(first page
in the newspaper)
More and more politicians are trying to found their
media groups to help them in the elections.
Journalists from the city of Brasov are worried with the latest series of
events. The second journal in terms of audience, “Monitorul de Brasov” is to be
sold to a PSD deputy, together with two other dailies in Ardeal.
The transactions in Transilvania follow other important purchasing of
media by politicians, even by those who had debts of billion ROL at the end of
the last year. Deputies Culita Tarata, Iulian Tocu, and the mayors Mazare and
Sechelariu have already developed their media investments. The politics
interfere more and more media content by economic tools.
More and more politicians are trying to found their media groups, which
help them in the elections. “I took over free of charge the three Moldovian
‘Monitor’, in Braila, Neamt, Roman”, says Tarata, but he does not speak
seriously. He refuses to say exactly how much he paid for the 3 local dailies,
but he admits he spends monthly about one billion ROL covering the costs.
Culita Tarata developed businesses of billions ROL in one of the main
agricultural regions of Romania (Insula Mare a Brailei).
Some other papers than his own have written lately about the debts of billion
ROL attributed to Tarata’s companies, based on the fiscal documents of Romanian
Fiscal Authority. One of his companies, T C E 3 Brazi, had 349,000,000,000 ROL,
according to the Ministry of Finance database. Confronted with this evidence,
Culita Tarata denied that his companies has any debts.
The story, presented by the daily media with proof of Local Fiscal Authorities
Neamt, presented no interest to the TV stations. TV News covered mainly cases
of small corruption, according to the last analysis made by the Media
Monitoring Agency (MMA).
MMA provided to Capital the partial results of the last media monitoring
September 26 – October 9. According to this study, the president Iliescu and
the prime-minister Nastase are leaders in the top of politicians most talked
about in media. The newspapers wrote especially about big corruption. On the
contrary, the TV channels broadcast one piece of news about big corruption, the
deputy Viorel Gheorghiu case, accused of framing the theft of his own car.
The journalist Ioana Lupea, columnists with “Cotidianul” newspaper
called this kind of journalism “obedient press”: Tv news bulletins start with
casual facts, or with the last success of the Government”, often “crimes,
rapes, thefts, accidents, a.w.o.l.s., which are diversionary.
“I hardly believe that the prime-minister would call and say: you should
broadcast this, but not the other one. The journalists make their one
decisions, because they think it’s best for them”, Ioana Avadani, the director
of he Independent Centre for Journalism Independent said. She thinks this kind
of media is either influenced, or seduced.
In the 2000 elections, the parties spent for media advertising more than three
brands of beer together did ($ 3,700,000 - the biggest budget). In the
following elections, the electoral campaigns appeal to all media as possible
sources of money.
2. Billionaire Mayor, Buying
Newspaper (page 7 in the newspaper)
More and more politicians are founding or extending their media empire. Some
of them officially admit the media owned helped them in the elections
Interested in politics and economy in its work, Cosmin
Alexandru, 33, reads the media every day. He reveals that he started to take
less and less articles in consideration.
Cosmin has a lot of reasons to be sceptical. The media coverage is suspected to
be put under the pressure of the politics for many reasons. First of all,
politicians bought an important part of local media. Some of them that declare
openly that the media groups they own help them in the election days. The
politicians owning media sometimes attack the independent press organizations,
as is the case of ‘Monitorul’ regional dailies.
There are more than 100 local and regional newspapers and more than 100 TV
private stations, according to Freedom House. The local press map shows that a
lot of politicians bought media companies. Dumitru Sechelariu, the mayor of
Bacau, admits that the paper bought in 1995 helped him winning the local
elections. He has lately paid $ 1,100,000 for extending his media group,
‘Desteptarea’, which includes now “Desteptarea” newspaper, and the main
radio-TV group in town, Alfa. Half of the seven papers existing in a medium
town (300,000), at least half are controlled by owners or managers politically
involved, show the analysis made by Capital, based on the Registry of Commerce
data.
The Media Monitoring Agency (MMA) has said since May that the
politicians in power lead on the TV screen and in the pages of the newspapers.
The MMA president, Mircea Toma, explains that “the political men learnt to
control the media through economic tools. Every political regime used this
tool, but now is increasing”. It’s interesting that there are so many media
companies in very small towns.
In Piatra-Neamt (57.000), there are three TV stations, more than in Timisoara,
a town six times bigger. Two businessmen, boths SDP deputies, share the media
in Neamt. Iulian Tocu took over two of the three stations in town (Tele M and
Tele 7 Neamt). Culita Tarata bought ‘Monitorul’ (Neamt and also in Braila and
Roman). He keeps secret the amount of money paid for the media, but he reveals
that the costs of the papers are about ROL 1,000,000,000 a month. About the
interference of politics in media, Tarata denied any involvement in the
editorial content.
Ioana Avadani, the chief of the Centre for the Independent Journalism (CIJ),
says there are more publications than the market admits, which shows they do
not live on economic basis, on a contrary, there is a political influence.
Even if the ball is in its court, as party in power, SDP is not the only party
investing in media. Alexandru Cancescu (liberal, ex-democrat) does not hide his
position as PDG of the TV-radio group Mix Brasov. Cancescu is the president of
the council of the county at the same time. The Romanian legislation forbids
the duality of the positions only for ministers.
Another mayor owning a newspaper is Radu Mazare, from Constanta. He was
editor-in-chief of the local daily ‘Telegraf’ in Constanta since 1997, when he
was also a democrat deputy. Forced to leave the party, he said he would go on
publishing in his newspapers “the cases of corruption, no matter the political
colour of the persons involved”.
In Oltenia region, ‘Gazeta de Sud’ covers three counties, edited by a media
group owned by Gheorghe Constantin Paunescu, who has been very closed to the
current party in power since ’90. The editor-in-chief of ‘Gazeta de Sud’,
Adrian Voinea, dismisses any interference of the owners with the editorial
contents; as proven by the published comments of well-known analysts whom
nobody dares censor.
On the contrary, Alexandru Lazescu, the founder of the independent local
press network says that the media is economically vulnerable, and this is the
neuralgic point where the politics interferes. Publications, which do not obey
the party, have to suffer, Lazescu says pointing to the harassment by various
means of the newspapers parted from the ‘Monitorul’ network. Pressures on
‘Ziarul de Vrancea’ were highly mediated, but the case is not an exception.
Media organisations receive alarm signals every week about new judicial cases
opened against journalists. ‘Public interest does not exist. The relation
between power and the media is, in the country, one of master and servant’,
says Mihai Enciu, journalist for ‘Gazeta de Sud-Est’. Similar messages keep
coming from other parts of the country - Sinaia, Turda, Slobozia, Focsani,
Galati, Buzau.
Mass media in the country:
• 100 local and regional dailies
• more than 100 TV stations
• 200 radio stations
Owners:
- Dumitru Sechelariu, the owner of "Desteptarea": daily
"Desteptarea", declared circulation 12.500, and the TV-radio Alfa.
- Radu Mazare, the mayor of Constanta, shareholder in "Telegraful"
daily. In ‘97 Mazare was editor-in-chief at this newspaper and a democrat
member of the Parliament at the same time.
Excluded by Democratic Party (DP) and he has recently stressed his option for
SDP.
- Alexandru Aristotel Cancescu, PDG of Mix Brasov (radio stations Mix FM), Mix
TV and "Mix Express". He is the president of the Council of the
Brasov County, ex-senator DP, National Liberal Party (NLP) member at present
time.
- Iulian Tocu, SDP deputy - TV Tele M and Tele 7 Neamt
- Culita Tarata, SDP - "Monitorul" de Neamt, "Monitorul" de
Roman, "Monitorul" de Braila. He says the papers cost him about ROL
1,000,000,000 a month.
3. THE MAP OF LOCAL PRESS: OBEDIENT OR THREATENED NEWSPAPERS
In small towns, the media battles political and business interests. A
series of newspapers were bought by politicians. The rest of them, that have
not submitted to none of the political powers of the time, are juridical,
economically harested and even through
physical attacks against journalists.
Bacau, August 2002. We speed to Bacau for a discussion
with the editor-in-chief of the most influential local newspaper ‘Ziarul de
Bacau’. Downtown, we try to identify the exact address and ask a passer-by for
help. ‘Are you looking for the mayor's newspaper?...’, he asks suspiciously.
‘No, not the mayor's’. ‘Then, his wife's maybe’. ‘No, sir’.
There are three newspapers in the city of Bacau
(200,000): ‘Desteptarea’, ‘Ziarul de Bacau’, ‘Monitorul de Bacau’, a TV channel
(Alfa) and several radio stations. “Desteptarea’, the TV channel and a radio station
belong to mayor Dumitru Sechelariu (PSD). He inherited the former communist
newspaper ‘Steagul Rosu’ (Red Flag). Sechelariu bought ‘Desteptarea’ in 1995.
‘My best collaborator as a mayor is the ‘Desteptarea’ newspaper, that helps me
improving my mission as a mayor. The best method to find the deficiencies of a
public good is for somebody to signal them, saying 'Mayor, there's lot of
garbage on that street, a bulb was stolen’, or other similar problems.
Sechelariu states openly that the newspaper helped him a lot in the 1996
elections, when he was elected for the second time in a row. ‘I believe that in
1996 I got a lot of help from the possibility to express what I wish, what I
want to do. In fact, I had paid for the maintenance costs of the newspaper
because, as we all know, nobody lives from writing in the media’. ‘Desteptarea’
has a circulation of 12,500 copies (there is no independent audit report on
it). There is no interference, says editorial manager Dorin Ciulina, adding
that there are other newspapers with politically involved owners and a recent
study showed that negative news on the city hall - the institution, not the
mayor - have dominated the media. ‘When shortcomings come up, city hall
employees risk a session with the mayor and may lose their job’, Sechelariu
says.
The mayor paid 1,100,000 million USD for the radio and
TV channels and for the building that used to host the only competing,
independent newspaper in Bacau, ‘Monitorul de Bacau’.
‘When I learned that mayor Sechelariu has become a
shareholder, it became obvious that we had to look for a new headquarters, no
matter how favourable the renting contract we had was’, says Liviu Avram, the
editor-in-chief of ‘Monitorul’ at the time.
The split up of the ‘Monitor’ paper followed: the editorial
staff formed Ziarul de Bacau, held by known journalists like Alexandru Lazescu,
not by politicians. Its only links with the mayor are the multiple court cases,
which no writer has escaped from. In the mind of a press reader, the ‘mayor's
newspaper’ is associated with independent titles, as the involvement of
politics in the media throw a negative light on all publications.
The mayor, whose brother is a state secretary within the Ministry of Transportation, has repeatedly announced that he wanted to buy Letea, the only press paper producer in Romania. Ovidiu Fodor, counsellor with ‘Buna ziua, Brasov’ says that purchasing will certainly influence the media market.
How the main local press network was split up
The ‘Monitors’ resisted to pressures especially from the power of the
‘Nord-Est’ (North-Eastern) network, which managed to become the most powerful
local press network, comprising 18 local paper. One of its main trumps:
independent shareholders, non-politically involved, professional journalists.
The first ‘Monitor’ was based in Iasi in 1991, where in the printing house for
the ‘Monitors’ in Moldavia too. The rapid development of the “Monitor’ ended up
in a economic crises. It was then when ‘Curentul’, financed by Sorin Ovidiu
Vantu, took over the control by franchise over the ‘Monitorul’ brand. The
financial problems of the Vantu empire, that started last year, made Mihai
Iacob the owner of the ‘Monitorul’ title. Both of them are at the moment under
the police investigation. Iacob sold ‘Monitorul’ network piece by piece.
Initially, he tried to include a ride in the franchise
contract, ‘which obliged the editorial staff to publish in full every story
delivered by him, with the photos and on the page he wanted’, said Corneliu
Condurache, the manager of the ‘Ziarul de Vrancea’. The editorial management
refused the deal, which started the conflict. In several towns, the editorial
team broke up with Iacob and went on to publish the local dailies under a
different name. New entitled papers, ‘Ziarul de Vrancea’, ‘Ziarul de Iasi’,
‘Ziarul de Bacau’, ‘Ziarul de Braila’, were issued. The centre of the editing and printing remained in Iasi.
The pressure came from everywhere. ‘In May-April 2002,
the authorities tried again to stop issuing our daily. They tried to block the
delivery of the paper in Focsani, and to confiscate all the copies. After the
Romanian Post and Rodipet have uneconomically refused to sell our daily, the
Focsani Town hall is sending the bulldozers today to remove our newsstands’, said
Alice Gheorghita, the editor-in chief. The Town hall started to remove the
distribution news stands.
‘In protest, we tried to chain ourselves to the news
stands, but the bulldozers didn’t stop’, said Lidia Grosei, journalist with
‘Ziarul de Vrancea’. The newspaper won in court, but the decision was
completely ignored.
The newsstands didn’t have the fiscal devices, said Mihai Lungu, chief of the Financial Guard (Fiscal authority) in Focsani town. Neither the purchase of the fiscal devises, which cost ROL 400,000,000, nor the court decision banned the seizure. ‘The fiscal devices would have been as good as any other pretext to forbid us distributing the paper. 22 confiscated newsstands were abandoned in the fields. Ironically, tow days ago, we were announced that our distribution firm would be awarded the seventh place in the micro-enterprises top, in a solemnity attended even by the prime-minister’, says Corneliu Condurache, the manager of the paper.
Expelled from its own distribution network, rejected by state distributors (Romanian Post and Rodipet), the newspaper is now being sold by street vendors. The bodyguards of the county council president, Marian Oprisan, have threatened and even beaten some of the vendors, and the press published the photo of the menacing fist. The readers have proved to be faithful to the ‘Monitor’ they used to know, which became ‘Ziarul de Vrancea’. The same happened in the other cities, the most famous being the case of ‘Ziarul de Iasi’, which regained the former audience in two days.
Iacob has not given up his press business easily. In the
towns where the editorial staffs created new papers, the clones of the former
‘Monitor’ are circulating simultaneously. More and more ‘Monitor’ have been
secretly sold to the SDP supporters. In Bacau, the latest piece of news is that
this publication has been taken over by Iacobov, another businessman close to
SDP. So have the ‘Monitor’ in Braila,
Roman and Neamt, this time the owner being Culita Tarata, another SDP deputy.
In Brasov, Sibiu, Cluj, sources close to the transaction
indicate that these publications have been sold to another SDP deputy,
Constantin Nita. He confirmed that he had taken part in the negotiations, but
denied being himself the buyer. Since the media house is to be sold as a whole,
the printing house included, another six newspapers printed here are on shaky
grounds.
Paunescus in the local media
‘Gazeta de Sud’ covers the Oltenia region, where it is the
leader of the market, with over 300,000 copies (audited circulation). Together
with radio Sud, ‘Gazeta de Sud’ (GS) is owned by Media Sud Est Europa
Bucuresti, run by George Constantin Paunescu. The brother Viorel, Valentin and
George Paunescu are old SDP supporters, having accompanied the party in power.
The name Paunescu is associated especially with the national daily ‘Curierul
national’ and less with the local media.
Adrian Voinea, the editor-in-chief, and the manager of the
publication, says that ‘the owners do not pry into the editorial content, as it
has been clearly established’.
He says that ‘Gazeta de Sud’ published the articles of
analysts like Stelian Tanase and Octavian Paler, whose columns no one would
dare to censure, and this is a clear proof of the non-interference in the
editorial. GS reporters are sued by local authorities, as a consequence of
their investigative reports. According to a recent market research, GS has a
leading audience in Craiova, with more than 50% market share. However, the
financial scandals related with the name Paunescu (eg. Bancorex) have damaged
his press credibility.
A more stable press can be found in Iasi. The most popular
newspaper is ‘Ziarul de Iasi’, with a circulation of over 10,500 copies. A
clone of the former ‘Monitorul’, it was a major stake for the wing of the PSD
local branch run by Adrian Butuca, who thus hopes to consolidate his position
within the party. As the circulation fell sharply following the separation of
the old editorial staff, the newspaper has become a money eater even for
politicians. Now, they say have nothing in common with the newspaper. The
second in popularity is ‘Evenimentul’, a mostly commercial-oriented newspaper
(25 pages out of 32), followed closely by ‘Ziua de Iasi’, ‘Monitorul’, ‘Flacara
de Iasi’.
Iasi had a strong media at the beginning, with the launch in 1990 of ‘Opinia
studenteasca’ (founded by Andi Lazescu), and that is because “there were no
political understandings’, says “Ziarul de Iasi’ editor-in-chief Toni Hritac.
In his opinion, the Iasi political and business environment hosts “some kind of
good mannerhood, you used the sword, not the bat’. Both ‘Ziarul de Iasi’ and
Timisoara-based ‘Agenda’ bet on their capital of trust, using different techniques,
though. ‘Ziarul de Iasi’ opens its daily issue with an investigation, in the
spirit of the journalistic rules: ‘the separation of information from opinion
is a matter of honesty. The capital of trust is the most important capital of a
newspaper. Readers become faithful even when one needs to change one’s name ‘,
says Toni Hritac. ‘A serious weakness of local press is the lack of
journalistic and managerial education’, Ioana Avadani, head for the Center for
Independent Journalism (CJI) says.
In Timisoara, ‘Agenda’ bet on news of “the man who bit a dog’, not on political
issues. Thus, “you do not have to serve any interest. Owners do not have
anything against you’, says Nicoleta Popescu, first deputy editor-in-chief. The
recipe had a huge success in Timisoara, where the ‘Agenda’ weekly registered
record sales among local media – over 80,000 copies per issue. In 1990, when
the whole formerly communist media was going political, the “Agenda’ founder
Zoltan Kovacs felt that he might win the bet for audience sending politics to
the bottom of the page.
Local weeklies also include ‘Banateanul’, published by Media
Pro. It is largely oriented on features, a less appealing journalistic genre
for the Romanian media. In Banat, there are many dailies, but their circulation
is poor: ‘Renasterea banateana’, ‘Agenda zilei’, ‘Timisoara’ – supporting the
return of the monarchy – and the Western edition of the national ‘Romania
Libera’. Among television channels, TV Europa Nova belongs to the same trust
with ‘Renasterea banateana’ and faces competition from ‘Analog TV’ and the
local station of Pro TV. Journalist Malin Bot says the political influence can
be felt in Banat as well and points towards ‘Prima Ora!’, a newspaper known to
obey the governing PSD. However, business interests are first in regional
cities of over 300,000, in comparison to small towns and villages, where
politics are the most important.
Editor-in-Chief Radu Mazare Turned Mayor
One of the most sensitive issues a newspaper faces is the
headquarters: most do their work in buildings rented from the city hall.
Because it wrote about the mayor’s businesses, the editorial-staff of ‘Jurnalul
de Constanta’ was ousted from its headquarters early this year. Mayor Radu
Mazare, himself excluded from the Democratic Party, mentioned the weak
provisions of the renting contract. The mayor is directly involved in the media
industry. He owns a stake at the local newspaper ‘Telegraf’ and the local TV
station in Constanta, Soti TV. ‘Jurnalul de Constanta’ is published under a franchise
of the media trust that includes the national newspaper ‘Jurnalul National’ and
the Antena 1 national TV station. Broadcast on TV, the conflict extended to
Bucharest, thus leading to an official press release of the Romanian Press
Club: ‘Such a meddling with the circuit of press distribution is a serious
abuse capable of affecting the citizen’s right for information, provided by the
Constitution ‘. It was one of the very few cases when the Club supported the
local media.
In Brasov, the ‘Transilvania Expres’ newspaper dominates the market. Its shares
belong to different political interests with almost equal stakes, hence the
relative balance of the publication. The second is ‘Monitorul de Brasov’,
currently facing an uncertain fate. ‘Monitorul’ journalists say that they were
caught in between political interests which eventually forced them to turn the
newspaper into a sort of tabloid. The ‘Brasoveanul’ weekly was closed following
a collision of the local editorial staff and their bosses at Media Pro,
Bucharest, who ordered a restructuring of personnel. On the audiovisual market,
the Mix trust run by Aristotel Cancescu, head of the local District Council,
figures as a leader, but changes are expected.
Ioana Avadani says ‘the media is not conceived as a business’ as long as a
series of media institutions were bought by influential political and business
people who consider such investments nothing more than a money-eater. “They may
think it is good and useful to have a media outlet that can send a message when
needed, that can be used as an intimidation, if not pressure tool’, says the
CJI head. Thus, investigating journalism numbers fewer and fewer militants,
journalist Mircea Toma, the head of the Media Monitoring Agency, also believes:
‘All newspapers have their taboos and I take all responsibility when making
this statement’. The latest Freedom House report considers Romanian media as
partially independent and criticizes the legislation, which provides prison
sentences for journalists.
While the Government accuses the media – including the foreign one – of
distorting Romania’s image abroad, more and more newspapers open their pages
with large pictures of neck-tied politicians.
Romanian media’s weaknesses (according to CJI*)
• Economically vulnerable: ‘There are publications that may be
excluded from the market by a rainy day because they depend on direct sales ‘,
says Ioana Avadani, head of CJI.
• The relation between media owners and journalists. Owners consider
journalists as spare parts: ‘you don’t do what I want, you may leave, I can
find others just like you’.
• The lack of professional training, both journalistic and managerial.
• Over saturated market: too many publications for too little audience.
Potentially, the market is quite large, but very poor.
* The Centre for Independent Journalism (CJI) is a member of an international
network of journalism centres in Central and Eastern Europe
Timisoara
(7 dailies, 2 weeklies, 3 Tv stations)
q
‘Agenda’ weekly, 86,000-90,000 copies, ‘Agenda Zilei’ daily, 4.600, both
of them edited by Agenda company, founded and run by the journalist Zoltan
Kovacs
q
‘Prima ora’ daily (SDP oriented)
q
‘Timisoara’, monarchist daily
q
West editions of the national dailies: ‘Evenimentul zilei’, ‘Ziua de
Vest’, ‘Romania libera’
q
‘Renasterea banteana’
q
‘Banateanul’ weekly, edited by Media Pro
q
TV stations: TV Europa Nova, Analog TV, Pro Tv West
(4 dailies, 2 dailies)
q
‘Monitorul de Cluj’ – the owner of the license is Mihai Iacob, who is
negotiating the sell to SDP Deputy Constantin Nita
q
‘Ziua de Ardeal’, daily edited by local company Exploziv Media
q
‘Gazeta de Cluj’, weekly edited by Loretto Press. The main shareholder
is Liviu Man, the editor in chief.
q
‘Clujeanul’, weekly edited by Media Pro
q
‘Kronika’, daily in Hungarian language
q
‘Actualitatea Clujeana’ (unknown circulation)
(4 dailies)
q
‘Ziarul de Iasi’ (11,000-13,000)
q
‘Evenimentul’ (mainly announcements paper)
q
‘Monitorul de Iasi’ (2,500)
q
‘Flacara Iasiului’ (unknown circ.)
q
‘Ieseanul’, weekly edited by the Media Pro group
(3 dailies, 2 TV stations)
q
‘Gazeta de Sud’ covers three counties in the Oltenia region (Dolj, Gorj,
Mehedinti); 30,000 copies. Together with Radio Sud, it is a part of Media Sud
Est group, run by Gh. Constantin Paunescu (businessman close to SDP).
q
‘Cuvantul Libertatii’, “Editie speciala” – unknown circulation, both of
them are less than 50% of the market.
q
TV Terasat
q
Tele U
(6 dailies, 1 weekly, 3 Tv stations)
q
Dailies: ‘Transilvania Expres’, edited by Tipotex Brasov; 12,000 copies (owned by
many businessman close to different parties)
q
‘Monitorul de Brasov’, 6.000-7.500, the owner of the title is Mihai
Iacob. The editor: NEST media, founded by the journalist Marius Stoianovici. Iacob
negotiate with the SDP deputy Constatin Nita to sell the title
q
Circulation under 5,000 copies: “Gazeta de Transilvania’,’ Buna
ziua, Brasov’ (the last one owned by Petrica Hogea, local businessman under the
police investigation)
q
‘Monitorul de Neamt’, daily owned by Culita Tarata, SDP deputy (he also
own the ‘Monitor de Braila’ and the “Monitor de Roman’
q
‘7 zile’, weekly owned by SDP deputy Iulian Tocu
q
Tv: Tele 7 Neamt and Tele M, both of them owned by Iulian Tocu, SDP deputy
q
Unu Tv, owned by the local businessman Gheorghe Stefan
q
‘Desteptarea’ daily (12,500 copies), Alfa TV and radio station, party of
‘Desteptarea’ group, owned by the mayor Dumitru Sechelariu (SDP)
q
‘Monitorul de Bacau’ (2,000) – Iacobov, businessman close to SDP (the
daily is printed by the printing house of the Desteptarea group)
q
‘Ziarul de Bacau’ (3,000), edited by the company Nord-Est (founded by
journalists)
q
TV Eurosat – (retransmit TV programs), ‘Transilvania Jurnal’
q
‘Obiectiv’, SDP oriented, with 300 issues sold and about 2,000-3,000
subscribers (most of them state companies)
q
Mix media Group: Radio Mix (covers 18 towns), Tv stations (3 towns),
weekly ‘Mix Express’. The PDG is Alexandru Cancescu, member of the Liberal
Party, former democrat.
q
Pro TV (part of Media Pro group)
q
TVS Holding (insignificant audience)
q
(3 dailies, 2 Tv stations)
q
‘Telegraf’ and Soti TV – owned by Radu Mazare, the mayor of Constanta
q
Tv Neptun – Mazare is also a shareholder
q
‘Ziua de Constanta’ (part of the national press network Ziua)
q
‘Jurnalul de Constanta’ (part of the national press network Jurnalul
National)
*Note: Capital data. The circulation is based on the sources
in distribution networks (sometimes the circulation remains unknown). The
shareholding data is based on the official Commerce Registry database.
Quotations:
“The media is used as a weapon. The local businessman
became too powerful and they have political power supporting them. Especially
the party in power has a media planned strategy to dominate more and more
territories. But it is not the only one”.
“The best of my goods, as a mayor, is the newspaper
‘Desteptarea’. This kind of things, local publications, are mostly, sponsored,
they do not bring money. But they give you a different opportunity, the
opportunity to express yourself, to express what you are going to do. This is
what the ‘Desteptarea’ managed to do in 1996, the election year”.
4. “If you pay, you’re the best. Otherwise, you’ll be
IN MEDIA SCANDALS”
(page 10
in the newspaper)
Journalists blame unorthodox funding for the existence of
more newspapers than the market can bear
Most owners of the local media say
the press is not a profitable business, that newspapers are hard to support
independently. However, the number of publications keeps growing and no
newspaper has gone bankrupt so far.
Many owners say local newspapers do nothing that eat their money. While the
leader of a local market in a city may live on its circulation, the others
produce very little if any money. Their sources of income remain unknown most
of the time. 10% of the 100 local and regional newspapers have their
circulation audited independently.
In 1990, when everybody was eating politics with bread and butter, Zoltan
Kovacs bet his chance on the Timisoara-based "Agenda" weekly by
sending political news to the bottom of the page. The paper focused on people
stories, useful information for the every day living and less politics. The
recipe was successful, as "Agenda" became the best-selling local
newspaper in the country, with a circulation of over 80,000 sold copies. Thus, "Agenda"
manages to attract most advertising on the market, but this does not mean
fabulous incomes, as – says Nicoleta Popescu, first deputy editor-in-chief –
“you cannot make a fortune out of the media ". Spending is huge because
you have to bring something new every time and bring added value to the public,
she continues. Investments in free supplements of the newspaper and the low
price are essential for "Agenda" editors.
Second next is "Gazeta de Sud" from the region of Oltenia. It is a
good investment, but the money goes for all the holding trust that also
includes several radio stations, which dilutes the results, says
editor-in-chief Adrian Voinea. Eduard Huidan, head of the "Gazeta de
Transilvania" newspaper, adds his voice to the wave of complaints: “Spending
for a newspaper that circulates in Brasov and neighbouring districts should be
as high as 15 billion lei annually, but, for now, we have to manage with some
two thirds of the needed money ".
A newspaper like "Monitorului de Brasov" (tabloid format, 16 pages),
spends at least 1 billion lei monthly
for a circulation of 7,000. A large-format daily like “Desteptarea” would need
monthly costs of over 4.6 billion lei. However, advertising may only make up
for two billion lei for the whole "Desteptarea" trust (radio and
television), says manager Tudorel Ion. He says part of the income results from
connected activities, but in the end losses are still there. While
"Desteptarea" is subsidized for political reasons, there are
publications forced to play other cards. The book says a newspaper should live
on advertising, but that is rare in the case of Romanian local media. "80%
of the advertising money is distributed through Bucharest-based agencies and
they do not take into account but the leader of the market ", says Ovidiu
Fodor, image consultant for "Buna ziua, Brasov", a lower circulation
newspaper. Advertising agencies have clear rules – they cannot work with
publications without certified circulations. Of the 100 and more local
newspapers, only 10% have audited circulation, according to the Romanian
Circulation Audit Office (BRAT), the only such institution in Romania. The lack
of audit sends away potential investors who cannot find the basic instrument to
evaluate the efficiency of advertising.
The fight for money has revealed unorthodox practices. Recently, the
International Advertising Association accused part of the Romanian media of
blackmailing international companies with attacks on their image. The issue got
into the pages of "Financial Times", which quotes investors facing
such situations.
The distribution of advertising budgets was repeatedly the focus of the Media
Monitoring Agency (AMP), according to which "some 10-15% of the
advertising in newspapers is fake”, resulting from a “corrupt relation between
the press and advertising ". AMP head Mircea Toma explains: "When an
advertising campaign is launched and three newspapers are avoided, some of
these put pressure and use blackmail techniques or political influence in order
to obtain contracts ".
There’s also a practice of paid advertising that does not get published. The
newspaper receives money from business people willing to support it but who
insist that the advertising be not published. The explanation is related to the
political context. Usually, such help goes for newspapers that criticize local
authorities and the respective businessmen do not want to see themselves
associated with a newspaper against the mainstream, while willing to support
it, says journalist Andi Lazescu.
Additionally, if there is a publication close to the local power in the city, a
local firm would advertise in both newspapers. If advertising goes for the
independent journal only, the company risks financial raids or other surprises,
says Alice Gheorghita, editor-in-chief at "Ziarul de Vrancea". Mihai
Enciu, editor-in-chief for Slobozia-based "Gazeta de Sud" confirms:
"I receive advertising from some, but I do not publish it because the
district boss sees it and that’s wrong ".
As for how those newspapers unable to justify their existence with the
circulation live, Enciu is quite short: "The boys suited themselves with
some newspapers to make money. If you pay, you’re the best. Otherwise, they
erase you!".
Newspaper Costs/month
Tabloid, 16 pages. coloured,
circulation 7,000 – 1 billion lei
Large format, 24 pages, coloured,
circ. 13,000, one-district distribution - 4-5 billion lei
Large format, 24 pages, coloured,
circ. 20,000, three-district distribution – 10-15 billion lei
The first 6 local newspapers (BRAT
audited)
86,000 circulation: "Agenda" weekly, Timisoara (total sales 80,000
copies), founder Zoltan Kovacs, journalist
31,000 circulation: "Gazeta de Sud" daily, Oltenia, run by Gh.
Paunescu, a businessman close to SDP (total sales 30,000 copies)
12,600 circulation: "Clujeanul" weekly, published by Media Pro
(total sales 10,000 copies)
12,165 circulation: "Kronika" – Hungarian-language daily published by
Kronika SA (total sales 10,500 copies)
11,400 circulation: "Transilvania Expres", Tipotex Brasov (total
sales 10,100 copies.)
Quotation:
Mircea Toma, journalist, the head of the Media Monitoring
Agency
“All local papers will have either indirect pressures (as
attempts of blocking their advertising), or direct pressures, if they are
trying to independently cover the local authorities and powerful businessmen
affairs”.