Global Media to make 17 redundant

Troubled Portuguese media group Global Media, which has the flagship newspaper Diário de Notícias, is to make 17 redundant in a major restructuring to stem losses of up to €700,000 per year.

According to an internal memo, “Global Media Group is beginning today (Tuesday, March 12) the process of restructuring internal teams that has forced us into the collective redundancy because of a very complicated financial situation because of management in recent months, whose impact was public”.
The administrative board of Diário de Notícias (DN), hired by the (group’s) administration led by José Paulo Fafe and José Júdice, was fired on Tuesday. The redundancies involve people hired by the ex-CEO of the group and, according to a list that the online news source ECO has had access to, involves at least 17 professionals including DN journalists, assistants and marketing staff.
Bruno Contreiras, the current director of business title Dinheiro Vivo is to assume the management of DN for thee months before leaving the group in July.
A deputy director of DN, one of the oldest and most respected news titles in Portugal founded in the 19th century (1864) and over its long history covered the fall of the Portuguese monarchy, the Great War, the Estado Novo dictatorship, and the April 25, 1974 Revolution, said, “This is not a collective redundancy, this is a clean out of people linked to the previous administration”, who was fired by the current president of the group.
In an interview with Público on February 5, Marco Galinha, President of the Board of Directors of Global Media promised that there would no be editorial cuts at DN.
He said that although DN had been losing €1-1.2 million a year, and there were many cuts to be made, it would not involve journalists but would involve structural costs.