The financial situation of the Portuguese news media is generally rather weak and seems to be much worse in 2020 when compared with 2010 though the dramatic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic are still to be fully evaluated (Martins et al., 2020). 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 help to explain the crisis. 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 about this situation saying “we have limitations as far as material resources are concerned, but we try not to depend too much on news agencies” (Rádio Renascença) and “the ambition and mission of a newspaper like ours would require many more resources, both human and material” (Público).
The views of Expresso and Correio da Manhã (both with a better economic situation) are more optimistic saying, “we have enough resources for our work, including our own investigative reporting” (Expresso) and “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). Even in television channels, as we heard from both the public RTP and the private SIC, some room for investigative work developed in recent years, because longer format pieces of reporting with 10–15 minutes are now common and have good audience results in the evening newscasts. They also have weekly programmes and corresponding teams specifically devoted to investigation. Furthermore, the participation of Portuguese media in some of the recent international networks of investigative journalism also increased the attention given to these issues and brought interesting public support. All the recent political and economic scandals in the country have been uncovered and publicly denounced by journalists.
In general terms and looking further than our sample of leading news media, the fact is that Portuguese newspapers, television and radio stations still depend a great deal on news agencies. Investigative reporting is not as extensive as it should be and tends to be concentrated mostly in four or five news outlets. Coverage of international affairs except for football games and very big disasters is also mostly dependent on news agencies as well. Again, the small dimension of Portuguese media outlets and their lack of resources is responsible for this.
