Mutations de la presse roumaine de l’après CeauMutations de la presse roumaine de l’après Ceaușșescu escu

Romanian press after Ceaușescu

Production de l’information et pratiques journalistiques en Europe News making and journalistic practices in Europe

Historical contextHistorical context

o 45 years of communist regime (from 1944 to 1989)

o One-party political system (Romanian Communist Party)

o 25 years of dictatorial regime (Nicolae Ceaușescu)

Romanian television•First broadcast: in 1955 •During the ’70s : 8-9 hours of daily broadcasts•After 1985 : 2 hours of daily broadcasts

Print media•National an local daily newspapers strictly controlled by the Party, stories attentively selected and censored.•E.g foreign news favorite subjects: the plagues of the capitalist society (drugs, crimes, social inequalities)

CensorshipCensorshipThe Legend of the Party Photographer - URBAN MYTH•Context: The Party’s daily paper, Scînteia, was Romania’s most censored publication. All articles and pictures had to follow strict Party directives if they were to be approved and published in the paper.•Story: President Giscard d’Estaing’s visit to meet Ceausescu is a huge event. Many Scînteia journalists cover the occasion, but pictures are the most important issue since the articles are pre-written anyway. Everything goes well until somebody from the censor’s office discovers that in every photograph, Giscard d’Estaing was wearing his hat while Ceausescu was holding his. Some bright spark of a Party official considers that the working classes could interpret this as the communists showing deference before Capitalism. This simply isn’t possible - so, with the deadline looming, the debate begins. Should they remove the French president’s hat or airbrush one on to Ceausescu? What happens leads to the first time in history that Scînteia isn’t printed in time to reach its working class readership the following day.

RomanianRomanian media during communism media during communism

• During the communist regime, traditional functions of the mass media (providing information, surveillance, social linkage, agenda setting, entertainment) were substituted by ideology.

• Journalists become propaganda instruments and mass media functioned as a mass mobilization machine.

December 22, 1989December 22, 1989• Romanian revolution and fall of the communist regime

o first LIVE broadcasts from the hot spots . o Romanian state television (TVR) plays a major role in the

latter development of the eventso Most of the people who appeared those days at TV later

became influential social actors (political leaders, successful businessmen).

o Former party newspaper change their names, some using the word FREE (rom. liber) e.g. Libertatea, Tineretul liber.

1990 – year of 1990 – year of frenetic print media consumfrenetic print media consumptionption

Post communist Romanian pressPost communist Romanian press

I. 1990 – 2005 - transitionII. 2006 – 2012 - mediamorphosis

‘‘90s90s• Former communist newspapers were transformed in new

public communication instruments, often ideologically charged . o Some of the newspapers found their path through the transition and

they are still in print. After being bought from initial owners by powerful European media trusts (e.g. Ringier, Bertelsmann, WAZ), gradually they were rebought by Romanian businessmen or media trusts.

o Other newspapers proved themselves business failures and disappeared from the media landscape within the first years after 1989.

Adevărul & România liberăAdevărul & România liberă

Former communist newspapersFormer communist newspapers

• Adevărul and România liberă ~1,5 millions copies circulation in 1990• Starting from 1992, the circulation decreases dramatically (~180.000 sold

copies for Adevărul and 110,000 for România liberă)

‘‘90s90s• New newspapers appeared. Young editors and journalists

dared new editorial policies and visual formulas which appealed to other categories of readers.

• A lot of media experiments occured in a society hungry for information.

• E.g. Cotidianul, Evenimentul zilei, Jurnalul national.

CotidianulCotidianul

• Founded in 1991 by Ion Ratiu, a prominent liberal figure who returned from his UK exile in 1990.

• First post communist Romanian daily newspaper entirely based on private capital.

• Ceased to appear in December 2009, after the presidential elections.

CotidianulCotidianulEDITORIAL FORMULA AND LAYOUT•The initial concept (1991) was developed by two journalists from The Guardian •In 1997 the newspaper went through a new change, inspired by Le Monde•In 2007 another major change occurred and the newspaper became one of the most visually daring and elegant on the Romanian marketOWNERSHIP •From 1991 to 2004 by Ratiu family•From 1994 to 2009 Catavencu, the REALITATEA-CATAVENCU trust.

Academia CatavencuAcademia Catavencu• satirical magazine founded in 1991 by a team of

humourists, investigators, and literates headed by poet and former dissident Mircea Dinescu.

• made famous by its investigative journalism.• Editorial formula inspired by the French satirical

weekly magazine Le Canard Enchaîné.• It was bought in 2006 by the Realitatea trust.• In 2010 a part of the editorial staff left and

founded a new satirical magazine, Kamikaze.• In 2011 another part of the editorial team split

and founded Catavencii.

Evenimentul zilei (EVZ)Evenimentul zilei (EVZ)

• Founded in 1992, it is still in print.

EDITORIAL FORMULA• From 1992 to 1997 promotes popular

journalism (cheap sensationalism, hoaxes, surprising titles).

• 1997 the new management determines major editorial policy changes and EVZ becomes a quality general news daily in Romania.

Evenimentul zilei (EVZ)Evenimentul zilei (EVZ)OWNERSHIP•Initially owned by Romanian group Express Publishing, in 1998 is sold to Gruner+Jahr and in 2003 it is sold again to Swiss trust Ringier, which is the current owner.

‘‘90s90s• Several journalism schools were founded most important

universities of the country. • Major challenges:

o Weak human ressources (few professors specialized in journalism and almost no professional journalists that could teach)

o Weak infrastructure (studios, cameras etc.)

2000-20052000-2005• The print media landscape was relatively stable.• Tabloid newspapers began to gain more and more readers and

became a tough competition for general news newspapers.

Tabloids evolutionTabloids evolution

Quality vs. tabloid newspapersQuality vs. tabloid newspapers

2006-20122006-2012• Romanian media institutions are more and more structured

similarly to the western media outlets.• Media owners were important social actors and the control

over the information channels became extremely tempting.• Journalism schools reached maturity and students were

better prepared.

Media mogulsMedia moguls

Media owners that use the editorial policies in their own interest (Tunstall & Palmer, 1991)

1.INTACT trust – Dan Voiculescu2.ADEVARUL holding – Dinu Patriciu3.REALITATEA-CATAVENCU trust– Sorin Ovidiu Vântu (until 2011)

Romanian print media and the crisisRomanian print media and the crisis

• “The print market collapsed, both qualitatively and from the point of view of its credibility, as well as from the perspective of its press runs and advertising incomes.” (Free EX Report, 2011)

• Investments of dozens of millions of Euros vanished at the first sign of crisis, and media managers proved their level of competence when they benefited from huge budgets, and were unable to find effective solutions when the economic crisis occurred. (Free EX Report, 2011)

MediamorphosisMediamorphosis (Fidler,2004)(Fidler,2004)• the digital age and the new media have an huge impact on

the press and important changes are taking place at different levels:o Management o Journalists’ cultural background and technical abilities (3M = the

multimedia monster)o Newspaper’s editorial formulas / standards

Online mediaOnline media• In 2011, the online media increased by 50% as compared to

the previous year, from the point of view of the number of articles published (according to the census data, 9 million Romanians used the Internet, out of a total of 19 million).

• most frequently read general news website was Realitatea.net, which exceeded, monthly, over 22 million pageviews, 7 million visits and 2 million unique clients

• the most frequently read online Romanian tabloid was Cancan.ro, with over 40 million pageviews, 10 million visits and approximately 2 million unique clients on average, every month (source: Internet Audience and Traffic Study (SATI).

OnlineOnline mediamediaThe pronounced development of the online media increased the rapidity of information, at the risk of downgrading the quality of the journalistic materials. Mihnea Măruţă (editor-in-chief, Adevărul): "the pressure of being first and the hunger for breaking news have absorbed the relevance, flattened hierarchies and eliminated any ethics”

ConclusionsConclusions• In 2011, the worsening of the economic conditions on the

media market brought about specific phenomena – the shutting down of certain publications, layoffs, salary cuts, conflicts in the work environment.

• The industry’s economic frailty weakened the editorial offices even further. Being under high economic pressure, they became increasingly more prone to compromises, which entailed serious consequences on the editorial content, which was in a state of continuous degradation.

Cristian Tudor Popescu (senior editor, Gândul): 23 years after the Revolution “the newspaper turned its back on the book, journalism distanced itself from television and came near to the internet, the journalist became a service provider and the citizen became a journalist”