Večernje novosti

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Type Daily newspaper
Format Berliner

Owner Novosti AD
Editor Manojlo Vukotić
Founded October 16, 1953
Political allegiance conservative
Headquarters Trg Nikole Pašića 7,
11000 Belgrade,
Serbia

Website: www.novosti.rs

Večernje novosti (Serbian: Вечерње новости; English: Evening News) is a Belgrade-based daily. Founded as evening paper in 1953 during Trieste crisis it quickly grew into a high-circulation daily.

It first appeared on stands on October 16, 1953. Housing an extensive network of journalists and contributors, the paper reported and commented on various issues and events according to its mantra: fast, brief and clear.

Novosti (as most people call it for short) also employ foreign correspondents spread around 23 national capitals around the globe.[citation needed]

On February 4, 2006, retired basketball ace Vlade Divac expressed his desire to invest in Novosti, perhaps even buy the majority stake, but decided to lay low until the paper's complex ownership structure disputes are resolved.[1][2]

Perhaps attracted by Divac's public overtures, two media conglomerates, Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung from Essen as well as London's Northcliffe, a division of Daily Mail and General Trust soon also announced their interest in buying a stake in Novosti.[3]

[edit] History

Novosti has a rich, occasionally checkered, history. Though it is undeniably part of the Balkan folklore as one of the region's longest enduring newspapers, it is also remembered for its association with the regime of Slobodan Milošević. During the years leading up to the dictator's overthrow, Novosti was one of his main mouthpieces. Loyalty to his regime was the most important job requirement at the paper in this period. Through party installed apparatchiks like Dusan Cukić (then Novosti's editor-in-chief), Milošević was able to control the paper and use it to espouse some of the worst propaganda.[citation needed]

In what is surely one of the most blatant and brazen attempts at misrepresenting the facts that Serbian public has ever witnessed, Novosti featured a doctored Milošević campaign rally photo on the cover in September 2000. The idea was to avoid showing the actual (small) number of people that showed up to the rally at Berane military airport by copying the aerial shot of the people actually present and pasting it all over the remaining photo space so that at casual glance it would appear as if a large crowd had come out to greet Milošević.[citation needed]

After the 5th October overthrow, all of the paper's brass left to be replaced by new guard led by new editor-in-chief Manojlo Vukotić. Since then, Novosti was able to regain most of its severely tarnished reputation.