A commitment to communication that benefits the whole society
Francina Armengol- President of the Balearics
The fact that Mallorca is where the only daily newspaper in English in the whole of Spain was founded and developed has always been a source of pride. That the publication is enjoying its sixtieth anniversary in 2022 is a reason for celebration. And there is cause for recognition, as these six decades of history are being reached with a very clear commitment to digitalisation, which strengthens communication and journalism on these islands.
The Majorca Daily Bulletin has always been a fundamental element for the close relations between our islands and the United Kingdom. It has been a cohesive factor for historical ties that have long been strong but which have been transforming and adapting, and this is what the Bulletin is now doing. A renewal will update the publication, while there is adaptation to the digital age in continuing to offer public service information within the Balearics and away from the islands.
Innovation has been one of the government’s main themes since 2015, but especially since the start of the pandemic, which has shown us that public support for the modernisation of our businesses is the way to go. It also showed that this had to be accelerated and given the necessary resources for essential changes to be made today in order to build a better tomorrow.
It is exciting to see how businesses of all kinds are advancing equally in this direction and are contributing their knowledge, resources and ideas in making the Balearics a place where innovation is the central axis of our economy and where digitalisation shortens distances and strengthens the transmission of knowledge.
The media plays a key role in this and so, therefore, does the new Mallorca Bulletin - as a business, through renewal, and as a newspaper with a long history on our islands by acting as a transmission belt for an information society that is under construction in the Balearics and which is as unstoppable as it is necessary.
There are many British citizens who got to know the islands decades ago and found that here was the place to spend their retirement. Others came to study, to work during the season or to have a quick getaway to good weather. A love for the islands made them stay and now welcome friends and family as visitors. We are speaking, therefore, of generations of emotional connection and constant communication.
Changes are not always easy. They require courage and teamwork, something which the editorial and management professionals will know to do, as they have done till now. The pages of your newspaper will be turned into a key source of information for the foreign-speaking population in the Balearics and a vital tool for the promotion of our islands in the UK. It will act as a link between two places separated by kilometres but united by the thousands of people who look upon Mallorca and the other islands as their second home.
Good luck with the new project to all those involved in this transformation, good luck with this new stage, and congratulations on sixty years of history of Balearic journalism.
I wish the Bulletin all the best
Hugh Elliott - British ambassador
I wish the Majorca Daily Bulletin every success in your new incarnation. You've been so important to the British community in the Balearics. Although I can't be with you in person I will be raising a small toast to you tonight. I have been in Mallorca this week and I wish I could have attended your launch on Friday. Unfortunately not. I wish you every success for the future and thank you for all your support over the years.
New stage, same spirit
Catalina Cladera - President of the Council of Mallorca
It has been 60 years since Pere Serra thought it would be a good idea to publish a new newspaper in English, one that was “made in Mallorca” and designed to explain the island to the first Britons who were beginning to live among us and who were also the tourists of the first boom. It was without doubt an idea that was advanced for its time, and it is still valid.
Far from dying, that initial idea of a daily paper in English for a temporary audience or resident, who was not born on our island but was interested in what happens here, now has new impetus from a commitment to new technologies. New digital media will expand the audience of the Majorca Daily Bulletin. With content adapted to and attractive for portable devices, information will be brought closer to a new and more dynamic reader.
Mallorca is a paradise for millions of Britons who spend long seasons with us or who come for a few days each year. The other day, the British ambassador to Spain, Hugh Elliott, expressed his joy to me at seeing the British returning to Mallorca as normal this year. For all these people, the Bulletin is a reference that provides them with information, entertains them and establishes a bridge of contact with our society. And in their language - when they are here and when they return home.
During the downturn caused by the pandemic, we said that we must come back stronger from crisis. To be stronger means renewing business initiatives, relaunching them after having protected them when conditions were not at all favourable. That is why welcoming this new Bulletin - digital and multimedia, technological and advanced - is good news from all points of view. Good news for journalism, for companies that operate and grow in Mallorca, and also for all the people who somewhere in the world are looking for current information about our island - in English, but with an unequivocal Mallorcan accent.
As president of the Council of Mallorca, it is an honour to respond to Grup Serra’s invitation to collaborate in this launch of the Majorca Daily Bulletin’s new multimedia project. This opens a new stage but does so by retaining the spirit as it has always been - reporting on what happens in Mallorca all over the world.
A new project with an assured continuity
José Hila - Mayor of Palma
In 1962, Pere A. Serra, founder of the Group Serra, decided to launch a newspaper in English edited from Palma for British readers, both residents of the Balearic islands and the United Kingdom, among other countries.
Thus was born the Majorca Daily Bulletin, a new and risky enterprise that turned out to be a success. To this day, 60 years later, it continues to give its readers the news of our city and our islands, also becoming a platform for promoting Palma and the Balearic Islands. This enterprise, now going one step further, is transformed into a digital newspaper, with a new website that provides a wider information span about the most important events that interest the readers.
Moreover, the edition will be complemented by a weekly paper, allowing a relaxed reading of the day to day information. Herewith, I take the opportunity of congratulating the management of the Majorca Daily Bulletin and its editors for this initiative as well as for choosing to report from Palma the happenings in our city, always keeping in mind the reader in the United Kingdom. It allows us to have our actions and performances publicised, as well as representing a first magnitude tourist window.
Palma has more than 4.500 residents from the United Kingdom, being one of the largest communities. It is important that they should have access to everything that happens in the city and that would be of interest, in their own language.
Not only the local residents but also the readers from the United Kingdom, the United States and Scandinavia, who today, represent the 70 percent of the digital edition readers. I am wholly convinced that this new enterprise starting now will further increase the audience of the Majorca Daily Bulletin, a new project with an assured continuity through the years to come.
Congratulations.
Mallorca Bulletin - the new stage
Alfonso Rodriguez - Mayor of Calvia
I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate the Mallorca Bulletin team and wish them the best for the new stage that they are undertaking. I do so with the certainty that, through their informative function, they will continue to contribute to the benefit of an increasingly informed and responsible society.
Coinciding with the sixtieth anniversary of the uninterrupted publication of our country’s English-language newspaper par excellence, I am pleased to witness its evolution and the decisive step towards the digital universe that this new stage represents, while maintaining a commitment to a quality print edition. The Majorca Daily Bulletin has been particularly attentive to everything that happens in a first-rate tourism municipality such as Calvia. We are grateful for the special attention that has been paid to the foreign residents in our municipality over the decades. This has therefore given a voice to individuals and to members of Calvia associations and groups in their need for communication and public expression as new residents in this land of welcome.
As this new window opens, we express our appreciation to the whole Mallorca Bulletin family, and we join in the congratulations in wishing a long life to this renewed project.
Tradition and cutting-edge
María Frontera - President of the Hoteliers Federation
It is magnificent news that the Majorca Daily Bulletin, the only English daily newspaper in Spain, is making the definitive leap into the digital universe, while not abandoning the weekly paper edition. As it marks the 60th anniversary of its launch, this news symbolises the commitment of the Serra family and the team led by Jason Moore to transformation and adaptation to new habits demanded by consumers - the people. This is a value that we share at the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation and is inextricably related to tourism activity and the hotel industry, which I have the pride and enormous responsibility of representing. Ours is a flexible sector that is accustomed to responding quickly to changes in demand. I can do no more than offer my congratulations on this new stage, which reinforces the triple link that the Majorca Daily Bulletin has been developing with the British community in Mallorca since 1962. It is like the great classics, those that are very difficult to replace and sustain. But through knowledge and by doing things well, there is updating that is impregnated with large doses of tradition plus the cutting-edge.
It is a showcase that is more necessary than ever, not only because of the need to incorporate digital local news but also in order to inform the English-speaking community about Mallorca from Mallorca.
This is a community for which new horizons are being opened. In June, United Airlines will start the direct route between New York and Palma. This represents an opportunity both for Mallorca and for the Majorca Daily Bulletin. To readers in the established British and Nordic markets will be added those in North America. There is undoubtedly a new “communication channel” that opens a door to Americans to discover the ancient wealth of Mallorcan culture - the Mediterranean in its purest form.
Tourism activity is constantly evolving. For its durability, it is necessary to adopt measures for its sustainability in the broadest sense of the term, just as the hotel sector in Mallorca is developing together with various interest groups.
This is a great challenge in which we are fully immersed, and I am sure that visitors to the island will appreciate and take pleasure in it. In the hotel sector, we are delighted to make possible that when people visit us, they enjoy what we do best, which is “the art of welcome”.
Working together alongside for many years
Mark Tanzer - Chief Executive ABTA
ABTA, The Travel Association wishes the Majorca Daily Bulletin all the best with its new website and weekly publication, Mallorca Bulletin. ABTA has worked alongside the Bulletin for many years through our conventions on the island dating back to 1973. We also appreciate the work you do to help and inform British tourists on the island. Hope to see you soon with another convention in Mallorca.
Changing times but same philosophy
Jason Moore - Managing Editor
I joined the Bulletin in 1988 when our offices where in the Calle San Felio, just off the Paseo del Borne. To this day this rather non-descript office space in a Palma back street is known as the spiritual home of the paper but these days I am the only member of staff who actually worked there! In 1988 the Bulletin had just switched over from “hot metal printing” to early computers. Journalists at the time still produced their copy on a typewriter. This was a problem for me because in those days I couldn’t type...but the editor said on my first day that I wouldn’t be able to go home until he heard the keyboard being punched with confidence. I quickly learnt! I was always a poor typist and I was over the moon when we made the switch to computers. To produce the Bulletin in those days a small army of people was needed. Even our news feed from the United Kingdom came on a giant teleprinter which would frequently get jammed. One of my first jobs was ripping the football results off the teleprinter on a Saturday afternoon and racing downstairs and handing them to a typist. After being typed they would be mounted on a page and then sent to the printers. The production of the Bulletin took many hours. The technology revolution continued when we moved to our new offices in the Paseo del Mallorca. Computers were playing a big role. Texts from our news feed no longer had to be typed, they went direct to your computer and a technician would actually mount the page on a computer. Naturally, in those days there were no websites, newspapers were the only major way to get the news. At the end of the day you were reporting on yesterday’s news. I remember being extremely frustrated waiting for the U.S. election results only to close the paper at 4am without a result. Fifteen minutes later, Barack Obama was declared President. I remember thinking to myself that things had to change. And they did. The arrival of the website meant that news could be delivered much faster, almost at once. This is one of the reasons why having a new website is so fantastic, we can report the news almost as it happens. Things have changed greatly during my time at the Bulletin. Technology has obviously made a big difference. What has not changed though is our philosophy. We have always been a community newspaper and we will continue to be so. Also, we have a duty of care to our readership to keep them informed at all times and at all moments.