The media bazaar and even the Blic journalists themselves are convinced that the company was sold to them Saša Blagojević, owner of Aloe, Study B and a number of radio stations. Because the tone of reporting has changed significantly.
"Vreme" investigates this in the new issue, which is on newsstands from Thursday (September 10).
Propaganda instead of "slander"
Sources from Blic told our Marija L. Janković that the change has been visible since March and that the chief editor of the most visited portal in Serbia has been replaced, along with printed newspapers and television.
"We all know that Blic has been fighting for two years, it does not support students, but it is not open to the regime either," says one source from the newsroom.
"Nevertheless, four or five months ago, a directive arrived that Blitz must become Maltene Informer or Courier as the elections draw closer. They tried to avoid it, to justify that then the algorithm would not work and visits would drop, but it seems that they did not succeed."
Photo: TimeFront page of Vreme
Ringier denies everything.
Similar allegations about the sale of Blic to Blagojević - a friend of the minister Siniše Malog - said opposition politician Dragan Đilas.
But in the Swiss Ringier, the owner of Blic, they deny it. "Ringier is neither negotiating the sale of Blic nor the sale of parts of the media business in Serbia. There is no sale process, no advanced negotiations, no deals on the horizon," they stated in their answers to "Vreme".
On the contrary, they say, this year they will celebrate three decades of Blitz. "The speculations that are currently circulating in Belgrade are completely incorrect," they stated in the answer.
However, either the new editorial team is not made up of algorithm masters or the audience has noticed that Blic has become one-sided, writing about "blockers". Visits to the site have dropped dramatically in recent months from about a million people a day to about 750.000.
Read the entire article in the new "Vremen" from Thursday (September 10) or subscribe to the print or digital edition.
