In a little over a year, Southern News [7], a start up regional news website from South Serbia, gained the trust of its readers, respect from its journalism colleagues, and 80,000 unique visitors a month
Serbian journalist Predrag Blagojevic realized he had to take another approach when he had problems publishing one of his stories. “I had a problem getting any media outlet in Nis to publish my investigative story about embezzlements at the Nis Airport. That is when I decided to make a website." He felt it was the only way to publish the story, a story for which Southern News later received the Independent Journalists’ Association’s (NUNS) investigative journalism award.
Southern News now publishes local stories, news and investigative pieces from Nis and other towns in Southern Serbia. Despite the abundance of electronic media that operate in Nis (the biggest city in Southern Serbia and an administrative and cultural center), people in the region lack local stories that go “beyond the news.” IREX has supported the portal’s redesign, development of a business plan and social media strategy, development of a mobile phone application for delivering news, and the education of Southern News' young journalists.
“Our formula for success is being independent and decentralizing media space at a low cost,” says Blagojevic. “Production of a television and radio program or printing a newspaper is expensive. This is a market where state institutions and city enterprises are the biggest advertisers...Therefore financing the media greatly depends on politics.”
“The low cost of the Internet gives you an opportunity to be more independent. The Internet also enables you to be a truly regional media outlet. Television news does not have the space in a prime time news program to run a piece on the reconstruction of a street in a small peripheral town. On a website there is space for everything, every story finds a reader,” explains Blagojevic.
Gordana Bjeletic, editor at TV Zona from Nis, talks about her colleagues from Southern News, “There are many media in Nis that are called regional, but no one has been able to build a network of journalists from all towns in the region. People living in these towns lack information on issues that directly concern them. Southern News is the first media that managed to build a good correspondent network and become a regional media outlet.”
Bjeletic adds, “Southern News has become an important source of information for journalists. I often hear my colleagues saying, “I’ve read it on the Southern News!’ Or when something would happen, a journalist would simply say, “Let me check what Southern News says about this.”
More importantly, citizens of the region are using Southern News. During the course of IREX support, Southern news has gone from a high of 8,000 visitors to a peak of 17,000 visitors in a day. This August it received over 190,000 visits, testifying to its reach throughout the region.
IREX has also supported Southern News’ school for investigative journalism. “One of the reasons for starting the investigative journalism school is the lack of critical news stories. We want to educate a team of people to write exclusive stories. We would like to encourage young journalists to investigate and more importantly, give them the place where they can publish their stories,” says Blagojevic.
The Serbia Media Assistance Program [8] is administered by IREX and supported by USAID [9].