NIN (magazine)

NIN
НИН
Editor-in-chief Milan Ćulibrk
Categories Newsmagazine
Frequency Weekly
Publisher Politika a.d. (1958-2007)
Ringier Axel Springer d.o.o. (since 2009-)
First issue January 26, 1935
re-established January 7, 1951
Company Ringier Axel Springer
Country Serbia
Language Serbian
Website www.nin.co.rs

NIN (Serbian Cyrillic: НИН) is a weekly newsmagazine published in Belgrade, Serbia. Its name is an acronym for Nedeljne informativne novine (Недељне информативне новине) which roughly translates into Weekly Informational Newspaper.

Though a current events magazine in its essence, NIN also earned an esteemed reputation due to a long tradition of opening its pages to the best and the brightest within Serbian, and previously Yugoslav society, whether in arts, sciences, or even sports. This reputation has recently somewhat been tarnished as the magazine was forced into commercial competition with numerous political periodicals that sprung up in Serbia after the collapse of socialism. Since then, NIN has adopted a slightly more populist tone, though it is still highly regarded.

As of 2007, the magazine had 35 employees.

In July 2008, the magazine celebrated the release of its 3000th issue.[1] On March 13, 2009 it was announced that majority stake in the magazine was bought by Swiss media company Ringier AG.[2]

History

NIN was originally started in 1935.[3] During the late 1980s Slobodan Milošević and his followers converted major publications, including NIN, into media outlets of Serbian nationalism.[4]

2009 sale

In 2007 NIN was preparing for privatization.[5] At that time the magazine's ownership structure was: 87% publicly owned (društveni kapital), 10% owned by Politika AD, and 3% owned by the employees. A 60.9% stake (70% of the public stake) in the magazine was to be auctioned off on September 29, 2007 with starting price set at RSD13.2 million (~ €170,000).[6] However, the auction as the method of privatization for the magazine was scrapped by the Serbian Privatization Agency due to employee demands and a new tender was set for sometime during spring 2008.[7]

The tender was actually opened on October 30, 2008 and it closed on December 19, 2008. On December 25, 2008, it was reported that companies Ringier AG and Novosti AD submitted competing offers for 61.48% stake in NIN (70% of the magazine's public stake, which is in turn 87% of the total stake).[8]

In mid March 2009, it was announced that Ringier AG bought the majority stake in NIN for RSD57.455 million (~ €810,000). Soon afterward the magazine's headquarters moved from Cetinjska Street to Kraljice Marije Street at the same location where Blic daily (Ringier's other major asset in Serbia) has its headquarters. Sometime in April 2009, longtime editor-in-chief Slobodan Reljić was let go and replaced with Srđan Radulović, up to that point an editor at Blic daily. The change was done quietly without any press releases.

In September 2009, an open letter written by the magazine's longtime journalists to Ringier AG chairman Michael Ringier surfaced in which they are criticizing some of the moves and changes since Ringier took over.[9][10]

The NIN Literary Award

In January every year, NIN's special jury vote on what they feel was the best novel released during the previous year and award it with Ninova nagrada (Нинова награда, the NIN Prize), which has over the years become one of the highest honours for contemporary Serbian authors. The award is also very relevant commercially as its recipients usually go on to become bestsellers.

Editors

The list of individuals who performed editor-in-chief duties at NIN.

Columnists for the magazine include the "king of sugar" businessman Miodrag Kostić.

References

  1. ↑ NIN objavio 3000. broj, Politika, June 27, 2008
  2. ↑ NIN prodat kompaniji "Ringier", Blic, March 13, 2009
  3. ↑ Robert Thomas (January 1999). Serbia Under Milošević: Politics in the 1990s. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-85065-367-7. Retrieved 2 August 2015.
  4. ↑ Richard West (15 November 2012). Tito and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia. Faber & Faber. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-571-28110-7. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  5. ↑ NIN na aukciji 29. septembra, B92, July 27, 2007
  6. ↑ Više od deset kupaca za NIN, B92, August 28, 2007
  7. ↑ Tender za NIN do kraja marta, Blic, January 18, 2008
  8. ↑ Продаја "НИН"-а, RTS, December 26, 2008
  9. ↑ Нови анонимуси уништавају НИН. Pravda, September 14, 2009
  10. ↑ Писмо новинара НИН-а Михаелу Рингијеру, NSPM, September 14, 2009
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