The Director-General of Plataforma, Paulo Rego, has accused the former board of directors of the Portuguese Global Media Group (GMG) for failing to fulfill their contractual agreements, leading the media outlet to halt online operations in Lisbon.
The announcement, which was revealed in an editorial published in Macau’s weekly bilingual newspaper Plataforma Macau last Friday, was explained by Rego to the Times in a phone interview. Rego explained the implications of GMG’s decision to remove their financial support from the operation.
“A few months ago, we reached 600,000 unique views [on our new online platform] and this was only possible due to the agreements made with Global Media that had a content element, a financial element and even a human [resources] element, since several journalists from Global Media took part with us in that joint-venture,” said Rego.
He added that problems arose when the company started failing its “vision” due to internal issues related to GMG. These “imposed the spin-off of this project that was a joint one and that [Plataforma] and I had to take it on as we were already on a growth path as agreed by all parties during the negotiations that occurred [prior].”
“What has happened now,” explained Rego, “is that those agreements which allowed the spin-off of the project are not being fulfilled by Global Media. By not fulfilling those agreements, they also do not satisfy the vision or the requirements of Kevin Ho [leader of KJN Investment and a 30% stakeholder in GMG].” He also noted that in this sense “Global Media betrayed the project, the agreements and the vision of a stakeholder.”
For Rego, GMG’s decision has had drastic effects on the project, namely on its international and online arms which were operating in Macau and Lisbon, and were starting in two other cities in Brazil and Angola.
The non-fulfillment of the agreements by GMG forces the expansion to Brazil and Angola to pause, drastically impacting the operation in Lisbon and leaving Plataforma [alone handling] the costs of at least half a dozen of journalists that were [in the past] on the payroll of GMG and have moved to the payroll of Plataforma [according to the agreements made]. We took on the costs but now we must reduce as we cannot continue to produce at that cost, which comes from a contract that is not being fulfilled,” he said.
Rego also expressed hope that the new board and stakeholders, comprising of Grupo Bel, which has acquired a 40% stake in the conglomerate, are now integrating into GMG and can reach an agreement with the other major stakeholder, KNJ Investment, to solve the problem.
“Let’s see how the new management [handles the] settlement with Plataforma and the vision of internationalization,” Rego said.
“One of the changes that Plataforma is preparing, which does not result from financial circumstances but instead of its vision and strategy, is on the strengthening [of contents] in Chinese language and in the proximity to the Chinese community in Macau,” Rego added.
Portuguese entrepreneur Marco Galinha, who leads the Portuguese business group Grupo Bel, said in a short statement, “Unfortunately we did not have the time yet to update ourselves on all the matters [related to GMG].”
“There are priorities [already settled] and the relationship with Macau [with Plataforma] is to restart,” he revealed.
No Comments