José Ribau Esteves
João de Sousa Rodolfo
Júlio Magalhães
Journalist and director of Porto Canal
He was born in Oporto and developed a keen interest in journalism from an early age, but it was at RTP that he gained in visibility. Júlio Magalhães attended three university courses - History, Law and Social Communication – but didn’t complete any of them. Not that this has ever prevented him from practicing journalism with professionalism and competence, from being news director at TVI and from being, for some years now, director of Porto Canal, a channel, he stresses, that is «broadly generalist and informative with varied content», «with a club, in this case FC Porto, which gives the channel a huge dimension».
You started in journalism when you were 16 years old. Do you still have the enthusiasm you had then?
I’d be lying if I said my enthusiasm is the same. Many years and many goals have since passed. My position today as managing director makes me more a channel and people manager than a journalist. I would say that today I have less enthusiasm but more comfort and maturity to carry out the position that I hold, while at the same time journalism has changed a lot and not for the better.
You have spent many years of your life travelling from Oporto to Lisbon (and vice versa). What’s the difference between working in one city or the other?
The work is the same; the quality of life is different. Lisbon is a more impersonal city with less time to forge friendships and have a more stable life. Nevertheless it is the centre for the entire sector, where there are greater career opportunities, but less rewarding in personal terms. There are competent people in Oporto and in the rest of the country, who do not have the same opportunities that more incompetent people have in Lisbon.
Porto Canal, Benfica TV and Sporting TV? Are they not just channels whose contents are defined by clubs?
No. BTV and Sporting TV are exclusively club channels, whose 24 hours a day are taken up by content of the clubs that safeguard them. Porto Canal has built up a channel brand that is broadly generalist and informative and with varied content, including FC Porto. It’s not better or worse, it’s just very different. I doubt that in Portugal there is any television channel that does as much public service as Porto Canal. Generally, BTV and Sporting TV are club channels; Porto Canal is a channel with a club, in this case FC Porto.
«My position today as managing director makes me more a channel and people manager than a journalist»
In your youth, you almost played basketball professionally. Does the fact that you have more recently become a golfer confirm this sporting nature?
Yes. I have always been a sportsman. Basketball left me but I did not leave the sport. I still play basketball, although rarely, but actually golf is the sport I play most today. Although not enough, due to lack of time, to consider myself a good player.
As well as being a journalist you have also written several books. What do you have left to do? Do you have any dreams yet to come true?
Not many. My dream is to continue doing what I like and this is guaranteed for the moment. The books will continue, which gives me great pleasure, and the future may still hold many other things for me. I can’t complain about what life has given me.
