General Information » Further Reading » Newspapers & Magazines

Local and international newspapers and magazines are not difficult to find in Barcelona, and there's a good cross-section of titles to peruse.

Being a bilingual city, the local daily newspapers come either in Spanish or Catalan, or sometimes both. Avui (www.avui.cat) and El Punt (www.vilaweb.cat) are Catalan papers, and broadly nationalist. El Mundo (www.elmundo.com, broadly centrist) El Pais (www.elpais.com, left-leaning with good foreign coverage) are in Spanish. La Vangaurdia (www.lavanguardia.es, conservative, best-seller) and El Periódico (www.elperiodico.cat, more serious than the bright layout suggests) are printed in both languages. They cost €1 on weekdays and €2 for the weekend editions. These papers all have a political slant, so it’s important to understand what you’re reading. They also tend to be quite serious and offer proper commentary and analysis. It is an endearing idiosyncrasy that they are sold next to gossip mags and prominently displayed pornography. The main sports dailies are Marca (www.marca.com) and AS (www.as.com). Both are quite tabloid in style.

During the morning commute, you'll see people reading ADN, Metro and 20 Minutos, the free dailies distributed around newspaper kiosks, bakeries, cafes and main train, subway and bus stops. Stories run side-by-side in Catalan and Spanish, and just to confuse you further, some front-page headlines and summaries start in one language and continue on the jump page in the other one. Every neighbourhood, too, has free weekly papers highlighting the goings-on in the barri.

International papers line the racks of most newspaper kiosks and shops. You'll have better luck finding publications like the Financial Times, Guardian, International Herald Tribune, Irish Times, New York Times, Telegraph, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, in areas that get more tourist foot traffic, but, increasingly, they are becoming more common in the traditional residential areas as well. Expect to pay €2 to €3 during the week for foreign papers. If you don't want to cough up the extra dough, head over to the library; many branches have a decent stack of regional and international broadsheets.

There are a couple local English titles worth noting. Catalonia Today (www.cataloniatoday.cat) is a weekly newspaper (2€) highlighting key city and regional news and events. It is published by the same people that do El Punt, and aims to give a Catalan perspective to English speakers. Barcelona Metropolitan (www.barcelona-metropolitan.com) is a free, A4 sized mo...

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