The seventh edition of the ÑH7 «The Best of Newspaper Design Spain & Portugal» Congress opened on Wednesday 10 November. About fifty people attended the event, which took place at the restaurant Bamboo Sea, in the Veles e Vent Building, near the port of Valencia, in a warm, pleasant evening.

Javier Errea, President of the Spanish Chapter of the SND, began by thanking the attendees for their presence, and also giving thanks to «Las Provincias» newspaper, which «as the host media of this Congress has believed from the beginning in the project and got totally involved in its development». In Errea's view, «this year we have a very interesting program with lots of stuff focused on the digital world, both graphics and contents». The President of the SND-E stressed in particular that «we want to hold a congress on journalism, not only on newspaper design, for we should not forget that we are journalists, and as such we have to contribute to new ways of storytelling». Errea ended his speech praising «the work of Design or Art sections in the Media. What you achieve is really important, but you have to keep working hard».

Then took the floor Julián Quirós, director of the newspaper «Las Provincias», property of the Vocento Group, who welcomed the attendees to Valencia, «a city that certainly has something to do with design». Quirós thanked Errea, his team and the SND-E «for choosing us to organize this seventh edition of the Congress. Like the rest of the Group, Las Provincias underwent a redesign last year, which has not only affected the graphic side. We face an important challenge, we are printing in full color, taking special account of photography. We want to prove that we love design and that we are interested in it». Similarly, Quirós adressed his final words to the Design and Art areas.  «In the beginning you were the 'stripe guys', at whom everybody blamed because things did not fit. And now you are a critical part of any newspaper».

The last speaker was Toni Canal, director of the Editorial Index Book, publisher of the ÑH book. Canal made a reference to the crisis and to «the hard times that we have to endure. It's a brutal crisis, of finances and of values. But we are surviving, and we believe in this». According to Canal, «it smells like paper. Perhaps next year we will be talking about iPads or other things, but I do not think so. Paper stands its ground, and so does our industry. We have to change the formats and believe in our specialization».

More information:

First Day

Second Day

Closure