Richard has been visiting the Algarve for over 30 years for his annual holiday, staying in a number of the region’s resorts and locations. His love of Portugal led to him moving permanently to the Algarve with his new partner to, he thought, retire.
During the lockdown period Richard volunteered with Algarve Network for Families in Need delivering food to needy families with India Sampson who introduced him to her sister Daisy, Head of Editorial at The Portugal News. This introduction led to him purchasing a majority interest in The Portugal News and taking over day to day management of the company from Paul Luckman.
With a background in music festivals, Richard has been involved with Mean Fiddler Music in the UK, Benicassim in Spain, The Hop Farm in Kent, Forbidden Fruit in Dublin, Laneways in Singapore and Australia and with Red Rooster in the UK. In addition to music, he has been involved in a number of online marketing, media, leisure and property development companies worldwide after finishing a corporate career with Cable and Wireless as Director of Sales for the Caribbean. In Portugal, many years ago, he worked with Marconi International and Portugal Telecom.
Born and raised in Belfast, Richard was educated at Queen’s University Belfast obtaining a BSc Honours degree in Mathematics. He has two adult children from his previous marriage living in the UK. His hobbies include music, art and appreciation of nature.
A dynamic and energic character by nature, he is extremely excited to have the opportunity to take The Portugal News to the next phase of its development. He is looking forward to serving the expatriate community, visitors and businesses in the Algarve in particular, and Portugal in general, with current news and views. Richard said: “In these strange times it is particularly important to have a semblance of normality and to keep our readers informed of developments locally and around the globe”.
Richard will be visiting as many businesses as the situation allows over the coming months.

The beginning of a new era
With effect from this month, Richard Clingen has been appointed as the CEO of The Portugal News, he also becomes the majority shareholder.
Paul Luckman remains a shareholder and Publisher of the newspaper. Asked for his comment on this major change, Paul was very clear: “I have held the reins for over 40 years and it’s a great pleasure to hand them over to Richard, he will be in the driving seat now but I will still be there bringing the knowledge I have gained over 40 years of doing business in Portugal to support him and the publication.
“The Portugal News is the major and largest readership English language publication in Portugal, a position we fully intend to keep and improve”.
He added: “We face testing times with a fast changing market, and that brings many challenges”. Richard’s broad business and financial background gives him the drive and knowledge to take up these challenges.
“Richard’s plans for the future of The Portugal News are exciting and far reaching. Expect major expansion, details are to be found throughout this section,” concluded Paul.
The vision of The Portugal News remains the same, to be the leading force in building business in Portugal, the best destination in Europe, if not one of the best in the world as endless independent surveys and reports reveal.
These plans demand a new vision and a team to bring them into reality. Our existing team remains, but new specialists are being recruited to drive the vision. The colloquial phrase “you ain’t seen nothing yet” is used to indicate that however extreme or impressive something may seem; it will be overshadowed by what is to come.
“You ain’t seen nothing yet” seems entirely appropriate of the major expansion of the readership of The Portugal News, in print and online, something that will be of great benefit to local businesses and the destination itself.
Just like our readers and advertisers, we support Portugal because we believe it is a destination without equal in Europe.