The OLIVE PRESS newspaper has just launched a German edition to sit alongside its five English language editions covering Andalucía, Gibraltar, Costa Blanca South, Costa Blanca North and the Balearic Islands.
History of the Olive Press
The free fortnightly paper was first published back in 2006. I remember picking up a copy at Granada airport around that time. I was so impressed with this alternative to the, back then, somewhat dull SUR in English and the sensationalist trash that was and still is, The Euro Weekly News.
When I emigrated in 2008, I propositioned Olive Press editor Jon Clarke for a job. We met, and although I’m not a trained journalist, I know how to write and had experience of publishing in-house journals and newsletters, as well as educational manuals in my last job, before I retired.
Clarke, a former Daily Mail journalist who had moved to live in Spain, took me on and gave me my first assignment - to write a review of the bars in the Barrio San Francisco in Ronda for a supplement about the Serrania town.
I did that and got quite a few adverts from the bars around the square in the barrio.
Jon seemed pleased, so took me on. I worked part-time for the paper for the best part of a year, selling advertising space on a commission basis, and writing articles in my spare time.
15 years on, I still write on an ad hoc basis for several websites, newspapers and magazines and occasionally as a guest writer for the Olive Press.
Olive Press Alemán – the German edition
I’ve just finished reading the very first German edition. It’s good. Many articles are translations of items in the English editions, but not all. I happen to be a fluent German speaker and I can assure potential readers that the German versions are genuine and done by native German speakers.
In the first edition, which like its English cousins, is available in the usual outlets, there is a particularly impressive article about Federico García Lorca, the homosexual poet and playwright murdered in 1936 by General Franco’s henchmen in Fuente Vaqueros (Granada). Lorca’s remains have still not been found.
Olive Press publisher Jon Clarke was approached by a group of German readers suggesting he start a German edition.
“They insisted that while [many] Germans can speak English and read it, they are so much happier doing so in their own language,” Clarke explained.
“In the end, a German edition was a no brainer,” he added.
The Olive Press Alemán involves teams in Berlin and Hamburg working together with journalists based in the Marbella area.
A key player in the development of this new edition is Elsa Ibáñez, half Spanish, half German, who acts as the “middlewoman”.
Clarke concluded: “The paper looks great, even if I can’t understand it!”
I agree. It does look great and is a very welcome addition to the free paper scene here in southern Spain.
Some of The Olive Press Aleman team with Jon Clarke 2nd from left
© Pablo de Ronda
Tags: Barrio San Francisco, Berlin, Elsa Ibáñez, Euro Weekly News, Hamburg, Jon Clarke, Marbella, Olive Press, Olive Press Alemán, Pablo de Ronda, Ronda, Sur in English