Abside Media: new stage with Javier Visiers (CEO) and José Luis Restán

Javier Visiers replaces Fernando Giménez Barriocanal at the head of Abside Media, a media group that includes firms such as COPE, Chain 100, Rock FM, MegastarFm y Pass. The renewal is completed with José Luis Restán as non-executive president.

He board of directors of Abside Media has agreed to the appointment of José Luis Restan as new non-executive chairman and Javier Visiers as new CEO leading the strategy, business and the transformation process of the company. The current general director of COPE assumes the position after the end of the mandate of Ignacio Armenteros.

On the other hand, Fernando Giménez Barriocanal He leaves the executive presidency of the company after 12 years, although he will continue as deputy secretary for economic affairs of the Episcopal Conference, a position that implicitly links the Episcopal Conference with the group, ensuring the interests of the latter, by monitoring the company's activities together with the new CEO in the economic and management part. Restan, for his part, assumes the presidency of the company, which in this new stage will not have executive functions. At the same time, will maintain editorial direction.

The company has also decided to create a non-executive vice presidency that will assume José María Albalad, until now director of the secretariat for the support of the church and advisor to Abside Media in the last year.

These movements are accompanied by a new structure that will opt for “more agile and efficient” management to achieve greater convergence of resources between the media it owns and, at the same time, accelerate your digital transformation.

Javier Visiers and José Luis Restan

Javier Visiers He was born in Fuenterrabía (Guipúzcoa) in 1977. He has been with COPE for 25 years and has developed his entire professional career within the group where he has been director of different stations, programming director of COPE, deputy general director of radio content and general director of COPE. He has a degree in Journalism from the University of Navarra, a doctorate in Journalism from CEU, PDG from IESE and a Management Program in Digital Transformation from IE.

José Luis Restan, for his part, was born in Madrid in 1958. He graduated in Civil Engineering, but quickly linked his professional career to the world of communication, launching the Spanish edition of the magazine 30 Giorni or Páginas para el mes. He studied Journalism at the University of Navarra and has been linked to COPE since 1990 where he has been a news editor, director of The Mirror, of The Church Lantern, deputy to the president and editorial director. Restán regularly collaborates with newspapers such as ABC and Alfa y Omega. Recently, the Association of Radio and Television Professionals awarded him the silver antenna for his career.

In the opinion of the new CEO, Javier Visiers, "we need to anticipate the changes that are taking place and will continue to take place in the way of consuming content in the future. We are no longer just talking about radio or television but rather about content and we need to be prepared to continue being relevant to the user and to compete with the rest of the players. To make Abside Media a reference in society with its portfolio of brands, content, advertisers and communicators. In this sense, we need to have a more convergent culture and for research and data to make it more effective." On the other hand, José Luis Restan, in his first statements as non-executive president, “Abside Media is undergoing a process of internal transformation to continue growing in an increasingly competitive environment and context and we do so without giving up our Ideology.”