Judging by the beginning of the year, the media sky in 2026 in Serbia will be even more colorful than last year. Or at least that's what can be concluded if you look at the number of newly founded companies media - 10 portal in different local self-governments established from the same headquarters.
The Novi Sad company Zaple Media Group first launched in January three new portals, which cover Smederevska Palanka, Aranđelovac and several cities and municipalities in the east of Serbia, and on Wednesday (February 4) seven more portals owned by the same company were registered in the Media Register of the Agency for Business Registers.
Now the portals "Stara Pazova live", "Nova Pazova live", "Podunavlje live", which deal with news from these parts of the country, as well as the portals "Nekad i sad info", "Nekad i sad", "Before i posle info", and "Before-and-after" are also registered.
Same editor-in-chief
Apart from the same owner, they all have the same editor, Gradimir Banković, one of the collaborators Centra za društvenu stabilnost, an NGO that staged anti-blockade government rallies in response to student and civic protests during 2025. This center has also so far prepared several propaganda films in which the central place is occupied by the government.
In recent years, he has appeared in public as an analyst and guest in the media, representing the Center for Social Stability.
Banković is also the owner and director of the company Elementum Media doo from Novi Sad, registered for the production and broadcasting of television programs, as well as the legal representative of the association "Kogitatum centar", which in 2021 received funds from the Ministry of Environmental Protection in a competition intended for civil society organizations.
There is no imprint on any of the portals, so it is not known who the journalists are. The name of the editor-in-chief can be found in APR.
"Vreme" contacted Zaple Media Group regarding the newly established portals, but the answer did not arrive by the time this text was published.
What do they do?
Apart from the portals that cover the mentioned local governments, the "Once and Sad" portal, which is connected to both media that have these words in their names, deals with regions, but so far there are only a few announcements about capital projects in Belgrade - like Belgrade on the water.
The site has published photos of how certain parts of the city looked before, and how they look today. These are projects that the government often mentions as the work of its own hands, such as Belgrade on the Water (where drug addicts, rats and snakes used to roam), the new bus station in Belgrade, some roundabouts, and the improvement of roads. Expo, the Miloš Veliki highway, and regional projects are also listed on the front page, but there is no information available for them yet.
Sites associated with the media that have the words "then and now" in the title are not available.
The three original portals - Serbia in the East, Palanačke vesti and Glas Aranđelovac cover the areas where local elections are held this year, so this could be one of the reasons for their establishment. However, in the municipalities where the others are now established, there is no choice, and as Veran Matić, president of the ANEM Board of Directors, told "Vreme" earlier, the reason for the establishment could lie in future tenders for media co-financing.
"At the same time, new media are being intensively opened in order to get involved as soon as possible in the distribution of funds from project co-financing. Tenders for state funding will be announced soon, and last year, I will remind you, more than 15 million euros almost entirely ended up in pro-government media," said Matić.
Local media spring up before the elections: Same company, same editor, same day of registration
