Ángel García Colín has left without losing his good humor. Those who have just now associated his name with his memory, having met him, will first imagine his early bald head and his frequent smile, and then his conversation full of jokes and jokes. He repeated them often, but they were still funny.
Born in Durango in 1959, but in the Leonese town of Cistierna, he died in Madrid this Saturday at the age of 66, as a result of cancer. With a degree in Information Sciences from the University of the Basque Country and a doctorate from the Complutense University, his professional career almost always took place in an activity parallel to journalism: advertising, marketing and media management. But in those tasks he was always just another journalist, capable of understanding the long-term logic of those who run the media and complementing them without violence with the short-term needs of those who manage them.
He worked since 1992 for Grupo Prisa newspapers such as EL PAÍS, As o five days, and was a founding and decisive member of Printed Media Management (GMI), a company created in 1999 by that publishing company and which included newspapers such as The Andalusian Post Office, Odiel, Jaén o The Day of Valladolid, as well as, later, the Bolivian newspapers The Reason, Extra y The New Day. He also simultaneously played a driving role and created synergies in the Press Media Management company, where he coordinated Prisa’s collaboration with newspaper publishing companies such as Canarias 7, El Punt, Diario de Burgos, Diario Palentino, Gaceta Regional de Salamanca, El Progreso de Lugo, Segre, Diario de Notices, Diario del Alto Aragón and Diario de Noticias de Navarra, for which Prisa produced the innovative weekly supplement The Look, among other products.
Previously, he had worked, since 1987, at Prensa Española (currently Vocento, editor of Abc), and also passed through Editorial Católica (which then published the Madrid newspaper Of). He joined Prisa in Media Management (GDM), the first Spanish advertising center for multimedia sales, as managing director of print media. From that position he promoted the development of local and regional press marketing, as well as various magazines. Later he held the positions, among others, of corporate general director of Printed Media Management (GMI), general director of PRISA Magazines and director of Institutional Relations and Commercial and Marketing director of PRISA Noticias. After leaving the group in 2021, he was appointed vice president of Radio Television of Castilla y León (RTVCyL).
Ángel García Colín enjoyed life with his wife, Montse, and his son, Guillermo. And also with all his colleagues, whether they were bosses or subordinates. He never raised his voice, he evaded discussions with irony, he responded to disagreements by leaning back and opening his arms, a sign of a desire for an armistice that was part of his personal essence.
And in the professional field he was above all effective: he managed to improve products through discreet influence, he obtained sponsorships and difficult advertising like someone who walks without giving himself importance, he managed an endless agenda. He was able to set up the newspaper on behalf of Prisa Valladolid Day (currently owned by the Promecal group), in no more than three weeks, and contribute to its successful takeoff. And also, creating a good atmosphere.
The word “affable”—a person who is pleasant in conversation and in treatment—seems invented for him. Indeed, Ángel García Colín was an affable manager and a deep connoisseur of the raw material he handled, the executive profile that many journalists must have dreamed of.