KURIR - 20 YEARS STRONGER! FIRST, FASTEST, BEST, AND ALWAYS TRUE TO OURSELVES: Serbia’s leading media platform’s anniversary

This year Kurir marks an important anniversary – 20 years of its operation. Many things have changed, but we are still true to our commitment of always being the first, fastest, and best, as well as always true to ourselves. Starting as a daily newspaper, Kurir has now become the first media platform with four branches – the daily newspaper, the web portal, the television channel, and the social media, thus setting a new trend in the media landscape. In parallel, an enormous progress has been made with respect to professionalization and improvement of ethical standards. Owing to this important transformation, Kurir is now the leading media platform in the country and is part of the mainstream media.

Kurir is always the first

Kurir is always the first. It is the leading media platform in Serbia and the most important brand in our media group.

It has positioned itself as a media outlet that is the first to have reliable information on current events, verifying and establishing what is actually happening, and a source of information you can rely upon in order to get a full picture of the current events in real time.

Over time, Kurir has transformed, developed, and modernized. We have put in a great deal of effort and gone a long way to reach a position where we can proudly say that we are a credible source of news, information, and knowledge, offering as we do different points of view and takes on the most important everyday issues. We have become a media outlet that sets trends, is future-oriented, and always ready for what is coming up.

We pledge to actively keep working on our vision and maintain our leadership position in the industry of news and topics that are the most important to our readership, namely politics, current events, the environment, and society pages. We will continue to listen to our readership and focus even more on specialized and expert content they are interested in, such as business, entertainment, gastronomy, family topics, and local news.

We firmly believe in journalistic integrity, hold adhering to journalism ethics in high esteem, and always bear in mind the welfare of our employees because we know that it is them that is the heart of our shared success.

Kurir entering the scene in 2003 shook Serbia’s media landscape

When Kurir entered the scene 20 years ago, Serbia’s media landscape was shaken as no other media outlet until then had been so harsh towards the self-declared elites, so uncompromising in the fight against corruption at al levels, and so open to helping the most vulnerable. This made us recognizable and popular very fast, and we became the politicians’ and officials’ nightmare, as well as a tool and a weapon in the hands of the citizenry. We became the most influential daily in the Balkans in no time, a daily that always sides with the people.

Since the first issue right up to today, each Kurir’s front page has attracted attention, and some have caused upheavals in the general public. On the one hand, we have attacked the powers-that-be, and on the other, we have helped those most vulnerable, organized humanitarian drives, and implemented large-scale socially responsible projects.

Aleksandar Đondović, Editor-in-Chief

‘Stay with us, the best is yet to come!’

“Our television channel is celebrating its third anniversary, and Kurir as a brand 20 years of operation. To last that long and be at the top all the time is no mean feat.

“The key to our success is very simple – we have always been the first in everything. Since its inception until today, Kurir has been synonymous with exclusivity, speed, provocative content, and criticism, and, in the past four years, increasingly with relevance as well. Our aim is to become a mainstream media outlet, and I would say that we have already achieved a better part of that.

“I think that it is important that throughout all these years, no matter what we have been doing, we have always been well-intentioned. Our readership and viewership recognize that, and this is why, as evidenced by the official data, Kurir has the most loyal following in Serbia.

“Nothing that we have done would have been possible without the people capable of change and working on themselves. Our editorial team is made up of top professionals, with an enormous experience both in the print edition and online. In the meantime, we have had significant reinforcements in the form of our colleagues from the television channel. Like any other thing, we were the first to do this in Serbia!

“Today we are 20 years stronger, 20 years more experienced, and 20 years smarter. So stay with us, the best is yet to come”

Kurir’s transformation

When our company ownership structure changed four years ago, Kurir’s transformation began. On the one hand, the process of professionalization and improving ethical standards was initiated, as a result of which Kurir has changed from a tabloid into a media outlet which officials here and abroad, the diplomatic corps, and public figures choose to get their messages across to the citizens of Serbia. At the same time, we were actively working on the preparations for starting Kurir Television, which required integrating editorial teams, and as a result of which Kurir became the first media platform with four branches – the daily newspaper, the web portal, the television channel, and the social media, thus setting a new trend in Serbia’s and the region’s media landscape.

The fact that we are the first company in this part of Europe to introduce the position of ethical standards manager perhaps speaks best to how seriously we approached the transformation. The task of the ethical standards manager is to continuously work on education with editors and reporters, and we have drawn up a set of instructions for responsible reporting and the implementation of the Journalists' Code of Ethics.

Considering the results achieved, Petar Jeremić, AMG’s Ethical Standards Manager, points out that the aim is permanent professional development:

“We have made tremendous progress, now registered also by the relevant self-regulatory bodies and professional associations, i.e. everyone who follows Kurir regularly. We received the greatest recognition last month from the ONO organization, which gathers together the so-called news ombudsmen and ethics and standards editors from the biggest global media outlets, such as the BBC, The Guardian, The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, and others. We are the only ones from this part of Europe to be admitted as members, which is a great success and significant support in our further work. There is always room for improvement, and it is our common goal for each year to be better than the last,” Jeremić concludes.

The most-read Serbian website with the most loyal readership

The Kurir.rs website has grown and developed alongside the print edition. Owing to the speed and manner of reporting, as well as the wealth and diversity of topical content and permanent work on its improvement, Kurir.rs has been the most-read Serbian website for an incredible 55 consecutive months, with by far the greatest number of page views and the most loyal readership, which spends an average of over one hour on the web portal, as shown by the official web portal viewing figures measured in Serbia by Gemius.

Kurir is recognized as the source of the fastest and most relevant news from the worlds of politics, society, sports, and entertainment, as well as the first choice of people following the news from the world of business, as confirmed by the latest Gemius data. Listening to the interests and needs of our readership, we have created the web portal Kurir Biznis in order to facilitate following topics from the areas of economics, entrepreneurship, personal finance, technology, real estate, the stock exchange, and macro-economy in Serbia and the world.

Furthermore, our web portal Kurir Stil has positioned itself as one of the leading women’s web portals in Serbia and the region. This web portal offers carefully selected content about the topics women are most interested in, such as family, health, fashion, beauty, recipes, interesting travel stories, horoscopes, etc.

Branislava Majdarević, Deputy Editor-in-Chief

‘Our team is made up of fantastic people’

“Twenty years! We have grown, won, made sure justice has been done even when others didn’t want to or didn’t dare, learnt from our mistakes, and become better! But we have never given up on what has been part of Kurir’s DNA since day one – courage and the fight for the truth.

“There are fantastic people on our team, from those who have been at Kurir since its inception, to brilliant youngsters who are taking their first steps as journalists alongside us. We have been expanding this family and have become the most influential media company in the Balkans – a media outlet that keeps surprising the market and the entire general public every day.

“But what make me personally most proud is the fact that an entire team of expert and professionals that make up Kurir is gathered around a common goal – the tireless fight for the ordinary, disenfranchised person – which is our greatest strength. And that is the only thing that we have never had a difference of opinions about. Nor will we!

“A heartfelt thank-you to each and every person on this incredible team! Without all of you none of this would be possible.”

Today we celebrate the third anniversary of Kurir Television

Kurir Television is the youngest member of the Kurir family. It started on this day in 2020, and has positioned itself in only three years of broadcasting as the most-viewed cable television channel on networks on which it is available. We are getting increasingly significant results with every new month – for example, last weekend, on 23 June, Kurir Television had the largest viewership of all the cable channels in Serbia, both for the entire population and the target group of viewers aged 18-50. For the same target group, it was ahead of as many as three channels with national coverage and had a 3.05 percent daily viewership share, with over 650,000 viewers following us, as shown by the official measurement data of the Nielsen agency.

The success of Kurir Television is a result of the strength of the Kurir brand, whose team produces over nine hours of original programming every workday, with the most current news programme, a great deal of entertainment and family content, as well as popular TV series and films.

Kurir Television has been listening to its audience since its inception, tailoring its content to the needs and wishes of the viewers, while at the same time striving to keep in step with the global trends. This is precisely why this television’s viewing figures are on a continuous rise.

The winning team

The Kurir Editorial Team is the biggest integrated editorial team in Serbia. Heading the team consisting of over 250 people of different profiles are Aleksandar Ðondović and Branislava Majdarević, and Rajko Nedić, Boban Karović, Andrija Ivanović, Mladen Radulović, Katarina Lazić Simić, Milan Rašević, Bane Bjelica, Aleksandar Krunić and Marija Ðurović are on the board of editors of the integrated editorial team. As regards the television channel, Zoran Mihajlović is the news director, Goran Jovanović is the entertainment programming director, and Snežana Petrović is the director of the morning programme.

The editors agree that Kurir’s greatest strength are the people and that Kurir’s success is a result of a combination of the team’s hard work and commitment, and the size and power of the Adria Media Group media system.

Kurir’s victories

Kurir has shown many times that the role and power of the media far exceed mere reporting on events. During these 20 years, we have uncovered numerous scandals, started many initiatives, and got involved in helping people in predicament countless times.

We have launched several big campaigns through which we wanted to contribute to solving serious social issues. Some of the most important ones include Stop Violence, concerned with violence against women; Do Not Wait, whose aim was to raise awareness of the importance of mental health; Stop Peer Violence ; and many others. We were reporting responsibly during the coronavirus epidemic and debunked many conspiracy theorists; we stopped the deforestation in Košutnjak and the construction of the commercial and residential complex there; by uncovering scandals, we have had a number of privately-owned nursing homes in breach of the law and treating their residents inhumanely closed; it is our initiative that has resulted in introducing a mandatory protocol for treating diabetic children into schools, and we have had a number of other successful initiatives.

From the very first issue, Kurir has shown that it puts the ordinary person first. We have tried to always be their voice and weapon in the fight for a better life, and have countless times organized ourselves practically overnight to collect aid or help in solving vital problems. For us, these are our biggest successes and our greatest victories!

We have the most loyal following, which is a great honour, but also an obligation

We would like to thank everyone who puts their trust in Kurir, and we can proudly say that there are many such people. Research has shown that Kurir is among the three most-read dailies in Serbia, Kurir.rs has had the most loyal readership for years, Kurir Television is the most-viewed generalist cable television channel on the networks on which it is available, and Kurir’s reach on the Facebook and Instagram social media platforms stands at over 12 million monthly users. Our following has shown countless times so far that it is the most loyal, as well as the most humane at times of need. We have launched numerous socially responsible drives owing to our readers – a fact that few media outlets can boast.

We are grateful to our following, our staff, and our partners because your trust obligates us to keep working hard and be better and better.