| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Mafra a.s., Rheinisch-Bergische Druckerei- und Verlagsgesellschaft |
| Editor | Dalibor Balšínek |
| Founded | 1893 |
| Political alignment | Liberal conservatism, right of center[1] |
| Language | Czech |
| Headquarters | Karla Engliše 519/11, Prague |
| Circulation | 73,000 (2008) [2] |
| ISSN | 1213-1385 |
| Official website | http://www.lidovky.cz |
Lidové noviny (People's News, Czech pronunciation: [ˈlɪdovɛː ˈnovɪnɪ]) is a daily newspaper published in the Czech Republic. It is the oldest Czech daily.[2] Its profile is nowadays a national news daily covering political, economic, cultural and scientific affairs, mostly with a centre-right,[1] conservative view.[2] It often hosts commentaries and opinions of prominent personalities from the Czech Republic and from abroad.
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Lidové noviny was founded in 1893 in Brno. Its high prestige was due to the number of famous Czech personalities that were contributing—writers, politicians and philosophers—and its attention toward foreign politics and culture. It was also the first Czech daily publishing political cartoons. Its publication was interrupted during World War II and was closed down in 1952.[2]
In 1987 a group of political dissidents led by Jiří Ruml, Jiří Dienstbier and Ladislav Hejdánek recommenced the publication in a monthly samizdat version.[2] In the autumn two "zero editions" were published and in January 1988 the first edition was issued. Since November 1989 it is being published legally and since the spring 1990 as a daily. Some years later it was merged with dissolving Lidová demokracie, from which they inherited the blue colour of the title.
Since 1998 it has been part of the German group Rheinisch-Bergische Druckerei und Verlagsgesellschaft GmbH (the publisher of the daily Rheinische Post in Germany) and its Czech subsidiary Mafra a.s., that is also publisher of the second largest Czech daily Mladá fronta Dnes, the Czech edition of the freesheet Metro, the TV music channel Óčko, the radio stations Expresradio and Rádio Classic FM and the weekly music magazine Filter.
Its editor is currently Dalibor Balšínek. In 2008 it had a circulation of 73,000 copies and reaches up to 232,000 readers per day.[2]
Before World War II, the newspaper's prestige was high, with many famous Czech intellectuals, such as Karel Čapek, being its editors. The contemporary variant concentrates more on infotainment to gain readership.
Among the contributors and editors of the old Lidové noviny, there were Karel Čapek, Josef Čapek, Richard Weiner, Eduard Bass, Karel Poláček, Rudolf Těsnohlídek, Jiří Mahen, Jan Drda, Václav Řezáč and the presidents Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Beneš.
This list includes only editors of the new Lidové noviny.