I bought the company as it was in financial peril caused by Covid and I did not want the company to go out of business. The Portugal News is the major source of news for expats, the international community, tourists, second home owners and new businesses looking to set up in Portugal. In other words, it is a genuine community asset.

Our Vision

The first major initiative was, as a team, we decided to change the editorial policy to positive good news but not “fluffy bunny rabbit news”. There is so much doom and gloom pushed by most mainstream media and with Portugal being such a beautiful country, we felt it inappropriate to have such a negative narrative.

A good example of how this has worked is when the Portuguese government was brought down for alleged corruption and there was the trashing of the government and the country, we simply ran a headline, “Democracy Works in Portugal,” that covered the situation perfectly.

The positive editorial policy is a disruptor in the media market and has proved a major success so much so that we have readers comment on how they have stopped consuming other mainstream media because it makes them depressed.

The second strategic change we implemented follows on from being positive, is being supportive of Portugal and the international community. That is, The Portugal News is supportive of Portugal, the government, Portuguese institutions, law enforcement, the judiciary and the Portuguese establishment as a whole.

With the international community, we decided to publish online in 20 different languages, so ALL can be kept abreast of great news and developments in Portugal. Inclusiveness is key.

Coupled with the support for Portugal is the growing of international markets for Portugal and attracting more foreign residents, more tourists and more businesses. A good example is what we did for the USA market, and recently we started growing the German market which is now our 4th largest market for online readers after Portugal, North America and the UK.

Finally, the third part of our strategic vision is to keep the news as free as possible for all readers. That is free in print and free online. "Free" is a difficult business model, so we rely mainly on advertising. In the online world, we have had a lot of success with generating revenues from digital and have a number of new initiatives planned.

Our media offerings

Five years ago, The Portugal News was just a weekly newspaper with limited distribution mainly in the Algarve and a small website.

In Print

When I bought the company, given my background in online marketing, I thought print would be pretty much dead in five years time, given the move to digital. Well, I was wrong. Print is not dead, at least not for The Portugal News and our stable of products.

The weekly newspaper is now offered widely throughout Portugal as we launched in Lisbon last year and Porto this year, with free distribution available in selected outlets, with more to come. I believe we are the only mainstream media still growing in print in Portugal, according to the audited APCT statistics.

In addition, we now have three magazines, Properties in Portugal, Central Magazine and an international magazine for the USA - Perfect Portugal. All these magazines have proved popular with our distributors, readers and with our advertisers.

In Digital

We have put a lot of our efforts into the digital space.

www.theportugalnews.com, we believe, is now the largest website in the world in Portugal that doesn’t major in the Portuguese language. Typically, we have between 1 million and 1.5 million viewers a month, although generally higher in the tourist season. All the traffic is organic, so we have a high engagement rate of typically 60% with most people preferring to view on their mobile phones.

We publish up to 30 stories a day that cover the main news in Portugal, current affairs, business, including property, tourist activities, including hidden gems of Portugal and some positive international news.

We send approximately 130,000 emails each week with the main daily stories, and have approximately 140,000 social media followers. Video, reels and new digital channels to market are areas of growth being worked on.


Our property portal
www.propertiesinportugal.com has proved popular, particularly in America and we have sent over 3,000 enquiries to agents for free from our viewers. There are plans to introduce other online portals, again for free, to viewers on other relevant topics of interest.

Marketing and advertising

Whilst I personally think I am an average salesman, I am very good at critical analysis, strategic planning, and then putting together marketing campaigns to help customers' businesses grow. There are much better salesmen in the Algarve that excel in one-off sales, so it pleases me to see the continuing growth of companies that market with The Portugal News. Most of the companies that worked with us 5 years ago still work with us and this is a testament to the success of their hard work and our marketing. Partnership is key here and the partnerships have worked well.

If a company wishes to reach the expats, the international community, tourists and second home owners, then The Portugal News offers the best media to reach these people.

We are always coming up with new ideas - some a little crazy – to help our readers find what they want and to help advertisers reach the people they want.

So in summary, it has been a bit of a rollercoaster ride with The Portugal News, and it has cost me more than money, but I have really enjoyed it, and hopefully I will continue to do so for the next 5 years and more ahead.

Author

An experienced entrepreneur with specialist unique skills in online marketing. Involved in many industries over the years including, large music festivals, property developments, telecoms, fashion and renewables. Having lived in a number of countries prior to moving to Portugal, now considers Portugal as home.

Richard Clingen