Marvão, Portugal, Dec. 17, 2025 (Lusa) - Newspaper distribution in the interior of the country is under threat, but in Marvão, national publications are already a “mirage”, as the population has been unable to buy them in the municipality for at least three years.

"The last sales outlets closed some time ago, three or four years ago." Since then, "Marvão has had no access to daily newspapers," Catarina Bucho Machado, owner of a grocery store in this village and county seat of the district of Portalegre, lamented to the Lusa news agency.

If daily newspaper distribution comes to an end in several inland districts, as logistics company Vasp has acknowledged, the businesswoman points out that “the problem is no longer exclusive to Marvão and becomes common to a fringe of the country”.

At the Mercearia de Marvão grocer shop, half a dozen copies of the regional weekly Alto Alentejo are on sale for "loyal customers" who want to "know the local news". At Café O Castelo, opposite the town hall, there is not a single newspaper to be found.

"Because, you see, someone would have to make that trip every day" to fetch them from Castelo de Vide, the nearest neighbouring municipality where newspapers are sold, which is about 14 kilometres away, points out employee Ana Margarida Batista.

While serving customers, the counter assistant recalls that newspapers used to be sold in the municipality, in Santo António das Areias and Portagem, but "three years ago" sales ended, and now it is easier to access social games, such as scratch cards, than find a newspaper.

"It's really much easier. These [social games] can be found in at least four shops in the municipality alone," she said.

In the middle of walking his dog, Dionísio Batista Gomes, who has lived in Marvão for 48 years, acknowledged to Lusa that the lack of newspapers and magazines is related to the decline in population, which currently stands at around 100 people in the village and 3,000 in the municipality.

And the habit of reading the newspaper has also been lost. As there are no newspapers, most people "have turned to the Internet" and that is where they read the news, says the resident, acknowledging that he has adopted this habit, but still remembering the pleasure he used to get from leafing through a newspaper.

Gonçalo Lobo, a customer at the café, also confesses that he has stopped buying newspapers and explains that he uses the Internet to keep himself informed: "I've lost the habit, and I don't like the format of newspapers. It's just misery," he says.

Even so, he believes that the absence of publications in the municipality is detrimental to the population. Most "don't have a telephone or, when they do, it's a normal telephone that can't be used to go online".

"So these are the people who need it, and if they don't come to the bar, they don't know anything," he adds.

The owner of the grocery store, who, in addition to being a businesswoman, is also a PS representative in the municipal assembly, also warns that the lack of daily newspapers "greatly affects people's daily lives," especially those who are older.

"The older population really likes them and needs them to stay informed," she said, warning that this is compounded by "other factors of isolation," such as poor telecommunications network coverage in many parts of the municipality.

Catarina Bucho Machado, who is willing to set up a sales point in the shop, if supported, argues that councils, intermunicipal communities and parish councils should "put pressure on to reverse this situation".

The deputy mayor, Luís Costa (PSD/CDS-PP), told Lusa that the local authority intends to make daily newspapers and magazines available to the population in various municipal spaces, such as the swimming pool and the Casa da Cultura, as early as 2026.

The sale of newspapers "involves a lot of logistics, with returns" and hiring, so "it is easier" for the council to take on the cost of transport and make magazines and newspapers available at its facilities, the mayor points out.

The Marvão Mobile Library, which recently began bringing books, digital reading, and services to the entire municipality, is also expected to start providing daily newspapers and magazines in digital format.

On 4 December, the management of Vasp, which has a monopoly on the distribution of newspapers and magazines, announced that it is assessing the need to adjust the daily distribution of newspapers in the districts of Beja, Évora, Portalegre, Castelo Branco, Guarda, Viseu, Vila Real and Bragança.

SM/ADB // ADB.

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