VASP expressed its concern this Tuesday, 17th, with the Government’s proposal on press distribution, considering that it has the potential to generate effects contrary to those intended, by fragmenting a national logistics system.
In a statement, VASP – Distribution and Logistics, the only national press distributor in Portugal, highlights that “it is a private company that has assumed and guaranteed, with a high sense of responsibility and under equal conditions, access for all citizens to the written press and to the fundamental public good that is information”.
The company, part of the Bel group, also says that it continues with “this mission despite the costs that, with total transparency, it has made known to public and government entities with intervention and responsibilities in this area, which in the past considered this provision as a public service”.
Therefore, “with surprise”, VASP “notes that this effort is portrayed in an official document that unjustifiably raises doubts about its actions and the information it provided in a spirit of transparency and good faith”.
VASP, he adds, “operates under a set of conditions and obligations within the scope of its activity regulated by the Competition Authority, and through the supervision of a monitoring representative, having always guided its actions by principles of rigor, transparency and institutional collaboration”.
In this sense, “the technical analysis carried out by VASP on the document also reveals weaknesses in the diagnosis presented and a worrying lack of knowledge of the operational reality of press distribution”, he criticizes.
“It is a complex logistical system that operates daily, 365 days a year, involving collection from printers, distribution, shipping, overnight transport, capillary distribution in the territory, collection and control of leftovers and management, invoicing and collection of thousands of points of sale, as well as payment to publishers”, he points out.
For VASP, “the model proposed by the Government has the potential to generate effects contrary to those intended, by fragmenting a national logistics system that today operates in an integrated manner”.
In his view, “this leads to an increase in distribution costs (an even more relevant risk considering the current geopolitical context) and a worsening of the economic situation of publishers, printers, distributors and points of sale, with a direct impact on the sustainability of the daily newsstand press”, he considers.
According to VASP, “any public solution must be based on a rigorous diagnosis and a clear understanding of the functioning of the distribution value chain”, and, “otherwise, the proposed model could, inadvertently, contribute to worsening the economic situation of the different actors in the sector and accelerating the degradation of the newsstand press distribution network in the country”.
“As already proposed by the VASP Board of Directors, a continuity solution, through support from the Government, as a guarantee of a public service, with the implementation of a policy of incentives for entities (municipalities, schools and universities) to acquire press, and the allocation of support to points of sale and publishers, would ensure the sustainability of distribution in Portugal”, he reinforces.
In this sense, “VASP reaffirms its full availability to collaborate with the Government and all entities in the sector, providing all necessary clarifications and contributing to the construction of a realistic, informed and sustainable public solution”.
The government proposes a support model for press distribution and sales with two pillars, lasting three years and total funding of 3.5 million euros.
In pillar I, which concerns distribution support, this will be awarded through an international public tender, divided into two territorial lots: lot 1 concerns the North and Center and lot 2 the West and Tagus Valley, Greater Lisbon, Setúbal Peninsula, Alentejo and Algarve.
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