Type Daily newspaper Founded January 1993 Language Slovak | Publisher Petit Press Political alignment Centre-right,liberal | |
SME or Denník SME (in English: WE ARE Daily) is one of the most widely read mainstream broadsheet in Slovakia. Their website, SME.sk, is one of the most visited Internet portals in Slovakia.
Contents
History and profile
SME was founded in mid-January 1993 by a group of journalist of the well-established daily Smena, who left that daily due to differences over editorial policies and control. They accused the government under Vladimír Mečiar of having the Smena's editor-in-chief removed from his post indirectly by means of political influence. The newspaper was oriented strongly against governments under Vladimír Mečiar (an attitude that intensified after January 1993) and in favour of other governments. It is a rather centrist to right-wing newspaper now.
In 1995, the newspaper merged with the daily Smena (whose readers switched to SME after 1993) and in 2004 (?) with another major Slovak daily, Práca.
SME appears 6 times a week. It is issued by Petit Press. The sister newspapers of SME include The Slovak Spectator, Új Szó, Korzár and various regional My noviny newspapers
The former managing editors were Martin M. Šimečka and founding editor-in-chief was Karol Ježík. Its target group is very wide, but officially it focuses on readers in bigger cities and agglomerations.
Its circulation in December 2006 was 76,590 copies. It was 53,000 copies in 2011. The paper had a circulation of 62,890 copies in September 2012. and 32,853 in January 2015
In 2014, the Namav, a subject subvenced by the Penta Investments group, announced the purchase of Petit Press, the publisher of the newspaper. In reaction, a major part of the editorial board, including the editor-in-chief, announced their resignation. "We are leaving SME and we will try to create a new medium that no one will suspect that it serves someone other than the readers", stated Matúš Kostolný, the departing editor-in-chief. In the beginning of 2015, the departed board members started a new newspaper, Denník N.
Online version
SME established an online presence in 1993, SME.sk. In 2004, they opened a blog platform for experts. It opened up to the wider public 6 months after the launch and now boasts 14,000 bloggers.