RTP’s news directorate dismissed as State’s broadcaster undergoes restructuring plan

The entire news directorate of Portugal’s State broadcaster RTP, led by António José Teixeira, has been dismissed, it was announced on Tuesday, as part of an overall shakeup, modernisation drive and general restructuring of the company.

RTP’s organisation is to be organised into four major areas: corporate (10 departments), operations (four departments), themed content (seven departments) and programme content (seven departments). 11 departments are to be eliminated, reduced from 39 to 28.

Under the new organisation, RTP will have 23 directors (with five management directorates amalgamated), compared to the current 30 directors and adjunct directors who report to the board of directors.

In its Strategic Project 2024-2026, RTP had already identified as “critical success factors” a “new organisation and new processes”, which range from “revising the organisational chart, greater decision-making capacity, agility in reducing news silos, to the creation of permanent multidisciplinary committees focused on digital transition (news editorial) to create greater synergies and multi-platform capacity, themed content, tailoring content to consumer platforms, production and technology; to new production processes and tools, human resources, and new forms of working and new skills.

The Strategic Plan will also create a News Editorial Committee, with the goal of “defining a synergic and integrated approach to news production for multi-platforms, maintaining the capacity to develop specific formats for television, radio and digital platforms.”

The company has already embarked on a first round of voluntary terminations of their contracts that ended in April at a cost of €5.5 million. A second round of amicable terminations is expected at the end of the year, depending on finances.