Augusto Delkáder, El País founding-team member and ex-SER chief, dies at 76

Death in Madrid

Augusto Delkáder died on Friday, 23 October 2026, in Madrid, aged 76. El País reported that his family confirmed the death after a series of illnesses, while El Periódico attributed the news to Cadena SER. He was a native of Cádiz who had served as honorary president of the SER radio network since 2021. Spanish outlets published tributes the same day, several of them from El País, the newspaper he helped launch in 1976.

From Cádiz to El País

Born in Cádiz in 1950 to a Moroccan father and a Catalan mother, Delkáder studied law and information sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid, then trained further in the United Kingdom and the United States, according to ABC. In 1976 he was chosen to direct the Diario de Cádiz, a post he held before he turned 26, El Mundo reports. Soon afterward he joined the founding team of El País, where he rose to deputy director under Juan Luis Cebrián. El País's own obituary recalls that the paper put out up to seven special editions during the 23-F coup attempt of February 1981, a night El Mundo says Delkáder witnessed from inside the events.

Three decades at Cadena SER

Delkáder joined the Cadena SER in 1987, first running its news services, and was named director general in 1990, according to ABC. He became chief executive of the SER and Unión Radio in 1998 and president of PRISA Radio and SER in 2010. In 2021 he left his executive roles to become honorary president of the network. According to El País, Jesús Polanco, Juan Luis Cebrián and Javier Baviano asked him to bring PRISA's culture to the SER after the group acquired the station. Columns in El País credit him with a radio lineup built around current affairs: he backed Iñaki Gabilondo for mornings against Luis del Olmo and José Ramón de la Morena for nights against José María García. Musical radio grew under his leadership through Los40, and the group expanded into Latin America, as the same column reports.

Legacy in the newsroom

Colleagues at El País describe him as a demanding editor who walked the desks at closing time, explaining the day's news in a few words. One column recalls him pressing the newsroom to treat the London birth of the first test-tube baby as more than a short item. He received the Medalla de Andalucía in 2002, was named Hijo Predilecto of the province of Cádiz, and was honoured with the Federico Joly prize from the Diario de Cádiz, according to ABC. Obituaries cite his personal motto in Spanish, either as 'Ante la duda, periodismo' or as 'En caso de duda, haz periodismo'.