The History of Lusa: Portugal’s Great News Agency Merger
On January 1, 1987, Portugal’s media landscape changed forever. At the stroke of midnight, the news services of the nation’s two rival agencies—ANOP and NP—fell silent. In their place, a new voice emerged: Agência Lusa de Informação.
The birth of Lusa was not a smooth transition but a “turbulent delivery” born from years of political deadlock, financial crises, and a bizarre period where a single nation funded two competing agencies that were essentially at war with each other. As Lusa approaches its legacy milestones, we look back at the chaotic path to its consolidation as the world’s leading Portuguese-language news organization.
The War of the Two Agencies
The roots of the conflict trace back to 1982. The government of Prime Minister Francisco Pinto Balsemão attempted to shut down the state-owned agency ANOP, which was viewed as oversized and politically biased. In its place, the government promoted Notícias de Portugal (NP), a private cooperative.
However, a political stalemate ensued when President Ramalho Eanes vetoed the extinction of ANOP on the very day NP launched. This created a surreal media environment: for four years, Portugal maintained two news agencies. One was public (ANOP), the other private (NP), yet both relied on the state treasury for 65% of their budgets.
The rivalry mirrored the fractured politics of the era. ANOP was seen as the bastion of the Socialist (PS) and Communist (PCP) parties, while NP was aligned with the Social Democrats (PSD) and the CDS. They fought daily battles for “scoops,” fighting to see who could land more stories in the nation’s newspapers and broadcasts.
NP: The Agile Challenger
Despite having only 25 journalists compared to ANOP’s hundreds, NP was nimble. Operating out of a temporary office in Lisbon’s Lapa district, it secured exclusive Portuguese contracts with global giants like Reuters, AP, and UPI. By its second year, NP was producing 50,000 words a day and had established a network of 126 collaborators across the country.
ANOP: The Struggling Giant
Meanwhile, the state-owned ANOP was drowning in its own weight. At its peak, it employed 261 people and operated delegations from Brussels to Cape Verde. But as the government tightened the purse strings to favor NP, ANOP entered a spiral of financial decay. Between 1980 and 1985, the agency faced layoffs and lost its most prestigious international contracts to its private rival.
The “Luxury” Portugal Could No Longer Afford
By 1985, the absurdity of the situation reached a breaking point. The new government under Aníbal Cavaco Silva declared that Portugal could no longer afford the “luxury” of subsidizing two parallel structures. The message was clear: merge or vanish.
After a year of intense negotiations and bureaucratic hurdles, the two rivals signed a protocol to merge into a single public-interest cooperative. On December 12, 1986, the deed for Lusa was officially signed. The state would hold a 50% stake, with the rest open to Portuguese media outlets.
“From Today, It Is Up to Lusa”
Lusa’s first official dispatch on New Year’s Day 1987 marked the end of the civil war between ANOP and NP. “From today,” the dispatch read, “Lusa bears the responsibility of preparing and distributing a national and international service.”
The early days were far from easy. For months, the newsrooms of the two former rivals operated simultaneously under a common agenda while legal battles over the agency’s constitutionality played out in court. By the end of its first year, Lusa was on the brink of technical bankruptcy, facing a deficit of 70 million escudos (roughly €350,000).
Despite the “technical bankruptcy” and the political baggage of its predecessors, Lusa survived. What began as a forced marriage of two bitter rivals eventually matured into the unified, authoritative voice of the Portuguese-speaking world—proving that out of political turbulence, a national institution could be built.
Image: Pexels – Markus Winkler
