Portugal: hopes pinned on a digital future

The Portuguese media sector is in the throes of a serious financial and economic crisis. Leading publications have seen their circulations plummet in recent years. Only a handful of media companies have managed to successfully make the leap from print to digital and thus recoup their losses.

A newspaper kiosk in Lisbon. (© picture alliance / ASSOCIATED PRESS / Manu Fernandez)

The employment situation of most journalists in Portugal remains precarious. Over a third work on a freelance basis, without any job security and poorly paid. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who was a journalist himself in the 1970s, has reiterated that the financial crisis in Portugal's media sector could pose a threat to democracy in the long term. The Global Media Group, owner of the prestigious dailies Diário de Notícias and Jornal de Notícias as well as the news radio station TSF, is particularly hard hit. It was forced to lay off more than 150 employees in 2023 and has at times been unable to pay its employees' salaries.

One reason for the weak financial performance of these titles which have played a decisive role in shaping the public discourse to date lies in the digital sector. In recent years, Portugal, like many other countries, has seen a trend of media companies restructuring newsrooms and editorial teams and expanding their digital services. This includes online-first measures and the expansion and reorganisation of websites, apps and digital subscriptions. New journalistic projects such as the digital business newspaper Eco-Economia Online launched in 2016, the weekly newspaper Jornal Económico and the online platform Observador have successfully positioned themselves on the market. Since the pandemic, publications such as Público, Expresso and the news magazine Sábado have also seen their digital subscriptions surge. But despite the restructuring, the Global Media titles have yet to establish a functioning digital business model.

History and key titles
For many years, Portuguese media were subject to censorship which only ended with the Carnation Revolution in 1974 and the collapse of the dictatorship. Some newspapers were nationalised soon afterwards and didn't return to private ownership until the end of the 1980s.

Today, the Portuguese broadcasting segment is divided between the public service broadcasters of the RTP network (television: RTP1 and RTP2; radio: Antena 1, Antena 2 and Antena 3) and the private broadcasters SIC and TVI. In addition, there are several large media holding companies mostly financed by domestic capital and with a multimedia orientation. In the radio segment, the Catholic Church operates the influential Rádio Renascença. The private station TSF is widely considered to be most reliable source for news in the radio segment.

Portugal's newspaper market is relatively compact. The weekly Expresso, which was founded during the dictatorship in 1973, is the country's leading newspaper. Published on Fridays, it has a liberal orientation. Among the daily papers, Público, founded in 1990, is the strongest contender. Other leading and national dailies are the conservative Diário de Notícias, the high-circulation Jornal de Notícias, which was founded in Porto, Jornal i, launched in 2009, and the tabloid Correio da Manhã, which has the highest circulation in the country. The leading news magazine is Visão. The main business newspapers are Jornal de Negócios and Jornal Económico.

World Press Freedom Index (Reporters Without Borders):
Rank 9 (2023)

Last updated: December 2023

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Media from Portugal at euro|topics

Media from Portugal at euro|topics

Blog Jugular (Blog)

Correio da Manhã (Daily newspaper)

Diário de Notícias (Weekly newspaper)

Diário Económico (Daily newspaper)

Dinheiro Vivo (Website)

Expresso (Weekly newspaper)

Visão (Magazine)

Jornal i (Daily newspaper)

Sábado (Magazine)

Blog Aventar (Blog)

Blog Blasfémias (Blog)

Blog O Insurgente (Blog portal)

Jornal de Negócios (Daily newspaper)

Jornal de Notícias (Daily newspaper)

Observador (Website)

Público (Daily newspaper)

Rádio Renascença (Website)

Sol (Weekly newspaper)

SIC Notícias (Website)

O Jornal Económico (Weekly newspaper)

TSF (Website)

Eco - Economia Online (Website)

AbrilAbril (Website)

O Diabo (Weekly newspaper)