On Friday 26 October, the third edition of the "Proa Communication Observatory" was held. On this occasion, the guest speaker was Inmaculada Mardonesformer editor-in-chief of "El País" and Director of Communications at the Ministry of Public Works under Magdalena Álvarez. Mardones has a degree in Political and Social Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid and has spent most of her journalistic career in one of the most influential newspapers in our country.
In this session of the Observatory, the situation of the media was analysed in which, according to Mardones, a "progressive loss of quality in the work of journalists" was detected. For this professional, this is due, in part, to the "worsening of working conditions: those who are just starting out find it very difficult to develop as true professionals if their salary depends on the number of pieces written. This system favours quantity over quality".
The present and future of lobbying in Spain was another of the topics discussed during the session. For Mardones, this is a sector with an unfair negative image because, "it plays a necessary role in the consensual development of laws drafted by the Executive". In fact, if it had a greater presence, he added, "many of the parties involved would provide information and fundamental points of view on certain issues, in which the technicians of the different administrations do not necessarily have to be trained".
In response to the doubts raised about the future of print journalism, Inmaculada Mardones put forward two ideas. On the one hand, she emphasised the importance that the country's major figures and businessmen continue to give to this medium. The most important tribunes or operations," she stressed, "continue to be published in print rather than online". On the other hand, faced with the uncertainty of the country's headlines, according to Mardones, "there will always be the brands, an extremely important asset whose value and, above all, notoriety, are beyond doubt".
Finally, Mardones highlighted the importance of the work of communication agencies, which have become a source of useful, first-hand information for many journalists. A good agency is one that, according to this media veteran, "knows how to find what is newsworthy within companies, aspects that the client is not able to see on his own".
Proa Communication Observatoryis a discussion forum to analyse new ideas and trends in the field of corporate communication. The Proa Observatory was created with the vocation of being a laboratory of ideas where a genuine dialogue is fostered to debate and analyse, among other issues: corporate reputation, brand and public affairs as key elements in business improvement.