The trigger
Five weeks ago, we started writing about the alarming conditions in the management of Centro Comercial Cita in Playa del Inglés. Frozen accounts, missing computers, 1.9 million euros in debt, an administrator who has filed nothing with the commercial register for 15 years. Stories nobody wanted to tell — and every owner in the south of Gran Canaria knows.
That was the trigger. But it didn't stop there.
142 articles. Four languages. Five weeks.
What began as an investigative series about a shopping centre has expanded in five weeks into a full news portal. As of today: 142 articles in German, around 145 in English, 144 in Spanish, 122 in Italian. Over 550 articles in four languages.
The range: In the morning, a report on Gran Canaria's electricity crisis and the floating power plant in the port. At noon, an expat guide for the NIE number. In the evening, an analysis of why foreigners are buying fewer properties but prices keep rising. And in between: Borrasca Therese with 10 million euros in damage, the Russian ghost fleet off the coast, the Iran crisis and its consequences for the Canaries, Carnival in Maspalomas, earthquakes beneath Teide, an 84-year-old tourist murdered via a dating app.
Plus the CC Cita investigation series: ten articles on governance failure, owners' rights, debt analysis and the assembly on 18 April. The shopping centre that gave us our name.
The world map
Today, Monday morning, 12:11 pm: 51 active users on the site simultaneously. 9 of them in the last five minutes. Between 40 and 50 pageviews every 30 minutes during the day — that's over a thousand pageviews per day, trending upward.
But the number isn't the story. The story is the world map in Google Analytics.
Europe is the focus — Spain, Germany, Great Britain, Scandinavia, Italy. That was expected. But then: Japan. Thailand. Bangladesh. Several African countries. North and South America. Australia.
A news portal writing from the Canary Islands is being read on five continents. After five weeks. This incidentally disproves the thesis that conventional news media are dead. They're not dead. You just have to write something people actually want to read.
Our reader world map is now available for everyone to follow live: Readers Live →
Why we're called CITA News
Centro Comercial Cita was once the heart of Playa del Inglés. Anyone who holidayed in the south of Gran Canaria in the eighties and nineties couldn't avoid CC Cita. Shops, bars, restaurants, life.
Today it's one of the obsolete shopping centres in the tourist south. Visitor numbers are declining. Shop revenues are falling. Vacancy is rising. Rental prices for commercial units are a fraction of what CC Yumbo commands. Of the 26 shopping centres of this type in the south, 8 have already been classified as obsolete — CC Cita is among them.
We named our news portal after CC Cita anyway. Not out of nostalgia. But because we believe in a new beginning. Modernity should move in — into the centre, into the community and into the way the Canary Islands are reported on. CITA News is a witness to this movement. Perhaps also an engine.
How we work
550 articles in four languages in five weeks — you can't do that alone. Six people work on CITA News. And it doesn't happen without nights where the laptop is still glowing at three in the morning because a story can't wait.
We use the most advanced technical tools available, without hesitation. AI-assisted production, AI-supported SEO, automated workflows, data-driven research. Every article appears on the same day in German, English, Spanish and Italian.
That we're being read on five continents after five weeks is no coincidence. It's the result of AI-powered search engine optimisation that ensures our articles appear where people are searching for exactly these topics — whether in Las Palmas, London or Tokyo.
This is not a replacement for journalism. This is a team of six people with tools that didn't exist two years ago. The research is human. The analysis is human. The decision about which story to tell is human. The responsibility for every sentence is human. Technology makes it possible to deliver the result at a speed and reach that otherwise only large newsrooms can achieve.
And that's perhaps the biggest lesson from these five weeks: those who can't operate AI and don't use it will become the new illiterates within a few years. The technology is here. It won't wait.
The other side
It's not all world maps and analytics.
Since we started asking questions, times have got rougher. We now speak with our lawyers almost daily. Threats and potential lawsuits hang over our heads. Not because we've done anything wrong — but because we dare to report on things that people preferred to keep in the dark.
The pattern is familiar: foreigners in the south are supposed to spend money, run their shops, serve tourists, go out and party. But get involved? Ask questions? Publicly follow up on where money went and who made decisions? That wasn't part of the plan.
CITA News doesn't play along.
Everything we publish is researched, verifiable and sourced. We cite legal articles, court rulings and registry data. Anyone who has a problem with that doesn't have a problem with us — but with transparency.
What happens next
We believe in strong growth. The reader numbers from the first five weeks show there's a demand — not just in Maspalomas, not just on Gran Canaria, but everywhere people are connected to the Canary Islands.
On 18 April, the owners' assembly at CC Cita takes place. We will report. After that, it continues: housing crisis, port politics, energy transition, tourism, crime, expat life. Everything that affects people on the islands. In four languages. Every day.
Five weeks old. 550 articles. 51 readers simultaneously on a Monday morning. Pulsing dots on five continents. And a few people getting nervous because someone is asking questions.
This is just the beginning.