How HDZ bought the media and what controls everything

This post inspired me: [https://www.reddit.com/r/croatia/comments/1c3992c/bomba\_pred\_izbore\_%C5%A1eks\_pristupio\_mostu/](https://www.reddit.com/r/croatia/comments/1c3992c/bomba_pred_izbore_%C5%A1eks_pristupio_mostu/) All the politicians who are anti-HDZ keep crowing that HDZ bought all the media. This is not new news, but how did it really happen? By moving otherwise printed media to the Internet, there were two business models. The first business model was that of Index. They decided that they will live from ads and that all texts will be unlocked. Today it is their main choice of income. Another business model was the subscription model. The idea is that people will want to pay a subscription fee for quality journalism. All the main players in Croatia tried to switch to that model, but it didn’t really get results. Why? Probably a combination of the fact that they are incompetent and because the editors were already used to their newspaper being the regime’s newsletter. In other words, free journalism died long before LexAP, whose only intention was to destroy the last media sites that HDZ does not control (Index, Telegram, National). Btw, don’t think these three listed are independent. For example we never got to the bottom of the story with the adoption of children in Zambia/Congo, because it was not in anyone’s interest to investigate it objectively. ([narod.hr](https://narod.hr) and similar I do not consider serious or objective). In order to understand how easy it is to control print media in Croatia, let’s look at the following report — The Agency for the Protection of Market Competition has published a market analysis for the year 2022 – [https://www.aztn.hr/ea/wp-content/uploads//2023/07/Prikaz-stanja-trazista-tiska-2022-3.pdf](https://www.aztn.hr/ea/wp-content/uploads//2023/07/Prikaz-stanja-trazista-tiska-2022-3.pdf) We see that the number of copies sold is falling, **in three years decreased by as much as 38%!** ​ https://preview.redd.it/qnj98qf8mfuc1.png?width=449&format=png&auto=webp&s=99047ad99181b5c5d5c9d6c8f68839eeb2cbecf1 Advertising revenues also decreased by a quarter in that period, as advertisers move to digital channels (I can see this from the explosion of ads in pandemic and after). By advertisers I mean real advertisers, not e.g. public companies or native content somehow connected to the state. ​ https://preview.redd.it/lyzc8fonmfuc1.png?width=505&format=png&auto=webp&s=67af1a83078934b0826f5c866b696acbd7f1ebbd And we come to the most important graph, which is the one that shows the distribution of income between sold circulation and advertising. ​ https://preview.redd.it/u82q8rocnfuc1.png?width=484&format=png&auto=webp&s=5e2762dfe8f2e0ae91a6b8e81d67f0ec9786a5de We see that the market is actually ruled by three main players. Hanza media and Glas Istre group have the largest share in advertising. What does that mean? That they are particularly vulnerable to being called by various PRs and threatening to cancel their ads if they publish a story. Styria is much less vulnerable there, i.e. only 24 hours because they also live from ads. Večernji list is a completely different story, see how it’s done there:

[https://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/nove-poruke-rimac-sredila-milijune-vecernjem-oni-njoj-i-zalac-organizirali-party/2554881.aspx](https://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/nove-poruke-rimac-sredila-milijune-vecernjem-oni-njoj-i-zalac-organizirali-party/2554881.aspx) Unsuccessful digitization and the pandemic led to that the three main publishers have become even more dependent on state money. For HDZ – this is an opportunity they could not miss. And here we return to the beginning of my post. Someone put a link from Jutarnji to the entire gallery below, and the devil gave me no peace. Apart from the fact that I found it interesting what Šeks was talking to Selak-Raspudić, I found it even more interesting what he was holding in his hands. And I’m not referring to the Most leaflet, but to the pile of something that Šeks is holding in his hand, wrapped in plastic. Here is a picture from the link, so let’s analyze it: https://preview.redd.it/biykgnxbhfuc1.png?width=818&format=png&auto=webp&s=4ddb01f2aba043ca763fbec3b8307643389ee72f The company logo is visible below – [https://vergl.hr/hr/vergl/](https://vergl.hr/hr/vergl/) which normally delivers newspapers. It is a subscription, which means that you can subscribe for a whole year to the newspaper you want. On the delivery note, you can see six items. If I had to guess which ones they are, I would say: **24sata, Večernji list, Jutarnji List, Slobodna Dalmacija, Novi list and Glas Slavonije.** If you are a politician, you are usually subscribed to some digital pressclipping because you don’t have time to search newspapers all day . If you read the newspaper all day, you don’t have time to deal with politics. The question is – why does Šeks read 6 different WHOLE newspapers? Ok, we can say – it’s the election, it’s normal to follow the media. But Šeks is not a PROvac like Macan, Skoko, etc. This looks like “quality control” to me. There is probably a difference between what goes into print editions and what goes into digital editions. Here we see that Šeks is interested in what is written in the print media, which is read by older people and people in cafes. In digital editions, damage control can be done so that certain articles are locked, and those that are positive are left unlocked. In this way, you leave the journalists who do it and the readers feeling that they are at least somewhat “free” in their writing. North Korea lite. ​

https://old.reddit.com/r/croatia/comments/1c3sknh/kako_je_hdz_kupio_medije_i_što_sve_kontrolira/

Posted by NeoliberalJesus