Newspaper Innovation

Free dailies were introduced in Macedonia in May 2006 when Shpic was launched in the capital Skopje. The publisher Velija Ramkovski, is also owner of paid paper Vreme and TV station TV A1.

The paper had some reputation for independent reporting, which seems unusual in Macedonia (see the Stojkovski article on the Resources page). The group now has good connections with the government as they have a lot of official advertising.

The same year a second free daily was launched, 24 casa (24 hours) by Media Print Macedonia (MPM), owned by German publisher Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ). MPM is the market leader in the country and also publishes paid papers Dnevnik, Utrinski Vesnik and Vest.

Shpic reported a circulation of 50,000 at launch, but as circulation is not officially audited in Macedonia, this seems to be quite high (the best-circulated paid paper Dnevnik also reported 50,000 in 2006). In 2008 Shpic even reported a circulation of 125,000 which seems even more improbable.

The MPM free daily 24 casa also claimed a high circulation: 100,000 copies at the start. It was probably not published as a stand-alone paper but more often as a supplement to the other MPM dailies – which indeed had a joint circulation of 100,000. 24 case had a different theme each weekday, but now it is only published on Mondays.

A new free daily, Koha (Time), however, appeared on the scene in the beginning of 2007 (or end 2006). This paper is connected to the Shpic/Vreme group and is published in the Albanian language. Koha claims a circulation of 27,000.

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