End of an era: esteemed national newspaper Lidové Noviny no longer to go out in print
One of Czechia’s cornerstone national newspapers is set to scrap its print edition after the summer. Up until now, Lidové Noviny was the oldest Czech daily still in print. But from September onwards, it will only be available online.
The decline of newspapers has been a subject of discussion for decades, and with the advent of online news and search engines, many smaller and local newspapers around the world have gradually closed their printing presses. Lidové Noviny is not the first Czech newspaper to follow this trend, but it may be the most famous, with a long history dating back to the 19th century.
First published in Brno in December 1893, the paper’s legendary heyday was during the First Republic, when famous writers such as Karel and Josef Čapek numbered among its staff. However, it also experienced darker times, says the columnist and former editor-in-chief of Lidové noviny, Michal Klíma.
“People often talk about the golden era of Lidové Noviny, when Karel Čapek and other famous authors wrote for the paper. But unfortunately the paper also lived through much worse times. It continued to publish during the Second World War, which means it was fully controlled by the organs of the Nazi Protectorate.”
The newspaper was banned and closed down in 1952, just a few years after the communist takeover of 1948. In 1987, a group of political dissidents started publishing and circulating it again as samizdat. In 1989, it became a symbol of the Velvet Revolution, and began being printed legally once again.
The paper has changed ownership several times over the years, and according to daily e15, there was interest even now in buying out the newspaper and potentially continuing with the print version. However, it seems that none of the potential buyers were able to come to an agreement with Mafra, the title’s current owner, says Ondřej Aust, editor-in-chief of the website Médiář.
“We know that the classic printed paper was of course running at a loss. On the other hand, the paper had over 1 million online readers, and I could imagine that that readership could have been profitable. But after the owner compared that with the offers it received, it may not have made financial sense.”
From September, only the online version of the publication will remain, with the exception of the Saturday supplement Orientace, which will be published in print as part of Mladá fronta DNES, another newspaper owned by the same company. The reasons cited by Mafra for the decision to stop with the printed version were the usual, to-be-expected ones: the cost of printing and distribution and the development of modern technology.
As with most other print newspapers, Lidové noviny’s readership has gradually declined over the years. According to recent data from the Czech Union of Publishers, the paper was the fifth most-read national daily in Czechia this year, with 123,000 readers per issue. A year earlier, it was the fourth most-read, with 155,000 readers. Five years ago, it had 209,000 readers per issue.
The paper’s online content, however, is set to expand with more commentaries and opinion pieces, which according to surveys are their readers’ preferred types of content.
