform, to say what a territory and a city needed (…), to tell us what is happening in the world, in Spain, in Galicia and, of course, in Vigo”.
The director of Faro, Rogelio Garrido, maintained that “being so different from that newspaper of 1853, the newspaper maintains its founding vocation intact for being useful and necessary.”. With quality information, free and plural opinions and calm analysis,” he stated. “I believe that Faro is more than a newspaper today. “It is an instrument that unites citizens, with whom it maintains a permanent dialogue, a daily complicity.”
The president of the Xunta, Alfonso Rueda admitted that Faro de Vigo “raises consciences and forces the power to attend to Galician demands”. The regional leader expressed his gratitude to the Moll Sarasola family, because “they knew that they had a challenge ahead of them, that in all those years of history they could have an end or gain new momentum, as they did.”
The CEO of Prensa Ibérica, Aitor Moll, also attended the Vigo auditorium; the editorial director, Ainhoa Moll; and the general director, Sergi Guillot. The group’s leadership in Galicia was attended by its director and deputy general director, Jesus Echevarria and Juan Carlos Da Silvain addition to the general director of Contents of Prensa Ibérica, Isidoro Nicieza.
Faro de Vigo is, with six printed editions and 200,000 daily readers, the leader in the south of Galicia and the first regional newspaper in digital version, with six million users per month.
From the world of politics There was no shortage of other institutional representatives, such as the president of the Parliament of Galicia, Miguel Santalices; the Government delegate, Pedro Blanco; or the president of the Provincial Council of Pontevedra, Luis López, as well as representatives of the political parties in the autonomous community and members of Vigo entities and institutions, such as the leader of Celta Marian Mouriño; the rector of the University of Vigo, Manuel Reigosa; the deputy director of Xerais, Fran Alonso; or the bishop of Tui-Vigo, Luis Quinteiro.
Representatives of collaborating and sponsoring companiess of the events celebrating this 170th anniversary of Faro also joined the event. The president of Grupo Alvariño, José Manuel Fernández Alvariño, attended; the CEO of Ecoener, Luis de Valdivia; the general commercial director of Abanca, Gabriel González Eiroa; the director of Institutional Relations and Communication of Vegalsa-Eroski, Gabriela González; the general director of Coren, Emilio Rial; the corporate director of Hijos de Rivera, Antonio Viejo; Profand’s Communication Director, María Montero; or the Territorial director of AMA in Galicia, Javier Sande.