Maputo, March 23, 2026 (Lusa) - The daily newspaper Notícias, Mozambique's oldest, is focusing on digital for its centenary, countering falling circulation by bringing news to the most remote parts of the country where papers rarely arrive.
"The newspaper had peak moments. We reached 35,000 copies a day. So, there were good times, marked by some euphoria, in terms of citizen education. The interest of people in staying informed was very high", Júlio Manjate, chair of the Sociedade do Notícias board, in an interview with Lusa.
Today, with about 150 journalists, Notícias first hit the streets on 15 April 1926. Founded by Portuguese Manuel Simões Vaz, it began to aggregate titles such as the weeklies Domingo and Desafio from the 1980s, following Mozambican independence, along with a printing unit in Maputo province.
Headquartered in Maputo with branches in provincial capitals, the company's largest shareholder is the state, with shares managed through the Institute for the Management of State Holdings (Igepe).
Manjate said the newspaper, which now costs 30 meticais (around €0.40), felt the impact of the internet in recent years and increasingly difficult access to paper, factors that forced a reduction in circulation.
"I often look at this not because people do not want to read the newspaper, but people often don't read because they don't have access, because they are far from the points where the newspaper is available," he said.
"A series of factors had an influence, and the numbers fell; they dropped from 35,000, which we had about 10 years ago. Today we have an average of 15,000 copies a day. It is also necessary to recognise that we then faced another difficulty, which is being able to place this newspaper in some provincial capitals," Manjate added.
Among the challenges the company faces in delivering the newspaper to remote areas is transportation. It is moving forward with the distribution of the newspaper through an electronic application created for this purpose, trying to reach more Mozambicans.
The newspaper has 65,000 digital subscribers, with management saying the number tends to grow given its focus on the type of information readers seek most.
He said that treating the internet solely as responsible for the reduction in print runs was "a fallacy," arguing that even those with access to new technologies were not subscribers to the newspapers distributed via the electronic application.
"There are other elements that I think are also worth mentioning, which are the emergence of other newspapers with other types of approaches. This counts for a lot, and I must also be frank that there is the problem of the idea people build (...) that it is not in Notícias where they find what they want," he said.
Manjate also pointed to the cost of raw materials, saying the company began printing what the market needed to avoid losses, given the risk of 10,000 copies left over.
Now, via the internet and mobile phone, the chair wants to see the newspaper read in districts and rural areas.
"This has created some solutions, because at least we guarantee that people can have access to content, but there is that classic part of having the printed newspaper, which many people still need (...) So we recognise that, in fact, we need to reinvent ourselves to manage to get the newspaper to the largest possible number of places, but not everything depends on us," he said.
Manjate also warned of digital literacy issues that prevented rapid subscriber growth.
"There are, in fact, still problems. I say this with some sadness because we have contact with university students, and we do a lot of work at the university level to encourage students to subscribe. We work with state entities, to say that there are national directors, politicians who don't read the newspaper, don't have a subscription, people who need to have information to be able to exercise their management," he said.
Despite the challenges, Manjate said he did not believe the printed newspaper was on the verge of extinction with the advent of new technologies.
"No, that is the conversation that usually comes from the West; it comes from the North to the South, so I don't believe it. Even in the United States, the newspaper hasn't died yet. There are still newspapers like the New York Times, which produces almost 1 million copies a day. So why is it going to die here? It won't die at all, that's talk made by people who want to sell new products," he argued.
"We don't have to give up continuing to invest in quality because it will be read, because people often don't read the printed newspaper, not because they don't want to, it's because they don't have access," he concluded.
PME/LYT // ADB.
Lusa
