Brazil’s rapid economic growth has spurred intrigue around the world. It is prominently known as “B” in the familiar acronym BRIC, which lumps together nations of notable – if not staggering – economic advancement. But the fiscal disarray prevalent in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere has not left Brazil untouched. The Latin American country has experienced a slowing of growth, although it still fares better than most on a global scale.
Like its economy, Brazil’s journalism industry is dynamic, alternating between intervals of expansion and contraction. In mid-2012, Brazilian newspapers enjoyed increased circulation numbers and ad sales while their US counterparts floundered. According to the Circulation Verification Institute (IVC), average daily circulation rose roughly 2.3 percent in Brazil during the first half of 2012. Combined with healthy ad revenue, the outlook seemed positive.
One year later, the picture changed. Circulation growth for all of 2012 ended up being only 1.8 percent, with digital circulation of print pubs accounting for 100 percent of that increase. What’s more, digital editions of newspapers and magazines experienced 128 percent circulation growth from 2011 to 2012.
Clearly, digital platforms are essential the solvency of Brazil’s print media industry and publications are investing accordingly. Layoffs at major outlets are becoming more common, even with ad revenue essentially unaffected. Redirecting funds to digital projects, Valor Econômico, a prestigious economic daily, recently laid off 50 staffers despite ad revenue increasing 20 percent in 2012. Many layoffs target veteran journalists who, due to their experience, are more expensive to employ. Presumably, such maneuverings will only become more common.
“In the newspaper and magazine space, I think you’ll start to see the shedding of jobs at the high level,” said Ken Rapoza, author of the BRIC Breaker blog on forbes.com. “I think the next five years are going to be a very difficult landscape for Brazilian media companies, especially on the print side.”
Even so, Rapoza noted that some print pubs in Brazil are relatively stable. He pointed to the hugely popular VEJA, a large magazine owned by the Abril group. “It’s Newsweek on steroids,” he said. “A one hundred page magazine, like Newsweek, Businessweek, TIME and US News & World Report all rolled into one.”
The Abril group recently abandoned several of its lesser magazines in order to preserve and expand VEJA. The publication now includes a weekly city guide to Brasilia.
Mass popularity provides an advantage to VEJA, but other publications may remain stable for a completely different reason: their exclusivity. “Print circulations are generally quite small, compared to the size of Brazil,” said Brian Winter, chief correspondent for Reuters in São Paulo. In a country of nearly 200 million people, the average newspaper and magazine circulation hovers around a meager 4.5 million. However, this figure actually reflects an established market for niche, high quality publications, or “high end journalism,” as Winter puts it. While unappreciated by the masses, such publications could subsist on their loyal readership. Vera Brandimarte, co-founder of Valor Econômico, has surmised that the “intellectual elite” will continue to pay for exceptional print media.
In order to compete with the wave of foreign digital media outlets entering the Brazilian media landscape, publications there might also encourage journalists to expand their social media presence. Brazilian consumers have traditionally embraced social media, but Brazilian journalists have not taken to the medium with the same alacrity. “Brazilians are early adopters of all social media,” said Rapoza. “They’re going to be in the top three or five of any social media community that’s big worldwide. While there are a lot of reporters in Brazil who have Twitter, it’s nothing like what you see in the United States. There isn’t that self-promotion like we have in the United States.”
Rapoza posited that Brazilian media executives might start pushing journalists to engage their readership via social media and develop personal brands. This strategy would emulate other digital outlets that are encroaching upon Brazilian media’s turf, such as HuffPost Brazil, TMZ.com, and Gawker – all of which garner greater visibility as a result of their staffs’ robust social media presence. However, as Rapoza stated, “they’re just not having that boardroom conversation like we are in the United States.”
Winter noted that Brazilian publications have been “a lot faster with paywall strategies for their digital properties than newspapers in the United States were.” This could be another way in which they stay competitive.
For public relations professionals trying to break into the Brazilian market, it is important to deemphasize social media, at least for now. The most critical strategies for PR professionals should focus on language and a familiarity with Brazilian consumers. As Winter stated, “Brazil has one of the lowest rates of English speaking among American markets.” Therefore, American PR pros should never assume a Brazilian journalist’s level of English fluency. Instead, pitching content in Portuguese should be common practice.
Rapoza suggested that PR pros would be wise to seek assistance directly from Brazilian firms. “If you’ve never been in Brazil, and you need a PR presence there, and you’re trying to sell a product or a service to Brazil that is not known to Brazilians, you’ve got to partner with a Brazilian firm that’s going to know the market,” he said.
Rapoza also noticed a significant difference between PR pros in the US and Brazil. “Brazilian PR people were not as aggressive as the American ones,” he said. “The Brazilian PR guys, they’re not pitching you stories like Americans are. You have to go them more than they go to you, and they didn’t introduce themselves to you as much as I would have liked.”
Maintaining an aggressive, energetic pitching style may appeal to Brazilian journalists who have grown accustomed to a more passive approach.
Looking forward, the Brazilian media industry shows signs of both prosperity and uncertainty. “Brazil is an economic story, it’s a financial story,” Rapoza said. Indeed, Brazil’s media market might very well mimic its economic vicissitudes. Right now, all is relatively stable, but significant change is on the horizon.
Already, Winter can sense the world’s gaze turning elsewhere, as Brazil’s economic prowess has lessened of late. “I used to say that Brazil is the world’s best place to be a foreign correspondent because there was such a massive amount of interest in Brazil, and such a small quantity of quality information coming out,” he said. “Now, interest has faded a bit. The economy is not as hot as in 2010.”
This dwindling interest does not seem propitious for foreign correspondents, but a demand for local media coverage remains, offering a combination of day-to-day stock news coverage, features and investigative work. Ad revenues remain relatively high, and digital circulation is growing remarkably fast, without any sign of slowing down. Thus far, the industry has evinced a degree of flexibility and ingenuity that bodes well for the future. O Globo, a substantial newspaper based in Rio de Janeiro, has answered digital media’s ascension with new layout designs and topography – yet another example of print media innovating to meet the demands of a new media landscape. Whatever comes next for Brazil’s fast evolving media industry will be interesting to watch unfold.
To read the previous entry in our BRIC Spotlight Series, Near Sights on the Far East, click here.
