Blic

Blic is among the highest circulation dailies on the Serbian media scene. A tabloid owned by German publishers, it has quickly won a large readership with low price, and a mixture of serious news and scandal stories. During the winter 1996/97 street demonstrations in Serbia, Blic jumped in the media vacuum formed by the decision of the state-controlled media to completely ignore the protests and the inability of more established independent media to satisfy the demand for news. At one point, the circulation reached 250,000 sold copies. Naturally, the authorities couldn't tolerate such impertinence and the state-controlled print works refused to publish the paper. Representative of the German owner hurried to assure the authorities that the paper will cut down its reporting about the demonstrations and reduce its circulation. Immediately, almost all journalists on the editorial board resigned and continued publishing as Blic-Demokratija, now a daily affiliated with the Democratic Party. Since then, a similar defection has spawned the daily Glas Javnosti [Public Voice]. Thus, as of July 1998, at least nine dailies are published in Belgrade! Blic also offers an on-line edition in English, with translations of several articles from the printed edition.

On March 17 the authorities ordered dailies Blic and Glas Javnosti to reduce their sale prices. According to the management of Blic, since the authorities failed to at the same time reduce the cost of printing and newsprint, the company will actually be making losses from every copy sold. With the current circulation of 200,000 and 70,000 copies respectively, Blic and Glas Javnosti are, besides Vecernje Novosti, by far the most widely read daily newspapers in Serbia. According to the management, the readers of Blic have offered to help the paper financially, if needed.

YUINDpress
Last Update 11/26/2006