Politico newspaper tried to sell the Portuguese government “content” to promote EU presidency

  • ECO News
  • 2 August 2021

The goal of Politico's digital newspaper proposal was to "highlight the role of the Portuguese presidency of the European Union", but the Portuguese government rejected it.

The digital newspaper Politico has proposed an advertising and information “content” campaign to António Costa’s government to “highlight the role of the Portuguese presidency of the European Union,” according to Público.

The proposal was sent at the end of last year, but the Portuguese government didn’t buy services from the Politico newspaper. The proposals range from “multimedia articles” costing €40,000, to classic digital ads, such as the paginated rectangles next to the headline, which cost €7,000 a day.

The Foreign Affairs minister’s office told Público that, on the advice of Minister Augusto Santos Silva, the ministry “did not follow up on Politico’s initiative”. The government justifies this because “it would be an unjustified expense and because the minister believes that news coverage of the facts should be done at its own value, as independent journalists interpret it.”