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Vijesti, Daily Newspaper
PROJECT SUMMARY:
Montenegro had not an independent newspapers from 1918 till 1990. The first independent
newspaper in Montenegro in this century appeared in October 1990. That was the weekly
newsmagazine Monitor. Now, only daily newspaper published in Montenegro - its state paper
„Pobjeda" (Victory), and it serves a total Montenegrin population of 600.000.
With its output which reflects the views of the ruling party, and its poor quality of
journalism, „Pobjeda" is far from meeting either professional or market
standards. Its lack of quality is well illustrated by the fact that the newspapers
published in Belgrade, such as „Politika", „Novosti", „Ekspres
politika", have a much higher circulation in Montenegro than „Pobjeda", and
thus its low sales, is that the citizens of Montenegro are growing dependent on the
propaganda emitted by the official Belgrade sources. It could be, therefore, said that
Montenegro practically has no daily newspaper of its own, which by itself justifies a need
to start-up one. The experience with Monitor, however, has proved that in such, and even
worse conditions (war, inflation, intimidation, etc.), considerable results can be
achieved.
BACKGROUND:
The publisher of The Daily Monitor would be the same as the one of Monitor the Weekly
Newsmagazine, and Radio Antena M. This is the multimedia centre Montenegropublic Ltd.
which conceived as the cheapest form to organise independent media a small market of
Montenegro with its 600.000 inhabitants.
Editorial policy will be the same as Monitor Weekly: to promote the ideas of the open
civil society, to fight for the reaffirmation of the European identity of Montenegro,
European values and standards in politics, culture, economy... against arising
nationalism, supporting the multicultural, multireligious, multiethnic coexistence in
Montenegro and Balkans.
PROJECT OBJECTIVES:
1. Start-up of Daily Monitor!
PROJECT ACTIVITIES:
Primary importance to us are the human resources, whose shortage was the main reason for
the lack of the media output about Montenegro in the outside world. Monitor has gathered
around it the largest number of high-quality Montenegrin journalists, so that is only fair
to say that every significant journalist in Montenegro is either fully employed by or
free-lances for Monitor. This is a great potential for starting-up a daily newspaper.
The second element is the financial means. The main obstacle to realise the project is the
lack of appropriate printing press and roto paper. Actually, the only printing press here
in Montenegro that has technological capacities to print newspapers is the state owned
one. As the typical company founded in communist era it is badly managed, can not
guarantee the necessary timing, it is very expensive, and with very high prices for us
that make first steps in independent press. This is why we are trying to get the second
hand printing press for newspapers printing. Enclosed one can find an offer we got from a
Switzerland company that sells second hand printing machines. The price for this is
255.000 CHF or 300.000 DEM. Great Britain Foreign office and Swedish Helsinki Committee
approved 200.000 DEM for roto print machine (130.000 + 70.000).
ORGANISATIONAL BACKGROUND (and working conditions)
One of the prerequisites would be a conducted survey of public opinion and a potential
market for the new daily. A polling agency would be hired to do a survey, and an
aggressive advertising campaign would be carried out for at least one month before
publication in order to attract the readership. In the worst variant, the start-up daily
circulation would be 5.500-6.000 copies per issue, with tendency to reach a daily figure
of at least 8.000-10.000 sold copies by after 5-6 months than start-up.
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P.O. Box, CH-8031
Zürich, Switzerland