Throughout these days, the evidence that we need to last in time and in History was repeated, loudly and also on the pages of Diário de Notícias: Francisco Pinto Balsemão was an unavoidable figure in our country, not only because he was a staunch defender of Freedom, founder of the PSD, former Prime Minister, fundamental to the constitutional review of 1982 – precisely because of his respect for democracy – but also because he was for us, journalists, a example.
Founder of the weekly Expresso and the first national private channel, SIC, Pinto Balsemão was, more than a businessman with a firm hand, a journalist who represents everything that, when we started to enter newsrooms, we believed to be the ideal professional: attentive, curious, fair, courageous, rigorous and loyal. He constantly reminded those with whom he worked of the importance of journalism as guardian of the gates of fragile Democracy, something he did not only out of conviction, but also because of his own experience of having fought against the dictatorship that rejected the free press.
Francisco Pinto Balsemão, patriarch of a family that is also a company, now leaves a void in journalism – in free thinking, in the ability to dialogue with those who were so opposed to him – but also in business. At a time when Impresa, a group currently led by his son Francisco Pedro Balsemão, is negotiating with the Italians from MFE the sale of a majority stake in holding familiar, the disappearance of Impresa’s founder effectively marks the beginning of a new era. One that will possibly see another reference means of communication leave national hands, mandatory reading for so many thousands of Portuguese people and a fundamental vehicle in the national media panorama.
The difficulties that different groups of media have been going through over the last decade, especially with the Portuguese market being particularly punished due to its small size. Consolidation seems to be an inevitable path in an industry that, despite being fundamental, still does not have the necessary support to survive without having to dedicate a large part of its structure to the pursuit of the most basic business fundamentals: profitability, solidity and profits. Balsemão has also represented, until now, a kind of resistance to this new norm, which shows that it is unlikely that a group of media can live without other businesses to support it. It’s not something that is right or wrong, it’s just the world evolving and us trying to adapt to changes that we still have difficulty understanding. But Balsemão not only understood them, but also tried to find alternatives – Impresa’s financial problems are not new (it is estimated that it needs a recapitalization of 80 million euros) – through different financing strategies, innovation and alternative models.
The end of Balsemão marks the beginning of an era for the country, naturally, but for the media also. We often say, in newsrooms, that there is no more valuable asset for a media outlet than its memory. If we can keep his from fading away, perhaps we will finally find a new path to the challenges we continue to face. Let us keep your inexhaustible perseverance and curiosity as an example to follow. And let’s continue.
The post New Era in Portuguese Journalism appeared first on Veritas News.
