The company Edições Novembro owns and runs several print media outlets, including Jornal de Angola, Jornal dos Desportos, Jornal de Economia & Finanças, Jornal Cultura, Jornal Metropolitano Luanda, Jornal Planalto and Jornal Ventos do Sul.
Media assets
Publishing: Jornal de Angola, Jornal dos Desportos, Jornal de Economia & Finanças, Jornal Cultura, Jornal Metopolitano Luanda, Jornal Planalto, Jornal Ventos do Sul
State Media Matrix Typology: State-Controlled (SC)
Ownership and governance
Edições Novembro came into being after the confiscation by the Angolan State of the Empresa Gráfica de Angola, a process legally pursued through law no. 51 of 1976. Edições Novembro is a public company endowed with legal personality and run by the government. It is subordinated to the Ministry of Telecommunications, IT and Social Communication. The President of Angola appoints the members of the Board of Directors, the highest governing body at Edições Novembro.
Source of funding and budget
Edições Novembro generates income from sales of its publications and advertising. Yet, the government subsidy accounts for most of the company’s annual budget. In 2019, according to a news report, the company had an operating income of AOA 6.1bn (US$ 10.2m), some 87% of which came from a state subsidy. In 2022, the company had net earnings of AOA 1.14bn (US$ 2.6m), according to media reports. Edições Novembro did not publish its annual budget in recent years.
According to a government budget report consulted for this project in May 2024, Edições Novembro received a total of AOA 17.03bn (US$ 39m at the 2022 exchange rate) in state subsidies between 2020 and 2022, which made the publisher the third largest recipient of government funds in Angola after TPA and RNA, the state-run television and radio broadcast companies in the country.
The company, in recent years, has struggled financially. Although it had an operating result of AOA 1.14bn (US$ 2.6m) in 2022, which allowed the company to settle its debt of around AOA 3bn to the local security service body, Edições Novembro had to slash its workforce in recent years. During the period 2020-2023, it cut its staff from 1,160 to 973.
Editorial independence
The government doesn’t impose any rules on the editorial line of Edições Novembro’s publications. However, authorities indirectly control these outlets’ editorial coverage, according to local journalists and experts, and an ad hoc content analysis run for this project.
No statue and no oversight or assessment mechanism to validate the editorial independence of Edições Novembro’s newspapers have been identified.
June 2024