Historic cultural journal faces closure after 45 Years
Last week, Jornal de Letras (JL) did not appear on newsstands as a result of a strike by its staff, called in response to months of unpaid salaries and subsidies.
After 45 uninterrupted years chronicling Portuguese arts, letters and ideas, Jornal de Letras (JL) is facing the prospect of publishing its final issue this Wednesday.
Financial turmoil at its parent company, Trust In News (TIN), which also owns 16 other titles, including Visão magazine, has left salaries and meal subsidies unpaid for months.
With no concrete solutions from management, JL’s three remaining editorial staff have collectively suspended their employment contracts.
“The company is insolvent and the situation is unclear,” director and founder José Carlos de Vasconcelos told Público.
A court has yet to ratify TIN’s insolvency plan, approved by creditors in May, which includes phased debt payments, staff cuts, and possible suspension or sale of loss‑making titles.
Vasconcelos told Rádio Renascença that without a new company stepping in, “it will be very difficult, and unlikely” to save the paper.
He described the situation as “lamentable,” stressing JL’s “absolutely unique” archive and its longstanding role in defending the Portuguese language and Lusophone culture.
Heavy debts
Last week, Jornal de Letras (JL) did not appear on newsstands as a result of a strike by its staff, called in response to months of unpaid salaries and subsidies.
The strike started on June 20, the deadline set by staff for payment of 20% of April’s salary, all of May’s salary, and the corresponding meal subsidies.
This Wednesday, with the strike period over, the historic Portuguese cultural newspaper returned to readers.
However, it maybe its final issue: faced with no solutions from its parent company, the JL editorial team has collectively decided to suspend their employment contracts.
Heavy debts to Social Security and the Tax Authority further complicate any recovery.
Vasconcelos, now 84, says he no longer has the capacity to lead a rescue effort himself but hopes JL might be adopted by “people committed to culture.”
He recalls 45 years without missing a single issue and a presence felt in universities and cultural institutions worldwide.
The fate of Jornal de Letras, and over a dozen other TIN publications, now hinges on the court’s decision on the group’s insolvency plan.
Background
JL was founded in 1981 and has since been published on a biweekly basis.
Over its four and a half decades, JL has closely followed the Portuguese‑language literary and artistic scene.
Among its contributors have been distinguished figures such as António Ramos Rosa, João Ubaldo Ribeiro, Fernando Assis Pacheco, António Mega Ferreira, and Ricardo Araújo Pereira, among many others.
The paper was owned by media group Impresa until 2018, when the Portuguese company Trust in News (TIN) acquired the paper.
For many in Portugal’s cultural sphere, the disappearance of this unique forum for literature and ideas would mark the end of an era.
I didn’t know of it before this post but it sounds like quite the loss.