Should communication agencies be guided by a set of values and principles? The founders of La Sembra co-operative in Catalonia had this question in mind when they decided to set up a new values-led communication co-op to serve organisations in the public sector and social economy.
“From the beginning I wanted to work on a project that was aligned with my values,” recalls journalist and economist Aina Serra Julià, one of the co-op’s two founding members. “I try to have healthy relationships, consume in a conscious manner and I wanted to work for an organisation with the same values.”
Another co-op feature that appealed to her was involvement in the decision-making process, which, she adds, comes with responsibility over and commitment to the enterprise.
And so, in 2021, Julià set up La Sembra with one of her colleagues. By 2024 the women-led workers’ co-op had grown to include 10 employees. Not all of them are members of the co-op yet – three in the process of joining the existing two founding members.
Julià says the growth is partly due to the communication sector’s growth in recent years, with the audiovisual sector in Catalonia recording a 14% increase in revenue in 2024 alone. The Catalan government has also been supportive of the social and solidarity economy, with a range of supportive policies adopted over the past 10 years.
Another reason for La Sembra’s growth, she thinks, is its dedication to purpose-led communication. “We have also tried to work in a meaningful way, something not often encountered in the sector,” she says. “We saw with the election of Trump how big the role of social networks is and we wanted to work on the idea of values-led communication.”
What la Sembra means by this is communicating while being aware of the impact this can have on the public.
“This means being aware of everything, having a purpose,” adds Julià. “So, for example, if a tweet doesn’t bring anything new, maybe there’s no need to post it.”
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In doing so, the co-op hopes to also to reduce what Julià refers to as “unnecessary noise” – and lower its environmental impact.
“All comms work, be it in print or digital, has an environmental footprint,” she says. “So we want to reduce ours.”
At the same time, La Sembra says it aims to communicate in a way that helps citizens take more responsibility over social justice, and delivers more in terms of data, testimonies, and awareness of social inequality. This in turn, will help to foster a sense of community and help people be more connected among themselves, Julià hopes. Her ultimate goal is to create conscious and cohesive communities that can drive progress and social transformation.
“These are the four values guiding the co-op’s work: less noise, a lower environmental footprint, more consciousness and more community,” she adds.
Clients include social and third sector enterprises, including co-ops and public sector organisations. The latter are important clients, says Julià, because they can really help get their message and approach across through their wide community reach.
Since its launch, La Sembra has worked with more than 300 organisations, the majority of which are active in the social economy sector.
Co-ops account for 8% of Catalonia’s GDP, which, says Julià, is a good indicator of the degree of awareness across the region of the model.
“The Catalan way of life is very much focused on the collective,” she says, arguing that being a nation and culture without a state has helped to foster co-ops as a social movement.
This distinct Catalan identity also makes people more interested in alternative media models, be that in journalism or communications, says Julià.
To help raise awareness of the co-op sector, La Sembra runs an online publication called Jornal.Cat, which includes news and comment pieces on the Catalan social economy.
“Journalism in general is a sector that has a higher degree of conscientiousness compared to other sectors of activity,” adds Julià.
One of the motivations behind the launch of Jornal.cat was the idea of producing solutions-based journalism and focusing on the role of
co-ops in solving problems.
“Of course, I don’t want to be naïve and say to we should only focus on this,” she says. “But one of the priorities we set for ourselves was to give a voice to alternatives that are being developed. We understand that traditional media focus on negative stories because of the traffic these generate.”
But while negative news tends to sell, Jornal.Cat takes another route, highlighting better alternatives.
“We want to show that the ‘utopia exists’ and is being developed every day across Catalonia,” says Julià.
Jornal.Cat also aims to dive deeper into the structural causes of issues such as social inequality or climate change.
“We examine causes but negative news does not take over our publication. This is very important for us,” adds Julià.
In recent months some Catalan media organisations have been exiting mainstream social media platforms in protest of algorithmic changes which prioritise controversial content.
Despite this, Jornal.Cat has chosen to join new platforms like Mastodon while continuing to post on platforms like X and Facebook.
“Leaving these platforms would have meant giving up engaging with people we wanted to engage with – and transform how they view the world. So, even though it’s a contradiction, we decided not to leave them,” Julià says, adding that the co-op will continue to monitor these platforms.
“To drive change we need to be where the majority of people are,” she adds. “Otherwise, we only talk to ourselves.”
La Sembra has recently become an organisational member of Co-op News, and, as part of this, it will be able to republish some of the publication’s content in Catalan.
