Blic (Cyrillic: Блиц, ) is a daily middle-market tabloid newspaper in Serbia. Founded in 1996, Blic is owned by Ringier Axel Springer Media AG, a joint venture between Ringier media corporation from Switzerland and Axel Springer AG from Germany.
Ownership
The initial owners of Blic, Austria-based businessmen Aleksandar Lupšić and Peter Kolbel, sold the paper along with its parent company Blic Press d.o.o. in November 2000 to Gruner + Jahr, a German publishing firm majority-owned by the Bertelsmann conglomerate, right after the October 5th overthrow in Serbia. Initially, G+J bought 49% stake in Blic Press d.o.o., but eventually bought the remaining stake as well.
In March 2003, Gruner + Jahr sold its 25.1% stake in Blic Press d.o.o. to Vienna Capital Partners (VCP) while retaining the remaining 74.9%.
After buying 74.9% stake in Blic Press d.o.o. from Gruner+Jahr in January 2004, Ringier AG assigned Attila Mihók to be the CEO of its new Serbian subsidiary that got renamed Ringier d.o.o. He performed the job until November 2007 and was in July 2008 succeeded by Jelena Drakulić.
In 2010, when Ringier AG and Axel Springer SE launched a new joint venture Ringier Axel Springer Media, Blic got incorporated among the assets of the newly created joint venture entity while Ringier d.o.o. in Serbia changed its name to Ringier Axel Springer d.o.o.
The joint Swiss-German entity owns and operates Blic through its local subsidiary Ringier Axel Springer d.o.o. (formerly Blic Press d.o.o. and Ringier d.o.o.), a limited liability company.
Blic online platforms such as blic.rs, 24sata.rs, and alo.rs are controlled by Ringier Digital AG, which has in July 2014 had its 49% stake bought by KKR, an American private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts. KKR thus increased its presence on the Serbian digital media and telecommunications market, having previously in October 2013 bought the majority stake in Serbia Broadband, leading Serbian cable and Internet provider.
Assets
Since its founding, Blic has become a centerpiece of several other publications. They include: Alo! (Blic'''s sister daily tabloid started in October 2007) Euro Blic (Blic issue for Republika Srpska) Blic Žena (started in November 2004)Blic Puls (celebrity gossip weekly magazine started in March 2006)24 sata (free weekly newspaper that previously run as free daily in period from October 2006 )Auto Bild (Serbian version of the German magazine, launched in 2010 after Ringier created a joint venture with Axel Springer)
Digital
Blic.rs online portal incorporates news content from the Blic daily as well as from other publications under the Ringer Axel Springer umbrella in Serbia. Since the late 2000s, Blic.rs is among the most visited websites in Serbia, according to Gemius Audience research.
Other online offerings include Alo.rs, 24sata.rs, PulsOnline.rs, SuperOdmor.rs, NonStopShop.rs, MojAuto.rs, and Nekretnine.rs.
History
The newspaper was founded in September 1996 by a group of Austria-based businessmen that included Peter Kolbel and Aleksandar Lupšić, who simultaneously bought Bratislava's Nový čas though the original newspaper had been started a year before (in 1995, as weekly) and had drawn some journalists who had previously been working for Borba and Nasa Borba. At the time of his investment in Blic, Lupšić had strong ties to Milošević's wife Mira Marković and her party Yugoslav Left (JUL). The first issue of Blic appeared on September 16, 1996 thus becoming the 10th daily newspaper to be published in FR Yugoslavia at the time (the other nine being Politika, Borba, Dnevnik, Pobjeda, Narodne novine, Večernje novosti, Politika ekspres, Naša borba, and Dnevni telegraf).
Prior to that, the same group took over a Prague newspaper where they gained valuable publishing experience which encouraged them to go on further. For their Serbian operation, the owners got seasoned journalist Manojlo "Manjo" Vukotić to be the editor-in-chief.
Just like many other media operations in Serbia from the 1990s and beyond, Blics ownership structure was murky as well. It was controlled by an entity called Blic Press d.o.o. - a limited liability company registered in Belgrade in March 1996. Blic Press' owners according to the Serbian Business Register were listed to be Milorad Perovic, a resident of Belgrade (51%) and Liechtenstein-based company named Mitsui Securities Eastern Europe Fund AG (49%) whose owners were not listed.