Vecernje novosti
Večernje novosti was created in 1953 as "Večernje" and reported on news and daily events in a semi-tabloid style. Over time, it became one of the newspapers with the largest circulation in Serbia. The editorial policy of the Večernje novosti was characterized as right-wing and nationalist, which was especially visible during the 80s and 90s, at the time of the breakup of Yugoslavia. For example, in 1986, the Novosti published parts of the Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SANU) on the threatened position of Serbia and Serbs in Yugoslavia, which later served as the theoretical basis for the ethnic conflict in which Yugoslavia fell apart.
During the 90s, the Novosti was a pro-government newspaper under the control of Slobodan Milošević and his authoritarian regime. After the democratic changes in 2000, the Večernje novosti also began to change, especially in terms of ownership. Novosti AD, which today publishes the newspaper, was founded in 2001. The privatisation of Večernje novosti is still considered one of the most problematic and is on the list of 24 controversial privatisations that Serbia must resolve. The information available to the public about the privatisation of Novosti shows that in 2006, through his three offshore companies, Milan Beko, a Serbian businessman and former minister from the time of Slobodan Milošević, bought the majority of shares in Novosti through a network of companies. In November 2010, the Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia criticised the paper because, while reporting on an interview Beko gave for B92 television, it kept silent about his public acknowledgment that he owns the papers. The Serbian Code of Journalists specifies that "if reporting on individuals and companies that have an ownership stake in the media, the journalist/editor should mention that fact."
It was later revealed that the German company WAZ, which owned both Politika and Dnevnik, was also involved in the acquisition of Novosti, together with controversial businessman Stanko Subotić. Subotić claimed that WAZ gave money for the acquisition of Novosti, but the shares were never transferred. In the end, WAZ stopped all its operations in Serbia in 2012.
The takeover of Večernje novosti was also linked to Miroslav Bogićević, a controversial businessman and owner of MB Farmakom. In an interview with Nedeljnik, Beko stated that he did not know to whom he should have given the money for the acquisition of Novosti, whether to WAZ or Bogićević.
In 2011, the Securities Commission of Serbia introduced a measure prohibiting the voting rights of private companies in the ownership structure of Novosti. Since then, the state has independently controlled this company, even after 2015, when the law stipulated that the state must exit media ownership. However, even though his controlling rights were suspended, Milan Beko appointed his own man, Srđan Muškatirović, as the CEO, while the Government appointed members of the Supervisory Board.
Novosti entered the pre-bankruptcy procedure in 2017, and the following year a reorganisation plan was adopted before the Commercial Court, which enabled the creditors to become the owners of this company instead of collecting the debt. Beko's representative, Srđan Muškatirović, was the proposer of the reorganisation plan.
That opened the door for the state to take over Novosti, as the largest creditor was the state-owned Borba Printing House, as confirmed by the company's assembly in May 2019. In July 2019, Novosti's status as a public company ceased with its withdrawal from the stock market. The printing house Borba AD, as the majority owner of Novosti, at the meeting of the Shareholders' Assembly in August 2019, decided to approve the contract for the sale of this media company for about 300 million dinars to Media 026 from Vučak, owned by Boban Rajić, who is also the owner of Politika.
Today, Rajić is the 100% owner of Novosti. Novosti AD merged with the Novosti Agency on April 3, 2023.
In the report on compliance with the Code of Ethics for Journalists in daily newspapers from October 1, 2022, to January 31, 2023, the Press Council claimed Code violation in 328 articles published in the Večernje novosti newspaper, putting this paper in the fourth place, behind the daily Srpski Telegraf (658), Alo (581), and Informer (512) by the number of violations.
According to the BIRN database "Openly about open calls" (Javno o javnim konkursima), from 2019 to the end of 2022, Novosti was awarded 28.6 million dinars for 57 projects in public tenders.
Večernje novosti shares the address and building with Srpski Telegraf, while Borba Printing House shares the building with the Alo newsroom.
Audience Share
9.86%
Ownership Type
Private
Geographic Coverage
National
Content Type
Paid content: 70 RSD per copy (2023)
Media Companies / Groups
Media 026
Ownership Structure
The publisher of Večernje novosti is Novosti AD, 100% owned by Media 026. The owner of this company is Rajić Invest, owned by Boban Rajić.
Individual Owner
General Information
Founding Year
1953
Affiliated Interests Founder
The founder of daily Vecernje Novosti is a public company called Borba which used to publish a newspaper called Borba. The newspaper Borba was founded by the Communist Party in 1922. Until the Second World War, it was banned several times. Later, the Borba became one of the daily newspapers and was in circulation until 2009, when it was shut down.
Affiliated Interests Ceo
Former financial director of Večernje novosti, was appointed CEO of the newspaper on November 30, 2022. Anđelković also owns the real estate management company RB Invest from Smederevo. Immediately before being appointed head of Večernje novosti, Anđelković was interrogated in the Department of Internal Control of the Ministry of Interior at the beginning of November and then detained because, as accused, she enabled a police officer from Smederevo to get real estate at a lower price, which he, then, sold to his son. Večernje novosti then published that Anđelković declared that she was not guilty on any grounds and that their financial director at the time was the victim of a conflict within the Ministry of Interior.
Affiliated Interests Editor-In-Chief
A journalist and former member of the Socialist Party of Serbia. He was born in 1948 and graduated from the Faculty of Law in Belgrade. He was the CEO of RTV Novi Sad and wrote for the Politika and NIN. He became the editor of NIN in 1985 and held that position until 1991. He was also the manager of "Zvezdara teatar" and the artistic director of "Budva grad teatar." From 1992 to 1995, he was the CEO of RTS, when this television was a propaganda instrument of the Milošević regime. Although he presents himself as a leftist and an admirer of Che Guevara, Vučelić was close to the nationalist and dictator Slobodan Milošević in the 90s. He left the Socialist Party of Serbia in 1995 but returned from 1997 to 1998. From 1997 to 1999, he was the president of the Management Board of AD Telekom Srbija and became president of the Handball Association of Yugoslavia.
After the murder of the democratic Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić in 2003, Vučelić was arrested in a police operation called Sablja. In addition, the investigative show, and now the web portal, Insajder, published a police report stating that Vučelić was involved in cigarette smuggling in the 90s, which he denied. He became the vice president of the SPS in 2003 and came second in the 2006 elections for the Party president, behind Ivica Dačić.
He founded the Pečat Weekly in 2008 and was its editor-in-chief.
Today, he is close to the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, which he often publicly defends.
In October 2015, as the vice president of the Partizan Football Club, he was unanimously elected as the first man of the Partizan Yugoslav Sports Association, and a year later, he was elected as the president of the Partizan Football Club. He resigned from the post in August 2023.
In September 2017, he was appointed acting editor-in-chief of Večernje novosti and all publications of the Novosti company.
Patriarch Porfirije awarded him the Order of Saint Sava for "many years of successful cooperation, journalistic professionalism, and affirmation of Christian values and virtues" in 2021.
Affiliated Interests other important people
A controversial lawyer hired by Boban Rajić to register his company during the takeover of Novosti. Isailović, who is close to the current Minister of Finance Siniša Mali but also cooperated with Prime Minister Ana Brnabić, took care of the operations of his offshore companies.
This lawyer is often hired by Nikola Petrović, the best man of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, and Milutin Folić, the former first city planner of the City of Belgrade, and Isailović's most controversial client is the notorious businessman from the north of Kosovo, Zvonko Veselinović, whom the lawyer helped to found companies.
Isailović appears in the "Pandora Papers" because he established a secret account in the British Virgin Islands.
Contact
Trg Nikole Pašića 7
Stari grad, Belgrade
E-mail: kompanija@novosti.rs
W: novosti.rs
T: 011/3028-339, 011/3028-340
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
Headlines
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 imprint of the editorial office is available in the printed publication of the newspaper, and the official data on ownership are publicly available on the website of the Business Registers Agency, but do not give a complete picture of the actual ownership of the publisher.
