Where are the newspapers from Goiás going?

Mainz is a German city nestled near Frankfurt, almost on the French border. It would go unnoticed and charming if Gutenberg hadn't invented large-scale printing on paper there 500 years ago. In other words, the printing press. After five centuries, newspapers and magazines have faced radio, cinema, television, and now the internet. Nothing we know will be able to end the press. Those who proclaim its end forget that, from a historical perspective, means of communication emerge, change, merge, adapt, but do not die.

Our newspapers have changed with the arrival of the internet, even in Goiás, where everything happens with a delay. The same is true in Chile, where you no longer see any large daily newspapers in standard format, only tabloids. In New York, there are two daily newspapers distributed for free at subway entrances. To maintain circulation, Folha de São Paulo and others have adopted the policy of selling readers high-quality, culturally valuable gifts at low prices (meanwhile, in Goiás, O Popular relies on plastic toy cars and cookbooks). News portals and even online newspapers are proliferating. Internally, we have two consolidated publications, aredacao.com.br and goias247.com.br. Small publications from organizations or neighborhoods survive locally without complications, with limited but consistent print runs and distribution.

With his usual acerbic wit, the editor of Jornal Opção, Euler Belém, often says that Goiás doesn't have a market leader. There's the clear leader (O Popular) and the last one (Diário da Manhã). Undeniably, O Popular possesses the advantage of a powerful brand, cultivated over more than 70 years. Its classified ads are unbeatable, its seriousness and circulation unquestionable, and the support of Brazil's largest TV network (Anhanguera/Globo) is a competitive advantage unattainable by the competition. But there are serious flaws that undermine the publication daily. Starting with its website, which, besides being closed, fails to surpass the printed version. A former editor told me about the many times he felt embarrassed trying to showcase O Popular abroad, which, in addition to being poor in visuals and content, is also notoriously slow to navigate. However, nothing attests more to the poverty of our press than the Magazine section of O Popular newspaper, almost entirely focused on what happens outside the state, especially in São Paulo, as if cultural production on the borders of Goiás were of eighth-rate quality.

Added to this is a commercial policy that is often inflexible and expensive compared to any competitor. Perhaps for this reason, in the edition of April 13th, a Friday, there were only four pages of paid advertisements for a total of 34 pages of journalistic content, or less than 20%. Without the classifieds, the numbers probably wouldn't add up.

From the same group, Daqui became a sales phenomenon. It's modern in size (tabloid), intelligent in its target audience (classes C and D), and lacking in short, shallow articles and questionable headlines. For this very reason, it's not usually respected by journalists. But one cannot deny the trend, the strength, and the success of a publication aimed at a less educated but affluent audience. The question is whether a media outlet can forgo the depth and quality of its writing in favor of more easily digestible journalism.

Way back there is Diário da Manhã, stumbling through a historical series of errors. Made almost entirely by students without pay or receiving meager and inconsistent allowances, it has become accustomed to the mystique of being a school newspaper, as if this exempted it from monthly payments. It lacks the respect of the advertising market because, over the years, it has failed to honor its monthly payments. Tied to specific political interests, it is financially penalized every time the winds of power blow in the opposite direction. Incredibly, it is efficient online, with its open content and a huge advantage: the reproduction of the print version, allowing users to view advertisements. Free and complete online, it is the most read newspaper in Goiás, although it doesn't know how to commercially exploit this achievement.

Interestingly, even with the much-talked-about crisis in the press, Goiás has seen the emergence of newspapers in the interior, the most significant of which is O Hoje, linked to Aparecida but circulating in the capital. Despite their mistakes and successes, they all survive. Anyone who looks at both O Popular and Diário da Manhã 20 years ago will find that neither has lost its content nor its strength in society. All will have to change and adapt to the new times. But the internet will not be the exterminating angel for any of them.