ElDiario.es sells 10% of Infolibre to José Miguel Contreras

ElDiario.es leaves Infolibre as a shareholder. A year and a half after the corporate alliance, the media outlet led by Ignacio Escolar has sold 10% of its stake in Infolibre to businessman José Miguel Contreras, in exchange for recovering the stake he had in ElDiario.es, which amounted to 1% of the capital, according to DIRCOMFIDENCIAL.

This operation puts an end to the professional relationship between Ignacio Escolar and the founder of Globomedia and former CEO of La Sexta, which began in 2018. An end preceded by Contreras’ resignation as an independent director of ElDiario.es in April, after the integration of his audiovisual production company, Lacoproductora, into the structure of Prisa Media. The businessman considered that this acquisition was incompatible with his presence on the Board of Directors of ElDiario.es.

During this period, Contreras has contributed to promoting a common audiovisual strategy between ElDiario.es and Infolibre. A goal that, according to sources close to these media, was blurred by the economic effects of the pandemic, at a time when, at the same time, Prisa offered Contreras to reinforce its audiovisual strategy.

Although ElDiario.es and Infolibre have closed a shareholding stage, they want to maintain their collaboration agreement that began in 2020, which includes, among other things, a joint membership fee. Sources at ElDiario.es stress that their relationship “continues to be good”, both with Infolibre and with Contreras.

Contreras es el principal socio de Infolibre, con una participación de cerca del 45%.

The result of this operation has allowed Contreras to gain significant weight in Infolibre. He has gone from owning a stake of around 35% to almost 45%, which positions him as the main partner of the medium run by Jesús Maraña.

The Society of Friends of Infolibre, made up of founding journalists, investors and readers, owns around 20% of the newspaper, and the French digital media company Mediapart, 10%. The president of the Catalan publishing house Edhasa, Daniel Fernández, with whom they created Ediciones Prensa Libre S.L., the newspaper’s publishing company, is also a partner.

Contreras’ shareholding increase comes at a delicate time for Infolibre. In 2021 it recorded a loss of 237,840 euros before tax – 86,574 euros more than in the previous year.

On the other hand, in Prisa, Contreras has a stake of less than 1% of the shareholding and holds the position of strategic advisor to the executive president of Prisa Media, Carlos Núñez.