Pobjeda

Pobjeda

200px Pobjeda issue on 6 June 2006
Type	Daily newspaper
Format	Berliner
Owner(s)	Government of Montenegro (85,9894 %) small shareholders 14,0106%
Editor	Vesna Šofranac (acting)
Political alignment	pro-government, pro-DPS
Language	Montenegrin
Headquarters	Bulevar Revolucije 11, Poštanski fah 101, 81000 Podgorica, Montenegro
Circulation	17.250 (1991)
ISSN	0350-4379

Pobjeda (Montenegrin Cyrillic: Пoбjeдa, pronounced [pôbjeda], English: The Victory) (MNSE: NIPO) is a Montenegrin newspaper. Having been published for 66 years, it is the oldest Montenegrin newspaper still in circulation. It is the oldest Montenegrin active media, too.

Until September 1997 it was the only daily newspaper printed in Montenegro. Following several unsuccessful privatization attempts, it is the only daily newspaper in Montenegro that is state-owned.

History of Pobjeda

The first issue of Pobjeda was published on 24 October 1944 in Nikšić as a part of the National liberation front of Montenegro (Narodnooslobodilački front Crne Gore). Three more issues came out before Pobjeda began to be published in Cetinje. That city was Pobjeda's home until 1954, when it moved to Podgorica.

Pobjeda was a bi-weekly and weekly newspaper until 1 January 1975 when it switched to daily frequency. The chabge happened at the period when headquarters of Pobjeda moved from old location (Graphic institute building, at the Ribnica river coast) to the new building, in the new city quarter (Bulevar Revolucije 11).

For many decades, in time of SFR Yugoslavia, Pobjeda has been sold on the newsstands in Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Split and other biggest cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia. In the same tame, many newsstands in Montenegro were owned by Pobjeda.

After the breakup of Yugoslavia, copies of Pobjeda were sold in Montenegro and Serbia.

Pobjeda also published several magazines, and today there are first sport newspaper in Montenegro Arena and Magazine.

Newspaper owns publishing label, which books and publications were awarded at many prestigious events.

The Victory, originally dominating the Montenegrin readers, lost one part of its readers after the establishment of the two other newspapers - Vijesti and Dan.

In November 2007, Montenegrin government announced its intention to sell 51% of its stake in Pobjeda (thus keeping the remaining 25.7% for itself "in order to be able to influence strategic decision of the new owner") and opened a tender for qualifying offers to do so. By the tender's closing on March 4, 2008 no offers came in. In early May 2008, the government announced that it will open another tender by the end of May 2008. It also let it be known on the same occasion that in order to make the entity more appealing to potential buyers, it's considering writing-off Pobjeda's €2.2 million debt to the State through personal income taxes and contributions.

In late June 2008, Pobjeda posted a loss of €3.75 million for the calendar year 2007.

Views espoused through Pobjeda are aligned with policies of Montenegrin government. On October 4, 2009, Srđan Kusovac was named as the newspaper's new editor-in-chief. On the even of the 4th anniversary of the successful independence referendum, and Kusovac's initiative, Pobjeda was on 21 May 2010 for the first time printed in Latin script, after 66 years of being printed in Cyrillic. Kusovac had noted that it was decided upon after a poll had shown that most of its readers chose Latin over Cyrillic as their primary writing script and in order to make it more compatible to the internet and mobile versions of the website, which are in Latin, as well as make it easier for foreigners who seldom learn the Cyrillic script and rely on the widely-spread Latin. The redesigning of the paper presents a change which is somewhat controversial in nature.

Magazines

Arena

Arena is a Podgorica-based sports daily, published by Pobjeda. Its first and today the only one sports daily newspapers in Montenegro.

Each day, half of its pages are devoted to football (National team of Montenegro, Montenegrin League and international leagues), whereas the rest deal with, in order of importance, basketball, volleyball, waterpolo, handball etc.

The first issue of daily Arena was printed on 1 January 2007. Before that, since 2005 Arena was a weekly newspaper.

Magazin

Magazin is the newest Pobjeda's daily publication. The first issue of Magazin was printed in February 2010.

References

¹Montenegrin is in the process of standardization, historically and nominally considered only a dialect of Serbian, inteligible with other Serbo-Croatian languages

External links

• Official website