The Secretary of the Presidency stated today at the opening session of the seminar on “Communication Sciences,” organised by the Public Relations Association in the Azores, that “the potentialities brought about by technology in communication, particularly with regard to the target audience, may solve some of the inherent difficulties of a small and fragmented market, both in terms of information recipients and of investors.” He added that “with the modernisation of means we may reach a much wider and diverse audience which will expand the potential market of regional or local information and will benefit companies,” particularly “the Azorean communities spread throughout the world, always eager for updated information on the Azores.”
André Bradford said that “technological modernisation has been a key factor in the new public support policy for Private Media - embodied by PROMEDIA I and continued by PROMEDIA II, which were approved at the Regional Legislative Assembly last May by proposal of the Government of the Azores with the support of all opposition parties and stressed that the public support policy for Private Media “represents a breach with the past and with an ineffective system, based on the widespread and reckless assumption regarding the expenses of the business activity and the unnecessary risks associated to this system. It was an inadequate measure to encourage the rationalisation and competitiveness of regional newspaper companies in the current situation.”
For the official who supervises the governmental policy for the media sector “the support system has instilled a more dynamic spirit in the allocation of support, thereby stimulating the investment planning and programming capacity  of various private agents.”
The Secretary of the Presidency explained that nowadays the “system is based on applications which are analysed by a commission composed by five members, of whom only one is appointed by the Government and the allocated support is made public,” revealing that the PROMEDIA programme has enabled “ the investment of 1,500.00 € to support technological modernisation, professional training and valorisation, and to and dissemination of the regional private media, with special emphasis on those based on the “Cohesion Islands.” Furthermore, the Secretary also said that during the transition between PROMEDIA I to PROMEDIA II, “the annual available budget has increased 20%, the total amount being of six hundred thousand Euros per year, maintaining the previous support categories, however extending and innovating the allocation of support.”
As an example of the increasing subsidisation, André Bradford mentioned the area of qualification and professional valorisation in which the Government has attempted “to promote higher education after graduation, extending the granted support through the subsidy of 25% of the respective tuition, which already comprised all the travel expenses in the national territory and 50 % of the value of the registration fee.
Before an assembly made up of young students, André Bradford also reminded that the Regional Government “provides non-refundable aid to the coming of teachers to the Azores, also supporting 50% of their respective fees. With regard to the training courses promoted on the Cohesion Islands, the estimated support will be increased in 75%, without forgetting the creation of a “new support for the organisation of initiatives of relevant interest as a driving force that will promote the Azores and their themes, involving local and external agents linked to the media.”
The Regional Secretary of the Presidency urged for “a better use of the potentialities of the system by the companies and the professionals of the sector, particularly with regard to professional training and valorisation or to the organisation of seminars and initiatives such as the one taking place today.”