Why Oihane Mateos mattered to EITB's digital transition

Oihane Mateos, EITB's head of Digital News and the journalist responsible for its Orain service, died on Aug. 8 at age 45. The announcement came from EITB itself, which did not state a cause of death.

The immediate fact is an obituary. The broader significance is a career that tracks a structural change inside news organizations. Mateos began as an intern at Euskadi Irratia, worked across Euskal Telebista, reported and presented for “Gaur Egun” and “Teleberri,” and directed “De Boca en Boca” on ETB2. By the final years of her career, however, her job was no longer tied mainly to a single broadcast.

In 2022, she became head of Digital News. That put her in charge of EITB's news operations on the web and social platforms, at a time when public broadcasters across Europe were trying to preserve the standards and identity of established newsrooms while adapting distribution to phones and social feeds.

EITB says Mateos invested heavily in transforming the newsroom and that Orain began its journey under her leadership. To understand what that means, it helps to look at the sequence of products rather than treat “digital transformation” as a slogan.

In December 2023, EITB launched WhatsApp Orain in Basque. The service emphasized video, selective alerts and a more direct style suited to mobile use. The broadcaster said it was aimed particularly at users under 30. Mateos was one of the officials presenting the project publicly.

In June 2024, Orain Berriak won a Platinum Customer Experience Award for best IT project in Public Administration. Mateos accepted the recognition with EITB systems director Iñaki Regidor. The award reflected the institutional side of the work: digital news is not only editorial writing but also product design, systems, delivery and audience experience.

A year later, the Orain platform launched as a broader digital news destination. EITB described a service combining Basque- and Spanish-language news with video, photography, streaming, notifications and vertical short-form formats. At the launch, it said its digital community exceeded four million users. Mateos again appeared as the leader of the digital news operation.

That timeline explains why her death resonated beyond the loss of a recognizable television journalist. Mateos had moved from producing individual reports to shaping the channels through which an entire newsroom reached audiences. Her career connected legacy broadcasting with the fragmented environment of apps, social networks and messaging services.

There is also an important boundary in the available information. EITB confirmed her death and documented her professional record, but its announcement did not identify a cause. Responsible coverage therefore stops there rather than filling the gap with speculation.

Mateos's professional legacy can be stated more clearly. She spent her career inside EITB, learned the organization from radio and television, and then helped change its distribution model. Orain, WhatsApp Orain and the later Orain platform are concrete markers of that work.

For a newsroom, technology changes quickly. The more lasting question is who translates those changes into editorial practice. EITB's own tribute makes clear that Mateos was one of the people doing that translation until the final day of her career.