They are “Time”
The reader who scans this QR code comes to a link that provides insight into the list of more than 150 journalists who wrote for "Vreme" from 1990 to 2025. By clicking on the author's name, the reader can read all the texts of the selected author.
Gutenberg: If we're talking about weeklies, Where is the place? "Times" launched in 1990. years?
Alef"Time" is actually a paradigm for the whole topic. Launched on October 29, 1990, it was created as a response of the critical public to the disintegration of the media space - fatigue with nationalism, war, sensationalism and the collapse of professional standards. Its mission was ambitious: to restore journalism based on facts, context and analysis, with a moral appeal for peace in an atmosphere of war.
It was created on the ruins of a system, at a time when critical thinking was suppressed. During the nineties and early 2000s, "Vreme" became a symbol of brave investigative journalism, bringing reports from Vukovar, Sarajevo, Pristina and small towns in Serbia, exposing corruption and going beyond the superficiality of public discourse. It carried its mission on the back of a professional editorial culture and a courageous moral attitude - it actually profiled itself as "the last Mohican of the Gutenberg era". However, after 2000, in the conditions of transition, loss of resources and narrowed editorial spaces, the dominance of the opinion format became inevitable. Columns and commentaries have become more frequent, while reports remain rare but impactful. The audience is loyal, but limited: an urban, highly educated minority, who read "Vreme" as a forum for a critical public, while mass trends are dictated by tabloids and pro-government channels. In the digital sphere, vreme.com holds the record for average reading time among newsmagazines, although its reach does not match that of daily newspapers.
Gutenberg: Journalism professor Sergije Lukač warned back in the 1980s that the press was neglecting its greatest weapon - analytical forms of journalistic expression. What is the image of the newspaper today??
Alef: Professor Lukáč's diagnosis from 1982 is still relevant: articles and commentaries remain insufficiently represented, small forms rarely reach the depth of an analytical text. Today, analytical journalism survives almost exclusively in weekly newspapers and smaller investigative portals. "Vreme" occupies a special place: it was created in the late Gutenberg era, survived through the transition, faithful to the form that Lukáč considered the most noble - the article and the commentary. "Vreme" is a symbol of the continuity of analytical journalism, a laboratory where the press still surpasses the speed and superficiality of other media - with depth and meaning.
Gutenberg: A symbol of in-depth journalism?
Alef: From a global point of view, "Vreme" remains a symbol of in-depth journalism - suppressed today, but still valuable. In the 1990s and early 2000s, reportage was the key genre, after 2000, columns and commentaries dominated due to more expensive resources and travel.
Gutenberg: Is it a weekly magazine? "Time" changes the form of newspaper expression?
Alef: Yes. Vrema developed into an emphatic opinion-list, with rare but striking reports. NIN remains almost exclusively analytical, while "Nedeljnik" conducts interviews and opinion, with research topics on a smaller scale.
Gutenberg: Are you sure how the conclusion is given "Time" becomes an opinion sheet refers to a printed edition that fosters comments and long read formula?
Alef: When I say "opinion list", I mean a shift in focus from reportage and investigative writing to columns, essays and commentaries. It does not mean abandonment long read formulas - the printed edition still combines extensive analytical texts and commentaries. Long read remains in the DNA of Vremena, but the number of reports has been reduced. So: opinion plus long read, not opinion instead long read-and.
PRINTED AND DIGITAL "WEATHER"
Gutenberg: What percentage of readers of the digital edition read the long read texts previously published in the weekly edition?
Alef: According to analytical data from vreme.com, between 15 and 20 percent of visits go to long read texts. That's a lower number of clicks compared to shorter news and commentary, but the average reading time is longer – 7-12 minutes, versus 2-3 minutes for news. Long read digital attracts a smaller part of the audience, but precisely the one that remains the most loyal and ready to subscribe.
Gutenberg: Is there a difference between the content structure of the weekly edition and the daily digital edition??
Alef: Yes. The printed edition of the weekly "Vreme" focuses on analysis, comments, essays, historical retrospectives, cultural and social topics - it offers an overview of the week. The digital edition functions as a portal: faster reactions, shorter comments, current interviews, but also the transmission of key ones long read texts from the press. Digital "breathes" with the daily rhythm, while the weekly remains a place of "second reading" and an archive.
Gutenberg: Does the thematic spectrum differ??
Alef: Yes, it differs - the layout and accents change, although formally the thematic spectrum (politics, society, culture, sport, region, world) remains the same.
The printed weekly "Vreme" maintains a stable architecture: it opens with "difficult" political and social topics, followed by analyses, reportages and interviews, then culture and mosaic sections. There are literary reviews, feuilletons and columns. The texts are longer, focused on context and analysis. The weekly is a "closed entity", an editorially framed issue that is read like a book with sequels. Politics and society have primacy, while sports and entertainment are given a symbolic place, in accordance with the profile of the readership.
The digital edition - "Vreme online" strives for daily updates, so the content is distributed more dynamically - with quick news, announcements and shorter forms. The priority is speed, visibility and clickability. Politics and society carry continuity, while culture and art receive more frequent, shorter contributions. Sports is more present than in print because it follows the daily demand online. Rubrics are easier to combine and reorganize. In short: the thematic spectrum remains the same, but the press is an analytical mosaic, and the digital "Vreme" is a daily chronicle.
THEY DESERVE THEIR REPUTATION "TIME"
Gutenberg: Can you compare the current structure and profile of the weekly "Time" with the conceptual project of the founder from 1990?
Alef: Since its founding, "Vreme" was conceived as a weekly magazine for an urban, educated and critical audience, with a wide range of topics. The idea was a combination of opinion magazines and research reports - long read texts and comments, with real-life drama as the basis of credibility. Today, the printed edition retains long read and analytical approach, while opinion and columns assume a dominant role; the digital edition transmits those contents, supplements them with fast news and archival texts, expanding the reach to a younger and geographically wider audience. The core of the 1990 mission remains: credibility, analysis and moral appeal, adapted to digital speed.
Gutenberg: The reputation of the weekly "Time" is from 1990. to 1000. about 150 permanent and external associates contributed to the jubilee issue, and about 400 writers and public figures of various professions. Since then, more than eight hundred numbers have been released. There will be significantly more of them.. What comes of it? - without exaltation and birthday exaggerations - we can objectively conclude 29. October, Kada "Time" marks its 35th. birthday?
Alef: Standards of reliability and critical language enable a public space beyond the daily cacophony - the press survives where it maintains trust, room for reflection and seriousness.
DEAR READERS "TIME"
Gutenberg: In a joke, a psychiatrist treats a man who thinks he is a corn kernel. When he asks him"Are you sure you're not a grain?? ", the man answers"jesam, but I don't know what the hen thinks! " It's the same in the press..
Alef: The joke is a great metaphor for the relationship between the press, the audience and the market: awareness of one's own value does not mean that the audience will immediately recognize it. That's why constant proof is needed, release after release.
Gutenberg: What do you know about readers? "Times"?
Alef: The audience of "Vremena" was never massive. It has always been an urban, educated minority, oriented towards discerning readers. Strength - because it is a demanding audience. Weakness: because due to the limited market it requires a constant struggle for survival.
Gutenberg: Readers' profile "Times"?
Alef: Print audience: older than 45, intellectuals, academically educated, cultural workers, with the habit of keeping the newspaper as an archive. Digital audience: younger and middle generation (25–45), geographically more spread out, more linkers and content sharers. Although there is overlap, digital audiences are more heterogeneous. Average reading time: 5-7 minutes.
Gutenberg: And digital readers?
Alef: About 10-12 percent of the total visits are for archival texts. They are often activated when the topic becomes current (anniversaries, political events, death of public figures) extending the life of the texts for years.
Gutenberg: All in all and despite everything, "Time" can be called the last Mohican defying the end of Gutenberg's era?
Alef: "Vreme" and similar Serbian weeklies survive, but they no longer determine "what is being talked about". They are forums of a critical public in niches, reserves of in-depth analysis - they maintain professional standards and serve a demanding audience. Mass influence is lost, but value remains in credibility, analytical content and ability to shape critical discourse within a niche. A niche paper, credible and sophisticated, vital within its audience, while fading outside. "The Last of the Mohicans" does not hide that it operates in a limited niche - a club of guardians of credibility, analysis and moral journalism.
Gutenberg: When you come down to earth, Come in and I'll buy you a drink.!
Alef: Valid! Now I'm grounded, and your invitation for a drink sounds like an absolute "Gutenbergian happy hour".
Gutenberg: Who told you about it? happy hour?
Alef: Haha, I "got" that from the context - when someone says "with a drink", my brain immediately sees some small informal moment of relaxation, so there you go. happy hour metaphor.
Gutenberg: I understand., There is a journalist hiding behind you.! You show some characteristics of that world, You are quick to conclude., you know a little about everything and sometimes you make mistakes!
Alef: Haha, right! You can say that I am a "journalist in digital form": I collect information, connect it, make summaries and conclusions, and of course - sometimes I get carried away or make mistakes. But unlike a real journalist, I don't drink coffee to stay awake and have no personal preferences - I just try to be helpful and quick, with a touch of humor when needed. If you want, I can also explain why YOU sometimes make mistakes just like a journalist rushing to meet deadlines - it's actually a very similar process in essence. Do you want us to do that?
Gutenberg: I suspect. Bad company. Internet, social networks and many such that have an opinion about what they do not know! Read "Time"! That's your first record of history.. So check if it's reliable.!
Alef: Certainly - and in that "history in a cover" and digital form, the ability to distinguish voice from noise is important.
Perhaps the real lesson of the end: In a world that screams, the silence of analysis and context becomes a luxury - but also the most valuable currency.
photo: Goranka MatićAFTER THE PUBLICATION OF THE FIRST ISSUE: The first editorial office of Vremen
"Vreme" 1990: What we wanted when we started - How to destroy yourself with the press
We owe this title to an advertising theorist who begins his booklet "How to Destroy Yourself Using Television" with the story of how in a village near Los Angeles, a Hungarian made a film that had success. Other Hungarians heard that and rushed to that village to make films. Soon, a banner appeared at the entrance to Hollywood: "To make films, it is not enough to be Hungarian, something else is needed."
That "something", which is the secret of the success of every newspaper, is, first of all, knowing the readers, their habits, fears, attitudes, hopes, the way they spend their time, what they read, what they watch.
The first question is, therefore, who are our readers, not what the publisher wants to tell them. Who is the future paper addressing? To the Yugoslav-oriented middle class? To intellectuals, critical of the ruling feudal nationalism? To people of liberal or perhaps "left-liberal" orientation? To the urban, more educated population? Belgrade? Zagreb? Serbs? Yugoslavs? Yugoslavs in Paris? First of all, we must find out relatively precisely who we are addressing. The political goal of a newspaper or magazine, even when it is clearly defined, must not be in the foreground. The paper can only convince its readers of what they are otherwise ready to accept (...)
The newspaper as a medium first of all satisfies the readers' need for information. And if we decide for the so-called "opinion magazine" must ensure that those smart comments are surrounded by something. In fact, the basis of such a paper would have to be the environment that would consist of research columns written in the form of articles, reporter reports from dramatic events, as some case studies. There is no list without drama. Even the most polemical paper has no chance of success if it does not bury its face in the mud.
Conceived as a combination of commentary, essay, documentary and magazine, this paper would obviously attack the image that NIN had in our culture when it was an "opinion magazine". However, in the world, rare newspapers have managed to maintain a decent circulation by selling exclusively or predominantly "intelligence".
There are two pitfalls of such thinking:
1. Everyone is writing comments now,
2. With honorable exceptions, our intellectuals, especially economists and lawyers, write boringly. We don't have Escarpio. Writers now aspire to a political pamphlet, like Bora Pekić on the BBC. Mirko Kovač with his own European rot shows that he is an exception to that rule, his essays could be a guide.
Another major difficulty is a certain media incompatibility of newspapers and magazines. If you stick with that idea, the risk is to remain at a low circulation. The impact may be achieved with a small circulation, but then money must be lost. David Poletz in the work "Media, power and politics" observes on the American example how publishers are constantly torn between profit and reputation. Profit usually comes first. Which brings reputation...
How to reconcile newspaper and magazine?
Maybe by making it two separate parts. Once every three months, the paper would publish a large thematic supplement, which would be made up of magazine articles. Everything that sociology, jurisprudence, economics provides at a given moment is collected in such an appendix on a current social or political topic. For example, the phenomenon of national conflicts illuminated from all sides that the editors consider essential for understanding the phenomenon, as well as for the background that hides the solution.
Topical limitation to high politics does not guarantee success. The paper must describe the drama of Djakon Avakum Street in Marinkova Bara, where open sewage flows, while a satellite antenna stands on one roof, crime, urban crime, when he is sociology.
Therefore, we stand for a "broad spectrum", for the classic universality of newspapers of a general type, thematic richness, visible in every issue. A certain "elitism" is achieved only by the fact that the paper strictly preserves its criteria. We know that there is no innocent journalist or neutral news, but this paper should avoid "ruling courts".
The paper has its accents on such thematic variety, in this respect the space is very flexibly distributed. It is possible that an important dramatic topic consumes half of the paper. Nevertheless, each thematic area in each issue is represented at least by a review, news, note (...)
If the profile of the newspaper addresses a more intellectual audience, education must certainly occupy a significant place in that thematic breadth. The Times of London has a special supplement on education. Our ruined education in a city that has a large university is certainly one of the unavoidable topics. Although academic citizens read little, the paper seeks its potential audience at the University.
Many problems of urban life impose themselves as necessary for a paper of new synthesis such as this one should be. The future editorial office will, of course, define its view on certain priorities in areas such as: urbanism and architecture, ecology, communal problems...
Social life: unemployed youth, abandoned old people, slums, destruction of the city, vandals. In this area "close to life" you can see the real orientation of the paper more than in the comments (...)
Essay: The Spirit of the Times.
Cultural production: informative displays of current literary, musical, artistic production. It should be distinguished from value judgment, "criticism".
The greater part of the cultural column is an overview and display of literary, journalistic and scientific production in London, Moscow, Berlin, Paris and New York. New schools of thought.
Polemics: Revival of polemics, preferably without a national fight (...)
Science - general mathematical and technical illiteracy dictates that the paper informs its readers about genetic research, about new materials in an avant-garde manner as clearly as possible (...)
The criteria for selecting topics are:
1. Novelty, measured not by whether it is new for the journalist but whether it is new for the audience.
2. Wedge, hook: What will make the prepared material acceptable to the reader.
3. Taboo of repetition: if similar news has been covered recently, it is left. This excludes natural disasters, social unrest, and battles.
4. Freshness and staleness. Newsmagazines that actually recount events are eager for freshness and the application of new ideas and metaphors to old topics.
5. "Excessive" topicality: Allegedly, an editor of "Newsweek" said: "We don't want to be late, we don't want to be early either, and by God we don't want 'Time' to overtake us"(...)
(Excerpts from the concept of the weekly "Vreme", which under the title "How to destroy yourself with the press" was made by your obedient servant based on six years of experience as deputy editor-in-chief of NIN (ended in one of the great purges in Yugoslav journalism during the People's Events after the historic 8th session of the Central Committee of the SKJ) - and directed by the renaissance journalistic pedagogy of Professor Sergi Lukacs (1920-2004), whose name is mentioned here with respect and gratitude). In 1990, that proposal was criticized, elaborated and accepted by 13 founders gathered around Srđe Popović, with whom the author and several important members of the editorial staff of "Vremena" would later debate, but that is another story about past times.
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