Macedonian Newspapers
1. Tito Shockers, Fat Cats on the Beach Liven Up Macedonian Newspapers
(by C. Deliso)
2. Newcomers take on German media giant (by T. Causidis)
See also:
Rogue Newspaper Arrives in Skopje
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=243
=== 1 ===
Tito Shockers, Fat Cats on the Beach Liven Up Macedonian Newspapers
Date: Sunday, February 15 @ 14:00:00 EST
Topic: Macedonia Articles
As predicted, the arrival of new competition in Macedonia’s
media game has increased not only reader choice but also editorial
creativity. Judging from what we have seen so far, the papers are
emerging from years of lethargy and the prime winner is the Macedonian
public.
On 28 January, ‘Vreme’ made its debut
[http://www.balkanalysis.com/
modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=243] in fine form, selling out
everywhere by mid-morning. Demand was evidenced by an ironic
hand-scrawled placard in front of one kiosk, reading “nema vreme!” (no
time!).
While the physical quality of the paper (printed on smaller and
thinner paper than the others) leaves something to be desired, its
coverage so far shows a strong internationalist focus. The world news
section is almost completely made up of current reports from a variety
of foreign publications. Editorial commentary from outsiders, for
example the American and former resident Jason Miko, has begun
appearing, and special reports from Iraq by the likes of Scott Taylor
[http://www.balkanalysis.com/
modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=178] are on the way. ‘Vreme’ is
unique in that it features foreign comics (so far, ‘Dilbert’ and
‘Calvin & Hobbes’), and perhaps most interestingly, a hand-picked
“website of the day” on the back cover.
For its part, WAZ and ‘Dnevnik’ [http://int.dnevnik.com.mk/%5d have
shown they are not planning to give ground. On 1 February, the German
media giant
[http://www.balkanalysis.com/
modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=38%20] unveiled a new format-
basically the same except for color photos (instead of the usual black
and white) on the cover, first pages and back cover. This has allowed
for new and sensational opportunities- such as Wednesday’s story about
MobiMak fat cats on vacation
[http://dnevnik.com.mk/default.asp?pBroj=2376&stID=29019%20]. The
paparazzi aspect of the article is unclear however, as the picture- of
people sunning themselves under a palm tree on a glittering beach in
the Maldives- is taken from a distance and could be from anywhere.
Nevertheless, given the general distaste for corporate largesse in the
midst of widespread poverty, it looks as if this may help usher in a
new and more self-critical era for Macedonia- something essential for
the country’s mental health
[http://www.balkanalysis.com/
modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=250].
Utrinski Vesnik [http://int.utrinskivesnik.com.mk/%20%5d, for its part,
has captured attention with an ongoing series that started Friday and
plays to latent Yugo-nostalgia among Macedonians: the “last words” of
Josip Broz Tito
[http://utrinski.com.mk/
default.asp?pBroj=1390&stID=7095&pR=19%0D%0A%20]. The revered leader’s
final predictions were recorded in an interview conducted with
contemporary and friend Josip Kopinic in spring of 1979, a year before
Tito’s death. Afterwards, the Party denied that the interview had taken
place and was riddled with lies. Tito said that he feared the country
would fall apart, and that there would be a war in Kosovo- both
prescient analyses. Apparently, in the last years of his life Tito was
increasingly just a figurehead in government, his power taken over by
the Committee.
Wednesday’s installment
[http://utrinski.com.mk/default.asp?pBroj=1394&stID=7526&pR=16] from
the WAZ-owned publication quotes Josip Kopinic as saying Tito’s wife,
Jovanka, had lived a double life, working for years as a KGB spy. When
senior officials confronted Tito and demanded he divorce her, he
reportedly lamented, “…don’t ask that from me. Don’t take the meat from
a live man’s bones- that hurts. Jovanka is in my heart. I love her but
I can’t forgive what she did to me.”
The day after, the paper delivered a revelation about Goli Otok
[http://int.utrinskivesnik.com.mk/
default.asp?pBroj=1395&stID=7610&pR=21]. ‘Translated as ‘the naked
island,’ but also known as the ‘island of death’
[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0880330554/balkanalysisc-20%5d,
this high-security prison for dissidents once hosted future Croatian
leader Franjo Tudjman, among others. According again to Josip Kopinic,
Tito was turned down for the Nobel Prize because of the prison’s
infamy. Kopinic reports the president as having said,
“…when I received the letter in Belgrade from the King of Norway, I
knew that I would not get the Prize. In that letter, he told me that
his parliament was asking me to apologize in public for Goli Otok and
the torturing of prisoners there. Actually, he wanted me to apologize
for that as being Yugoslavia’s shame. That I saw as their condition and
I didn’t agree. If he had asked me the same thing in a different way, I
would have agreed to do it. I would have organized a media conference,
and I would have told the truth about Goli Otok.”
The Tito series is symbolically compelling, in that it quite clearly
follows the model of similar retrospectives long preferred in the West,
when reminiscing on their own leaders.
It remains to be seen what will happen when the resurrected ‘Vecer’
and ‘Nova Makedonija’ enter the game in the weeks ahead. While they are
not expected to take the laurel from the front-runners, their very
presence will certainly make things more lively still.
This article comes from Balkanalysis.com
http://www.balkanalysis.com
The URL for this story is:
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=255
=== 2 ===
IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, No. 478, January 29, 2004
NEWCOMERS TAKE ON GERMAN MEDIA GIANT
Fears of a virtual newspaper monopoly in Macedonia have prompted
several new newspapers to try their luck.
By Tamara Causidis in Skopje
Several new daily newspapers are about to hit the streets of Macedonia
in the next few days, as local media boldly take on the virtual
monopoly of a German media giant.
A daily called Vreme is due to start next week, becoming the country's
seventh Macedonian-language daily.
Within weeks two other papers, Vecer and Nova Makedonija, will also
reappear in new guises, after the government sold the formerly
state-owned titles to save them from going under.
Analysts believe the local media is determined to challenge the German
media group WAZ, which took control of 80 per cent of the republic's
print media after buying shares in Dnevnik, Vest and Utrinski Vesnik.
The three are the country's highest-circulation dailies, with a joint
circulation of about 120,000.
The newcomers believe they have a good chance of surviving in a tough
market, with solid financial backing and professional journalists.
They say the growing domination of the Macedonian media by the
Essen-based Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung has opened up a space for
an alternative voice.
Dnevnik, centrist and nationalist in outlook, currently dominates the
print scene. Utrinski vesnik is a leftist paper and Vest is a tabloid.
The three titles are now managed and distributed by an umbrella
company, Media Print Macedonia, to reduce overheads.
Before it reached Macedonia, WAZ, led by the former Stability Pact
chief Bodo Hombach, took over major media outlets in Bulgaria, Croatia,
Serbia and Montenegro.
Entry into Macedonia, as in other Balkan countries, has raised concern
over the creation of a media monopoly, for the three dailies had no
serious competition when WAZ took over.
As state-owned papers, Vecer and Nova Makedonija have been failing for
years, while the tiny, independent Makedonija denes is weak and has no
influence.
The head of the project in Vreme and the main financier is Velija
Ramkovski, owner of the country's biggest independent TV station, A1TV,
with 46 per cent share of the viewing audience, according to latest
surveys.
Idea Plus DDB, a marketing agency in Skopje, bought the Vecer title at
a public bidding on December 23 for 25,000 euro while Nova Makedonija
went to the Skopje-based Zonik Company for 5,000 euro.
The new owners insist they will revitalise the formerly popular papers
and change their concepts.
Many believe the firms that bought the titles have solid finances, as
they have had to undertake to publish them for a minimum of five years.
Vecer and Vreme are seen as having a good chance of survival in the
Macedonian media scene as both papers have strong financial back-up and
will not have problems obtaining a share of the advertising market, a
main source of finance for the media.
Iso Rusi, editor of the Albanian-language weekly Lobi, told IWPR that
both Vecer and Vreme enjoyed the preconditions to secure a solid
position.
"For a daily to cover its expenditures and publishing it needs seven or
eight pages of advertisement," Rusi said. "Idea Plus as a marketing
agency that will have no problem redirecting its clients to the paper.
Vreme may have more difficulties, but they have media promotion via A1
television station, which is also owned by Velija Ramkovski."
But survival will not depend on finance alone. Analysts say the
monopoly of WAZ has created new space for alternative voices.
Although WAZ pledged not to interfere with its dailies content,
observers worry that uniting the three papers are under one company
will create pressure for a unified editorial policy.
Vreme editor, Gjorgji Barbarovski, told IWPR, "Macedonia's media scene
should not be monopolised. We do not expect a war with the three WAZ
newspapers, as there is space for all of us, but we are prepared and
aware of the competition."
The new editors say their main task will be to offer variety and add
quality to the print scene.
Klime Babunski, a media expert at the Institute for Political-Legal and
Sociological Research, told IWPR he hoped the new papers would enrich
media choice.
"It would be awful if the entire offer of daily media outlets in
Macedonia came down only to papers controlled by WAZ," he said.
The success of the new ventures hangs also on the quality of the
journalists and their impact on the media scene.
Vreme has been set up by Aleksandar Damovski, founder and former editor
of Dnevnik, who left the paper after the WAZ takeover along with nearly
20 journalists, in the ambitious quest to found a independent daily
title that would offer something new.
Editor of Vreme Jasmina Mironski told IWPR, "There is space for one
more daily that will offer something fresh, something different. I
expect that Vreme will also re-establish journalistic genres such as
analysis, research, an approach that has been neglected in the existing
papers that offer only news."
The future director of Vecer, journalist Vasko Eftov, told IWPR the
media scene urgently needed an overhaul and that the new dailies were
in a better position to offer this than WAZ. "Our advantage in
relation to WAZ is that we are small and flexible, and WAZ is slow and
massive," he said.
But Branko Gerovski, editor of Dnevnik, said the new titles would not
jeopardise the leading position of the WAZ papers, "We will create
healthy competition, so there is no need for any fears. Instead, we
need to work hard so that in the end the readers benefit."
Tamara Causidis is a journalist with Radio Free Europe in Skopje.
(...) Balkan Crisis Report is supported by the Department for
International Development, the European Commission, the Swedish
International Development and Cooperation Agency, The Netherlands
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and other funders. IWPR also acknowledges
general support from the Ford Foundation. (...) For further details on
this project, other information services and media programmes, visit
IWPR's website: www.iwpr.net
(...) The Institute for War & Peace Reporting is a London-based
independent non-profit organisation supporting regional media and
democratic change. (...)
The opinions expressed in Balkan Crisis Report are those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR.
ISSN: 1477-7932 Copyright (c) 2004 The Institute for War & Peace
Reporting
BALKAN CRISIS REPORT No. 478
1. Tito Shockers, Fat Cats on the Beach Liven Up Macedonian Newspapers
(by C. Deliso)
2. Newcomers take on German media giant (by T. Causidis)
See also:
Rogue Newspaper Arrives in Skopje
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=243
=== 1 ===
Tito Shockers, Fat Cats on the Beach Liven Up Macedonian Newspapers
Date: Sunday, February 15 @ 14:00:00 EST
Topic: Macedonia Articles
As predicted, the arrival of new competition in Macedonia’s
media game has increased not only reader choice but also editorial
creativity. Judging from what we have seen so far, the papers are
emerging from years of lethargy and the prime winner is the Macedonian
public.
On 28 January, ‘Vreme’ made its debut
[http://www.balkanalysis.com/
modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=243] in fine form, selling out
everywhere by mid-morning. Demand was evidenced by an ironic
hand-scrawled placard in front of one kiosk, reading “nema vreme!” (no
time!).
While the physical quality of the paper (printed on smaller and
thinner paper than the others) leaves something to be desired, its
coverage so far shows a strong internationalist focus. The world news
section is almost completely made up of current reports from a variety
of foreign publications. Editorial commentary from outsiders, for
example the American and former resident Jason Miko, has begun
appearing, and special reports from Iraq by the likes of Scott Taylor
[http://www.balkanalysis.com/
modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=178] are on the way. ‘Vreme’ is
unique in that it features foreign comics (so far, ‘Dilbert’ and
‘Calvin & Hobbes’), and perhaps most interestingly, a hand-picked
“website of the day” on the back cover.
For its part, WAZ and ‘Dnevnik’ [http://int.dnevnik.com.mk/%5d have
shown they are not planning to give ground. On 1 February, the German
media giant
[http://www.balkanalysis.com/
modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=38%20] unveiled a new format-
basically the same except for color photos (instead of the usual black
and white) on the cover, first pages and back cover. This has allowed
for new and sensational opportunities- such as Wednesday’s story about
MobiMak fat cats on vacation
[http://dnevnik.com.mk/default.asp?pBroj=2376&stID=29019%20]. The
paparazzi aspect of the article is unclear however, as the picture- of
people sunning themselves under a palm tree on a glittering beach in
the Maldives- is taken from a distance and could be from anywhere.
Nevertheless, given the general distaste for corporate largesse in the
midst of widespread poverty, it looks as if this may help usher in a
new and more self-critical era for Macedonia- something essential for
the country’s mental health
[http://www.balkanalysis.com/
modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=250].
Utrinski Vesnik [http://int.utrinskivesnik.com.mk/%20%5d, for its part,
has captured attention with an ongoing series that started Friday and
plays to latent Yugo-nostalgia among Macedonians: the “last words” of
Josip Broz Tito
[http://utrinski.com.mk/
default.asp?pBroj=1390&stID=7095&pR=19%0D%0A%20]. The revered leader’s
final predictions were recorded in an interview conducted with
contemporary and friend Josip Kopinic in spring of 1979, a year before
Tito’s death. Afterwards, the Party denied that the interview had taken
place and was riddled with lies. Tito said that he feared the country
would fall apart, and that there would be a war in Kosovo- both
prescient analyses. Apparently, in the last years of his life Tito was
increasingly just a figurehead in government, his power taken over by
the Committee.
Wednesday’s installment
[http://utrinski.com.mk/default.asp?pBroj=1394&stID=7526&pR=16] from
the WAZ-owned publication quotes Josip Kopinic as saying Tito’s wife,
Jovanka, had lived a double life, working for years as a KGB spy. When
senior officials confronted Tito and demanded he divorce her, he
reportedly lamented, “…don’t ask that from me. Don’t take the meat from
a live man’s bones- that hurts. Jovanka is in my heart. I love her but
I can’t forgive what she did to me.”
The day after, the paper delivered a revelation about Goli Otok
[http://int.utrinskivesnik.com.mk/
default.asp?pBroj=1395&stID=7610&pR=21]. ‘Translated as ‘the naked
island,’ but also known as the ‘island of death’
[http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0880330554/balkanalysisc-20%5d,
this high-security prison for dissidents once hosted future Croatian
leader Franjo Tudjman, among others. According again to Josip Kopinic,
Tito was turned down for the Nobel Prize because of the prison’s
infamy. Kopinic reports the president as having said,
“…when I received the letter in Belgrade from the King of Norway, I
knew that I would not get the Prize. In that letter, he told me that
his parliament was asking me to apologize in public for Goli Otok and
the torturing of prisoners there. Actually, he wanted me to apologize
for that as being Yugoslavia’s shame. That I saw as their condition and
I didn’t agree. If he had asked me the same thing in a different way, I
would have agreed to do it. I would have organized a media conference,
and I would have told the truth about Goli Otok.”
The Tito series is symbolically compelling, in that it quite clearly
follows the model of similar retrospectives long preferred in the West,
when reminiscing on their own leaders.
It remains to be seen what will happen when the resurrected ‘Vecer’
and ‘Nova Makedonija’ enter the game in the weeks ahead. While they are
not expected to take the laurel from the front-runners, their very
presence will certainly make things more lively still.
This article comes from Balkanalysis.com
http://www.balkanalysis.com
The URL for this story is:
http://www.balkanalysis.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=255
=== 2 ===
IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, No. 478, January 29, 2004
NEWCOMERS TAKE ON GERMAN MEDIA GIANT
Fears of a virtual newspaper monopoly in Macedonia have prompted
several new newspapers to try their luck.
By Tamara Causidis in Skopje
Several new daily newspapers are about to hit the streets of Macedonia
in the next few days, as local media boldly take on the virtual
monopoly of a German media giant.
A daily called Vreme is due to start next week, becoming the country's
seventh Macedonian-language daily.
Within weeks two other papers, Vecer and Nova Makedonija, will also
reappear in new guises, after the government sold the formerly
state-owned titles to save them from going under.
Analysts believe the local media is determined to challenge the German
media group WAZ, which took control of 80 per cent of the republic's
print media after buying shares in Dnevnik, Vest and Utrinski Vesnik.
The three are the country's highest-circulation dailies, with a joint
circulation of about 120,000.
The newcomers believe they have a good chance of surviving in a tough
market, with solid financial backing and professional journalists.
They say the growing domination of the Macedonian media by the
Essen-based Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung has opened up a space for
an alternative voice.
Dnevnik, centrist and nationalist in outlook, currently dominates the
print scene. Utrinski vesnik is a leftist paper and Vest is a tabloid.
The three titles are now managed and distributed by an umbrella
company, Media Print Macedonia, to reduce overheads.
Before it reached Macedonia, WAZ, led by the former Stability Pact
chief Bodo Hombach, took over major media outlets in Bulgaria, Croatia,
Serbia and Montenegro.
Entry into Macedonia, as in other Balkan countries, has raised concern
over the creation of a media monopoly, for the three dailies had no
serious competition when WAZ took over.
As state-owned papers, Vecer and Nova Makedonija have been failing for
years, while the tiny, independent Makedonija denes is weak and has no
influence.
The head of the project in Vreme and the main financier is Velija
Ramkovski, owner of the country's biggest independent TV station, A1TV,
with 46 per cent share of the viewing audience, according to latest
surveys.
Idea Plus DDB, a marketing agency in Skopje, bought the Vecer title at
a public bidding on December 23 for 25,000 euro while Nova Makedonija
went to the Skopje-based Zonik Company for 5,000 euro.
The new owners insist they will revitalise the formerly popular papers
and change their concepts.
Many believe the firms that bought the titles have solid finances, as
they have had to undertake to publish them for a minimum of five years.
Vecer and Vreme are seen as having a good chance of survival in the
Macedonian media scene as both papers have strong financial back-up and
will not have problems obtaining a share of the advertising market, a
main source of finance for the media.
Iso Rusi, editor of the Albanian-language weekly Lobi, told IWPR that
both Vecer and Vreme enjoyed the preconditions to secure a solid
position.
"For a daily to cover its expenditures and publishing it needs seven or
eight pages of advertisement," Rusi said. "Idea Plus as a marketing
agency that will have no problem redirecting its clients to the paper.
Vreme may have more difficulties, but they have media promotion via A1
television station, which is also owned by Velija Ramkovski."
But survival will not depend on finance alone. Analysts say the
monopoly of WAZ has created new space for alternative voices.
Although WAZ pledged not to interfere with its dailies content,
observers worry that uniting the three papers are under one company
will create pressure for a unified editorial policy.
Vreme editor, Gjorgji Barbarovski, told IWPR, "Macedonia's media scene
should not be monopolised. We do not expect a war with the three WAZ
newspapers, as there is space for all of us, but we are prepared and
aware of the competition."
The new editors say their main task will be to offer variety and add
quality to the print scene.
Klime Babunski, a media expert at the Institute for Political-Legal and
Sociological Research, told IWPR he hoped the new papers would enrich
media choice.
"It would be awful if the entire offer of daily media outlets in
Macedonia came down only to papers controlled by WAZ," he said.
The success of the new ventures hangs also on the quality of the
journalists and their impact on the media scene.
Vreme has been set up by Aleksandar Damovski, founder and former editor
of Dnevnik, who left the paper after the WAZ takeover along with nearly
20 journalists, in the ambitious quest to found a independent daily
title that would offer something new.
Editor of Vreme Jasmina Mironski told IWPR, "There is space for one
more daily that will offer something fresh, something different. I
expect that Vreme will also re-establish journalistic genres such as
analysis, research, an approach that has been neglected in the existing
papers that offer only news."
The future director of Vecer, journalist Vasko Eftov, told IWPR the
media scene urgently needed an overhaul and that the new dailies were
in a better position to offer this than WAZ. "Our advantage in
relation to WAZ is that we are small and flexible, and WAZ is slow and
massive," he said.
But Branko Gerovski, editor of Dnevnik, said the new titles would not
jeopardise the leading position of the WAZ papers, "We will create
healthy competition, so there is no need for any fears. Instead, we
need to work hard so that in the end the readers benefit."
Tamara Causidis is a journalist with Radio Free Europe in Skopje.
(...) Balkan Crisis Report is supported by the Department for
International Development, the European Commission, the Swedish
International Development and Cooperation Agency, The Netherlands
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and other funders. IWPR also acknowledges
general support from the Ford Foundation. (...) For further details on
this project, other information services and media programmes, visit
IWPR's website: www.iwpr.net
(...) The Institute for War & Peace Reporting is a London-based
independent non-profit organisation supporting regional media and
democratic change. (...)
The opinions expressed in Balkan Crisis Report are those of the authors
and do not necessarily represent those of the publication or of IWPR.
ISSN: 1477-7932 Copyright (c) 2004 The Institute for War & Peace
Reporting
BALKAN CRISIS REPORT No. 478