What is Gazeta Sporturilor?
Gazeta Sporturilor is a Romanian sports title. Its ownership is documented: on 3 July 2018 Ringier announced that Ringier Sportal S.R.L., described in the announcement as a joint venture between Ringier România and the Bulgarian Sportal Media Group, had agreed to acquire the brand, including GSP.ro, from Intact Media Group, with completion expected by September 2018 subject to regulatory clearance.[1] Ringier Sports Media Group lists GSP.ro among its brands and describes it as having been „founded in 1924” and, after the 2018 acquisition, as having „transformed into a digital leader”.[2] Those are the owner's characterisations of its own title and are reported here as such.
The title sits in a market that Reporters Without Borders describes in general terms: in its 2026 index entry for Romania, which places the country 49th of 180 with a score of 67.71, RSF writes that „Large European media groups such as Ringier, PPT Group and Dogan Media International have a market presence alongside large and small local players” and that „Editorial decisions are often subordinated to the interests of owners, transforming the media into a propaganda tool”.[3] That is RSF's assessment of the market, not of this title.
What does Gazeta Sporturilor cover?
The title's own site could not be retrieved for this page, so what follows about its range is the purchaser's description of it rather than an inspection of its sections. Ringier's 2018 announcement characterised the brand as carrying „the most relevant editorial Sports content in Romania” and singled out the investigative journalist Cătălin Tolontan as part of the editorial team at the time of the transaction.[1] Again, that is the purchaser's description of what it was buying.
The title's reporting has extended beyond results into the commercial side of sport. That became visible in October 2023, when a letter signed by 73 journalists of Gazeta Sporturilor and Libertatea alleged that „după ce am refuzat cererile unor manageri din conducerea grupului de presă Ringier de a arăta în avans articolele despre firmele de jocuri de noroc care sunt clienţi de publicitate, Ringier a cerut luni, 2 octombrie, plecarea redactorului-şef”. The allegation concerned articles about gambling companies that were advertising clients. Ringier, in the same reporting, gave „diferenţe de opinie privind direcţia strategică” as the ground for the departure and described the separation as amicable.[4] That is an allegation by the signatories and a stated ground by the company; no finding by any body is recorded here.
How large is Gazeta Sporturilor's audience?
No audited figure for this title could be retrieved for this page. The audited currency for website audiences in Romania is SATI, the Studiul de Audienţă şi Trafic Internet run by the Biroul Român de Audit Transmedia, which states that „SATI oferă pieţei de media şi publicitate informaţii complete cu privire la audienţa, profilele sociodemografice şi traficul siteurilor web” and that „Rezultatele de audienţă SATI reprezintă etalonul pieţei de publicitate”. BRAT also audits print circulation through its written-press department.[5] The SATI results pages could not be retrieved, so no SATI number is given here.
What exists are figures published by the owner. In its 2018 acquisition announcement Ringier stated that GSP.ro attracted over 3.5 million unique monthly views and that the print edition circulated at approximately 20,000 copies a day.[1] Its later brand page states „70m+ Page views each month” and „102 Years of history”, and names no measurement source for the traffic figure.[2] Those are the owner's own figures on two different dates and two different metrics; they are not comparable with each other and neither is an audited number. No current print circulation figure could be retrieved.
Since when has Gazeta Sporturilor existed?
Ringier Sports Media Group's brand page gives 1924 as the founding year of GSP.ro and, on the same page, describes the brand as having 102 years of history.[2] Both statements come from the present owner and no independent confirmation of the founding year was retrieved for this page, so the date is carried as the owner's claim about its own title rather than as an established fact.
The documented part of the recent chronology is the ownership. Ringier's announcement of 3 July 2018 records the agreement to acquire the brand from Intact Media Group and names Ringier Sportal S.R.L. as the acquiring vehicle.[1] The editorial chronology has a dated point too: the removal of the editor-in-chief on 2 October 2023, reported with the signatories' letter the following day.[4]
Why does Gazeta Sporturilor matter in Romania's sport?
The title is one of the reference points through which Romanian sport is reported, and the 2018 transaction is itself a marker of that: a European publishing group bought the brand and identified it in its own announcement as the sports asset it wanted in the market.[1]
Its position also illustrates a structural feature that a named monitoring body has written about. RSF's 2026 country entry names Ringier among the large European groups present in Romania and states that „Media funding mechanisms are often opaque, even corrupt” and that „The widespread practice of diverting public funds to the media, in a non-transparent manner, distorts the market”.[3] The October 2023 episode is the point at which the commercial and editorial sides of that structure were publicly contested by the title's own newsroom, with an allegation on one side and a stated strategic ground on the other.[4]
References
- Ringier — Ringier Sportal S.R.L. agreed to acquire Gazeta Sporturilor including GSP.ro, 3 July 2018. Accessed 2026-09-21.
- Ringier Sports Media Group — GSP.ro brand page. Accessed 2026-09-21.
- Reporters Without Borders — Romania country entry, 2026 Press Freedom Index. Accessed 2026-09-21.
- GOLAZO.ro, republishing a HotNews.ro article of 3 October 2023 — letter of 73 journalists on the removal of the GSP editor-in-chief. Accessed 2026-09-21.
- BRAT — Studiul de Audienţă şi Trafic Internet (SATI). Accessed 2026-09-21.