24 Chasa

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Type	Daily newspaper
Format	tabloid

Owner	WAZ
Editor	Venelina Gocheva
Founded	1990
Headquarters	Sofia, Bulgaria

Website: www.24chasa.bg

24 Chasa (Bulgarian: 24 часа, translated as 24 Hours) is one of the largest-circulation Bulgarian daily newspapers.

The newspaper, part of the 168 Chasa (168 Hours) Press Group founded by Petyo Blaskov, was launched in 1990, a few months after the success of the 168 Hours weekly newspaper. The well-designed tabloid format and the colloquial, somewhat derisive, writing style of 24 Chasa quickly gained wide popularity. Along with briefly presented news, the daily offers much entertaining reading and some quite insightful analyses. By offering high salaries and relative freedom from party biases, the 168 Hours Press Group attracted some of the most talented Bulgarian journalists. It also recruited many young beginning journalists who were trained on the job to become stop-at-nothing news hunters (often at the expense of precision). Intellectuals and politicians are tempted to contribute to the press group's publications because of the high circulation guaranteed for their ideas.

One of the most popular features in the newspaper is the daily cartoon Ivancho i Mariyka, drawn by the well-known Bulgarian cartoonist Ivaylo Ninov. The newspaper also introduced the comic strip format to the Bulgarian readers by publishing Vlad Kolarov's Phil the Cat.

The newspaper is now a part of the German Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung media group, which is said to have close connections to the German social democratic SPD party. Its current editor-in-chief is Venelina Gocheva.