The financial situation of the Portuguese news media is generally rather weak, and seems to be worse in 2009 when compared with 2006. Economic survival is their first priority, because most of them actually lose money every year, and the situation is evolving negatively. A small market, not much advertising, low rates of news media consumption, an increasing presence of free Internet sites… All these factors help to explain the crisis. And, when it comes to budget cuts and to downsizing measures, the first area to suffer is usually human resources. With smaller newsrooms, news media have increasing problems to invest in investigative reporting, because such reporting takes more time and more money.
Several editors interviewed for this report complained more or less about this situation: “Of course we haven’t enough resources to develop our own agenda, although nobody expects that a free daily like ours will publish very long investigative stories” (Destak); “We have limitations as far as material resources are concerned, but we try not to depend too much on news agencies” (Rádio Renascença); “The ambition and mission of a newspaper like ours would require many more resources, both human and material” (Público).
More optimistic are the views in Expresso and Correio da Manhã (both with a better economic situation): “We have enough resources for our work, including our own investigative reporting” (Expresso); “We have all the necessary resources to produce our model of newspaper. Never has an investigative story been abandoned due to lack of material resources” (Correio da Manhã).
In general terms, and looking further than this sample of news media, the fact is that Portuguese newspapers, television and radio stations still depend a great deal on news agencies. Investigative reporting is more an exception than a rule, and tends to concentrate in two or three news media. Coverage of international affairs (with the exception of football games and very big disasters) is most often accomplished through news agencies as well.
