Danas
A group of journalists from the daily newspaper Naša Borba founded the newspaper Danas in 1997 as an independent daily newspaper of a highly liberal and pro-European orientation. The first issue of the newspaper appeared on newsstands on June 9, 1997.
This newspaper often criticised the Milošević regime and tended to be independent, so it was forced to pay large fines in the period 1998-2000 due to the repressive media laws at the time. Today, it is one of three newspapers (Dnevni telegraf and Naša borba) that was banned on October 14, 1998 by the government's decision due to "spreading fear and defeatism" at the time when NATO bombing first became a threat. Newspapers were threatened with closure on a daily basis until the democratic changes in Serbia, which put an end to Slobodan Milosevic’s regime on October 5, 2000. After 2000, Danas maintained its independent, liberal and pro-European orientation. Since 2012, and especially in 2016, it has been under increasing pressure due to its independent editorial policy, especially the pressure on advertisers to stop advertising in newspapers. Dan Graf, a newspaper company, also publishes books.
Today, it is a daily newspaper that respects the code of journalists and whose editorial policy can be assessed as independent. The newspaper is recognizable by its critical attitude towards the government, and it is characterised by the greater space it gives to the opposition and critics of the regime. The editors-in-chief of Danas were Grujica Spasović from 1997 to February 2006, when he was succeeded by Mihal Ramač and remained in that position until 2009, and since 2009. Zoran Panović until the shift in March 2016, when Dragoljub Petrović became editor-in-chief.
United Group acquired the publisher Danas, Dan Graf, in 2021. Today, like other media within the United Group, they are under constant attacks and pressure from the authorities. These pressures and attacks existed even before the change of ownership. Prior to the change of owner, from 2018 to 2020, Dan Graf recorded a net profit of about RSD 10 million (of which a profit of only RSD 49 thousand during 2020). After the change of owner, in 2021 and 2022, a net loss of about RSD 180 million, i.e. more than one and a half million euros, was recorded. During 2021, the costs included the costs of production services of 133 million, which did not exist a year earlier. During 2022, these costs increased to RSD 241 million, causing a large loss in both years.
In a report on compliance with the Journalists' Code in the daily newspaper for the period from October 1, 2022 to January 31, 2023, the Press Council stated that 10 articles published in Danas violated the code.
Audience Share
3.78%
Ownership Type
Private
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Paid content: 70 RSD per copy (2023)
Media Companies / Groups
United Group
Ownership Structure
The publisher of the daily newspaper Danas is Dan Graf, owned by United Media in Luxembourg. The owner of this company is Slovenia Broadband from Luxembourg, which is further owned by United Group from the Netherlands. United Group is owned by a number of Dutch companies: the direct owner is Adria Midco, owned by Adria Topco, which is further owned by Summer BidCo. The owner of this company is Summer MidCo, and the owner of this company is Summer Parent from Luxembourg.
Three companies have a stake in this company: 55.37% Luxembourg Summer Invest, 28.20% Gerrard Enterprises from the Isle of Man and 8.05% Gerrard MIP from the Cayman Islands. Dragan Solak has a 99% share in the Isle of Man company and a significant share in the Cayman Islands company.
The majority owner with a 78.65% stake in the company Summer Invest BC European Capital X LP Fund from the British island of Guernsey. No person has a 10% or more stake in the BC European Capital X Fund.
According to the APR, Dragan Šolak is listed as the beneficial owner of United Media Digital with 35.89% ownership.
Individual Owner
General Information
Founding Year
1997
Affiliated Interests Founder
These are: Božidar Andrejić, Nikola Burzan, Radivoj Cvetićanin, Branislav Čanak, Ludwik Wincenty Gadomski, Zdravko Huber, Milovan Jauković, Raško Kovačević, Radomir Ličina, Gordana Logar, Predrag Mitić, Dušan Mitrović, Saša Nikašinović, Vesna Ninković, Rade Radovanović, Grujica Spasović, Ivan Torov and Šime Vučković.
Dušan Mitrović, one of the founders of the newspaper, was the largest single owner of the publisher of the Dan Graf company with a share of 26.7%, until his death in October 2020.
Affiliated Interests Ceo
Has been the director of Dan Graf since March 2021. She came to this position after the company was bought by United Media from Luxembourg.
After the death of Dušan Mitrovic, the biggest shareholder owner of the company Dan Graf and a longtime director, Mitić was also co-owner of the company. Bojan and Anđelka Mitrović and Mitić divided Mitrović's share in the company into three equal parts, and all had an 8.89% share from December 2020 to March 2021.
Mitić is the owner or co-owner of four companies in Serbia: BJN, since August 2022; BJN Commodities, since September 2022 and Pan Intertrade since 2016, and the company BJN doo has 1.58% ownership in the company Zimpa AD.
The company BJN is engaged in the import and sale of textiles, as well as cosmetic products, and BJN Commodities is engaged in the trade of electricity. The director of these two companies is Bojan Mitić, who was also the owner before Aleksandra Mitić.
Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief
Petrović has been working for Danas since 2009, and since 2016 he has been the editor-in-chief of the newspaper. He is also the editor-in-chief of website danas.rs. He started his journalistic career in Borba newspaper in 1994, and later moved to Naša Borba. Later, he worked for Glas javnosti and Kurir. He writes columns for the N1 website and Nedeljnik, and he also wrote them for Al Jazeera, NIN. Petrović was part of the show Pljiž with Vojislav Žanetić and Dragoljub Ljubičić. This show was broadcast on N1 television, and then on Nova S.
Petrović twice received the Stanislav Staša Marinković Award of the Danas newspaper, which is awarded for journalistic courage and special achievements in investigative and analytical journalism (1997 and 2011), and he also received the Desimir Tošić Award of the Official Gazette in 2013.
Affiliated Interests other important people
Executive Editor of the print edition, worked for the daily newspaper Democracy and the weekly NIN. He has been in the newspaper Danas for more than two decades, and since 2009 he has held the position of editor. He received the Nikola Burzan Award for Journalistic Excellence, which was awarded to him in 2009.
Contact
Financial Information
Revenue (in Mill. $)
Missing data
Operating Profit (in Mill. $)
Missing data
Advertising (in % of total funding)
Missing data
Market Share
Missing data
Further Information
Meta Data
Missing data on printed and sold circulation, market share and advertising revenue. Financial data is available only for the company that publishes the media, but not for the media itself. The ownership structure of the final owner of Danas, i.e. B.C. Partners, is unknown. Dan Graf, the publisher of the daily Danas, is also the publisher of website Danas.rs, so it is not possible to find financial data on individual media that operate within the company.
