Antonio Asensio
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Antonio Asensio Pizarro (11 June 1947 – 20 April 2001) was a Spanish mass media entrepreneur. Having inherited his late father's business at 18, he founded Grupo Zeta in 1976. Starting with the magazine Interviú, which reached circulation of 1 million, his company then moved into newspapers with El Periódico de Catalunya, which became the highest selling in Catalonia. In 1998, he bought 99% of football club RCD Mallorca.
Asensio was born in Barcelona as the youngest of four children and only son. His father from Zaragoza, also named Antonio, ran a phototypesetting workshop. Asensio graduated in industrial engineering, and was briefly a sports journalist for the Correo Catalan in 1965. When he was 18, his father died and he took over the company.[1][2]
Grupo Zeta
In March 1976, during the Spanish transition to democracy, Asensio and four friends founded Grupo Zeta with himself as president. The starting capital was 500,000 Spanish pesetas. Their first title was the magazine Interviú, which combined news with semi-naked women. It started in May with a circulation of 100,000, and rose to 1 million in 1978.[1][2] On 26 October 1978 they launched the daily newspaper El Periódico de Catalunya. The latter became their leading title and Catalonia's highest circulation newspaper, with circulation of 194,000 around the time of his death.[1]
At the time of his death, Asensio's company made 61 billion pesetas (€360 million) per year, with profits of 3 billion (€18 million). Its assets included ten magazines, six newspapers and the Ediciones B publishing house[1]