Rebeka Calvo (Tolosa, Gipuzkoa, 1981) began his work as a journalist in 2008 in the journal Hitza de Tolosaldea and Leitzaldea. In December he was appointed coordinator of the Tolosaldea Portal.

Taking 1,000 numbers in Basque is no small matter. What is the balance of these five years ago?

We make a very good balance bueno.Cuando we agreed the merger of the semanaries Galtzaundi, Txolarre irratia and Tolosaldeko Hitza, we thought we had to offer Tolosaldea a communication project in solid Basque. Surely there are things to improve, but we are still developing the project and tackling new challenges.

How did you feel when you took office as coordinator in December?

With a lot of responsibility. We're small, but we have big concerns. Journalists also have their responsibility on a daily basis, as they have a multimedia character. When you're looking for news, you have to think about paper, newspaper and weekly, Internet and radio. Coordinating all of this is not an easy challenge. Anyway, I'm looking forward.

How do readers, subscribers and Atarikide data go?

In these five years, the number of readers has been increasing. According to CIES, we have 12,000 readers. That means that in the region we reach a third of those who know Euskera. We keep subscribers. Taking care of them is fundamental to us, because we are working for self-financing.

To what extent have Internet data increased in recent years?

We've always put the web in the center, it has a centrality. In these five years, visits to the website have multiplied by four and unique users have doubled. About 40% of visits to the web come from social networks, mainly from Facebook and Twitter, among others. On Facebook, we have 5,615 followers and on Twitter, 3,918. We're also on Instagram and Youtube.

In the area there is a TV: Canal 28. What relationship do you have with them?

28 We collaborate with the channel on specific projects. For example, in the Carnivals we will share the sucking of Gordo Thursday. We will also collaborate with some videos in carnivals.

How about the advertising entries lately?

Advertising is difficult, but we are also making new bets on that. Forms of consumption are changing and we would like to make more innovative offers for advertising. Paper is the main source of revenue, but we would like to enhance advertising on the Internet.

For the coming months, what are your main challenges?

As usual, we want to offer quality, local journalism, and we want to remain the meeting point and support of the Basque people. We would like to enhance the presence of the web and social networks. We want to reach out to young people, and to that end we will have to strengthen the multimedia character.

Do you see the opportunity to work more with the social agents and municipalities of the region?

We have always kept in mind that this is the portal of all citizens. Work must be done in cooperation with the agents and municipalities. On the other hand, the community section can be found on the web, where agents can publish content. It is our intention that the individuals of the agents should physically approach us, that is, our headquarters. We would like to have direct contact so that the headquarters of the Tolosaldea Portal will feel like yours.

What is the best and the worst for local journalists?

The best thing is a direct relationship with people. The bad thing can also be that, that people are too high. Closeness gives good things, and sometimes bad things, but there's usually more good things.

This interview has been posted in News and we have brought it thanks to the Creative Commons license.