GOLAZO.ro

What is GOLAZO.ro?

GOLAZO.ro is a Romanian sports news website. Pagina de Media, the Romanian media-trade title, reported on 31 May 2024 that the site had launched that day, that it was published by the HotNews group, and that it was coordinated by Cătălin Ţepelin, previously editor-in-chief of Gazeta Sporturilor. The same report named Dan Udrea as deputy editor-in-chief and listed Cătălin Tolontan, Theodor Jumătate and Cristian Geambaşu among a team of roughly fifteen to twenty journalists, most of whom had worked at GSP.^[1]

The site describes itself as „sportul povestit cu pasiune şi curaj” and as „cel mai modern şi mai profesionist site de ştiri sportive din România”.^[2] That is the site's claim about itself. Its founding is directly connected to a dated event at another outlet: the removal of Ţepelin from the editorship of Gazeta Sporturilor on 2 October 2023, after which 73 journalists of that title and of Libertatea signed a letter alleging pressure over coverage of gambling advertisers, while the company gave „diferenţe de opinie privind direcţia strategică” as its ground.^[3]

What does GOLAZO.ro cover?

The site's own navigation covers Romanian football including the SuperLiga and Liga 2, the national team and the domestic cup; European club competition; and the major foreign leagues. Beyond football it carries tennis, Formula 1, handball, basketball, rugby, cycling, motorcycle racing, snooker, swimming, rowing, together with opinion columns and longer features.^[2]

Its coverage extends to the governance and business of sport and of sports media, which is how the 2023 dispute at Gazeta Sporturilor came to be reported on the site, with the signatories' letter reproduced and the company's stated ground set beside it.^[3] The characterisation of scope here is drawn from the site's own section structure retrieved on 21 September 2026, not from any one day's front page.

How large is GOLAZO.ro's audience?

No audited audience figure for this site could be retrieved. The industry currency is SATI, the Studiul de Audienţă şi Trafic Internet operated by the Biroul Român de Audit Transmedia, which states that its results „reprezintă etalonul pieţei de publicitate” for buying and selling online advertising space.^[4] The SATI results pages could not be retrieved for this page, and no SATI number is given.

Traffic estimates published by commercial analytics vendors are not audited measurement and are not used here. The site itself publishes no audience figure that could be retrieved.^[2] The measurable facts available are instead about staffing and launch: roughly fifteen to twenty journalists at launch, on Pagina de Media's count.^[1]

Since when has GOLAZO.ro existed?

The site launched on 31 May 2024, on Pagina de Media's report of that date.^[1] It is therefore among the newest titles in the Romanian sports press, and it is distinct from GSP.ro, with which it shares part of its founding staff but no corporate connection recorded in the sources retrieved here.

The chain of dates runs: 2 October 2023, removal of the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Sporturilor; 3 October 2023, publication of the signatories' letter and the company's stated ground^[3]; 31 May 2024, launch of GOLAZO.ro under the HotNews group.^[1]

Why does GOLAZO.ro matter in Romania's sport?

Its significance is structural rather than a matter of size, which cannot be measured here. Reporters Without Borders' 2026 country entry for Romania, which ranks the country 49th of 180 with a score of 67.71, states that „Editorial decisions are often subordinated to the interests of owners, transforming the media into a propaganda tool” and that „Media funding mechanisms are often opaque, even corrupt”.^[5] GOLAZO.ro was founded by a newsroom group whose departure from another title followed a public dispute framed in exactly those terms, with the journalists' allegation on one side and the company's stated strategic ground on the other.^[3]

For a reader of Romanian sport the practical consequence is that reporting on the SuperLiga, on federation governance and on Olympic sports now comes from two separately owned newsrooms whose senior staff overlap historically.^[2] Where a single outlet is the only source for a figure, this site says so.

The site is also among the newer entries in a press market with long-established sports titles, and its launch is one of the few recent events in that market with a firm date attached to it: 31 May 2024, on the trade press report of that day.^[1] Nothing about audience share follows from that date, and none is claimed here. What follows is only that the outlet exists, is published within a named group, and covers the range of sports set out in its own section structure.^[2]