ABC was first published in Madrid on 1 January 1903[1][2] by Torcuato Luca de Tena y Álvarez-Ossorio.

[3][4] The founding publishing house was Prensa Española, which was led by the founder of the paper, Luca de Tena.

[9] The paper later moved from its historic landmark offices in Madrid by Paseo de la Castellana, which is now a shopping mall.

[15] Its director since 1983, Luis María Ansón, left the paper in 1997;[9] he founded another daily, La Razón, which initially catered to even more conservative readers.

Historically, it was noted in its heavy use of photography, and the front page is typically a large photo taking up to one third of the area.

[3] On 25 September 2009, ABC made its complete archives, dating back to 1903, available online, giving modern readers a chance to see contemporaneous news about the Spanish Civil War or Francisco Franco's death.

[22][23] Based on the findings of the European Business Readership Survey ABC had 5,685 readers per issue in 2006.