By Olivia Ruk

Founded in 1984, Global Media Group is one of the largest and most influential media players in Portugal.

The company owns three daily newspapers: Diário de Notícias, which is aimed at a niche market of more wealthy individuals (classes A and B), Jornal de Notícias (classes B and C), and O Jogo, a sports newspaper. This sports paper covers various different athletics, but about 80 percent of the material deals with soccer. It also has a radio station, TSF, that features breaking news, and two travel magazines, Volta ao Mundo for planning longer distance vacations (which translates to “Around the World”) and Evasões for planning short trips such as weekends around the city. In addition to these publications, Global Media Group also holds ownership to printing and distributing companies.

Global Media currently has around 500 employees, a number that is a result of the aftermath of the 2008-09 worldwide financial crisis.According to CEO Vitor Ribeiro, about 200 employees had to be fired. Ribeiro was brought into the company as a new CEO during this extremely hectic time to try to figure out the best steps to take. He said he was faced with a great amount of pressure when trying to deal with adjusting to a new company and to pull them out of the tough time they were going through. He made the difficult decision to make these cuts and to motivate the current employees to think outside the box. Ribeiro discussed the importance of staying away from debt as much as possible, something true for individuals as well as businesses.

“Your debt should never be bigger than three times the amount of your salary,” said Ribeiro.

Ribeiro said that one of the newspapers’ and magazines’ most important goals is to be known as the first choice for readers. They are currently undergoing a huge push for digital media in order to stay relevant and keep up with the times, a challenge that every media outlet is currently facing in today’s fast-paced society.

Global Media is pushing its way through the economic crisis and hopes to one day come out stronger than ever. He believes the company are certainly on the right track, and it is doing all that it can do to stay on top of the game. A high point: travel magazine Volta ao Mundo and the radio station TSF won Portugal’s 2015 consumer choice award.

By Greg Schillinger

Global Media is a corporation that is highly involved in the Portuguese media landscape, owning three daily newspapers, Diario de Noticias, O Jogo and Jornal de Noticias; two travel magazines, V.N. (International Travel) and City Breaks; two printing companies; one distribution company; and two regional newspapers, one of which is the oldest newspaper in Portugal.

The CEO of the group, Vitor Ribeiro, addressed the class about his strategies for the company over the next two years. He recently joined the company and has made moves to turn it around. Before his arrival, Global Media printed newspapers with trashy advertisements adorned with adult content and sold cheap products. These unsavory tactics made money for the company, but it was important to discontinue them in order to create a respectable image. Global Media Group was experiencing financial hardships, and after firing 20 percent of the workers — around 200 people, which he said was difficult  — the company has returned to making profits, he said.

Ribeiro said they are the most financially stable media outlet in the country. He wants to grow the company to be a “70 million euro turnover group.” In order to continue growth and become a “superbrand,” he and his board members have been looking at how they want to be known by the people of Portugal. The list of credits they would like to be given includes: first choice of readers, have political influence, impact the affluent and be the reference for Portugal.

He stressed that they would like to appeal to the wealthy people in the country. They have the money to spend, and although that segment of the population is not likely to grow, it is a safe market to be dependent on at this point. In order to keep the affluent readers reading their newspapers, Global Media Group has taken a social democratic political stance and compassionate Christian ideals. He noted that anything that is too extreme is not well received by the readers of their papers, so Global Media Group makes sure to only print respectable, credible content.

Ribeiro’s overall strategy for 2015, 2016 and 2017 is built on three pillars: profitable growth, innovation and an increase of product quality, and operational efficiency. The company’s biggest objectives right now include: increase market share, increase advertising, reduce taxes and interest, and, ultimately, reduce their debt. He stressed the importance of increased advertising He and said that they have a good balance worked out, and that there is no intention of decreasing ad space as part of the group publications’content any time soon. The company making money is the most important thing to them to avoid going backward just as the country starts to recover from the 2008-09 economic crisis.