Predrag Mihailovic, editor-in-chief of Blic - Video sector foundation for future

The daily newspaper Blic has recently celebrated 20 years of work. They celebrated their jubilee with more than 1,500 of their dear guests from the world of politics, diplomacy, business, sport, culture, show business.

Predrag Mihailovic, editor-in-chief of Blic, says in his interview for eKapija that they celebrated their jubilee as the first and the most successful integrated editorial on the Balkans, whose printed and online editions reach more than 2 million readers.

– However, we are well aware that as many opportunities there are for the media industry in a digitized world, as many challenges we have to face as journalists.

eKapija: Looking back to the past, what were the moments that marked the editorial policy and business of Blic? What was it like back then and what is it like today? What were the milestones?

– When it appeared, on 16th September 1996, “Blic” was believed in by the ones who had founded it, joyfully accepted by those who will become its faithful readers and feared by the regime creators of the public opinion not used to the honest voice. A journal of great circulation and with the clear critical attitude towards the government, it made an impression of pure diversion based on unquestionable courage of its editors and journalists who started an unequal combat with the deceptive prospects of success. The combat with Milosevic was difficult, our newspaper was the free stand of the hunted and satanized opposition, our main editor was frequently summoned for informative conversations in MUP, “Borba” refused to print our editions, police used to visit our editorial office. The fall of Milosevic, expropriation of Kosovo, NATO bombing, for these 20 years with over 7,000 editions, “Blic” reported about political changes and their consequences, about social issues, economic turbulences and world turmoil.

eKapija: What did the company Ringier bring to Blic as a new owner?

– The foreign owner, which is a serious multinational company Ringier Axel Springer, brings stability above all. We are immune to the local political events, suspicious businessmen and various brokers. We have absolute freedom to practice our editorial policy and we do not depart from our values – journalistic professionalism, promoting a strong market economy, reconciliation in ex Yugoslavia, promoting the convergence with EU, fighting Nazism, nationalism, fascism, extremisms and extreme ideologies of all kind.

eKapija: You introduced the integrated newsroom, that is, the same journalists work for different editions. What are the results?

– Constant modernization is the imperative of our editorial which became the pioneer in many things: starting from the way of reporting, appealing and modern layout, all the way to the application of the most contemporary technological solutions. We are the first ones in this part of Europe who introduced the integrated newsroom. Moreover, we welcomed the era of general digitalization – the online edition of “Blic” is the most visited and most read news portal in Serbia and ex Yu region: “Blic.rs” has 2 million unique users and 180 million of viewed pages per day.

eKapija: In spite of the increasing influence of digital journalism, the printed edition, in your case continues to exist. What are the predictions for the following period?

– For these 20 years with over 7,000 editions, “Blic” has been calling things by their proper name no matter what we wrote about: political conspiracies, negligence of public bodies, and in transparencies in the period of wild privatization of public companies or everyday issues of our citizens. We believe that in the era of digitalization, when information is served for free and is omnipresent, people still need someone who will reveal the story behind the story, what is the background context of some events, where all this is going. That is our mission and our chance.

eKapija: How many people are included in the work of Blic?

– There are a couple of hundred journalists, editors, photographers, makeup men, redactors, lectors, documentarians, film editors, graphic designers, secretaries, drivers, couriers, together with the offices we could not work without –advertising, marketing, human resources, finances, IT – all on the same task: Now that we have turned two decades, besides the pride we feel for them, we also have the obligation to constantly keep their knowledge about digital publishing up to date, because we can no longer have the excuse of being young and inexperienced.

eKapija: Is Ringier planning new acquisitions?

– This is a question for the management of the company. However, I am sure that people who are in charge of that have the real overview of the media picture in Serbia. I know that the management makes use of the know-how within the group and that there are concrete plans to address millennials even stronger in the near future.

eKapija: What kind of content is missing in the Ringier editions?

– Ringier Axel Springer is the leading publishing house on the territory of Serbia in whose portfolio there are numerous printed editions with high circulation such as: “Blic”, “24 Hours”, “Blic Zena”, “Blic Puls”, NIN, and “Auto Blic”. On the Internet, the most visited web sites are: Blic.rs, Alo.rs, Pulsonline.rs, Zena.rs, and great success is achieved by the projects – internet shop Nonstopshop.rs, travelling site Superodmor.rs, then there is Mojauto.rs, Nekretnine.rs. Currently I can see no media in Serbia, printed or digital, which belongs to this circle.

eKapija: What are the plans for the following period?

– We made a real revolution on the election in April this year when portal "Blic.rs" continued to break the records. The number of visits was significantly contributed by the pioneering venture of our editorial - the first live-stream broadcast of the election night through "Blic TV". At the night of the election "Blic TV" was followed by 1,2 million viewers. Based on this success we launched "Blic news" which instantly became the landmark of our video sector which is being developed. The video sector will be one of our foundations in the future, while the printed edition will continue to be the support of Blic.rs.

M.K.

Ringier doo Beograd

Ringier

Predrag Mihailovic

Blic

24 sata

Alo

Blic Zena

Blic Puls

NIN

Auto Bild

Blic TV