Two Daily Tabloids Debut on Bulgarian Market

Two daily tabloids were launched on the Bulgarian market Monday, vying for the attention of readers in holiday mood who feel like "taking a break from serious and boring news".

Bulgaria DNES ("Bulgaria TODAY) is published by Media Group Bulgaria, publisher of the most popular Bulgarian dailies Trud and 24 Hours. The two wide-circulation dailies, former assets of WAZ Mediengruppe, were recently acquired by Ognyan Donev and Lyubomir Pavlov in what was termed a corporate mini-coup. The name of Nedyalko Nedyalov, publisher of Retro, is also involved in the project. The editor-in-chief of Bulgaria DNES is Nikolay Penchev, who was previously in charge of the 168 Hours weekly. According to the owners, the target audience of the newspaper is Bulgarian families.

Vseki Den ("Every Day"), named after the news website, is owned by New Media Group, informally connected to New Bulgarian Media Group owned by Irena Krasteva and her son, Delyan Peevski, an MP from the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS). The group publishes the most widely-circulated weekly tabloid, Weekend. The editorial board of Vseki Den consists of journalists and managers at Weekend and vsekiden.com. The target audience of the tabloid has not been specified.

Both newspapers have 32 pages and cost BGN 0.40. Their total daily circulation is around 100 000.

Among other things, the two tabloids will also compete for an ad share, which, according to experts, is too squeezed for the oversupplied market of Bulgarian dailies.

The "yellow press" segment in Bulgaria has emerged practically unscathed from the crisis, which has taken its toll on the "serious media", Bulgarian weekly Capital claims in an article on the matter. The newspaper further claims that the downturn has given tabloids the chance to flourish and cement their positions on the market.

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