Forward, Full Speed Ahead!

The first number of the weekly VREME in 1993 sold for 1,500 dinars. Had we sold the entire edition of 23,000 copies, we would have earned 34,500,000 dinars. At the end of the same year, a copy of VREME cost 500,000,000,000 dinars, which was 14,492.753 623 times more than the value of the first number's entire edition at the start of 1993. We have given this incredible figure in six decimals on purpose, since that many naughts have been dropped since October 1, 1993, and in order to emphasize that one copy of VREME was nominally 14,492.753 623 times more expensive than the weekly's entire edition at the start of the year. When all this is multiplied with 23,000 the figure arrived at is 333.33 million times greater, and represents an inflation of 33.333 billion percent measured in copies of VREME, and a bit over...

Under normal circumstances the annual report would contain an abundance of financial indicators given in the national currency. However, after drawing a line under last year's activities, the only thing we can do is give a descriptive assessment of our work. Under conditions such as existed last year, some might even consider it a success that the first and last numbers were published at all. VREME came out regularly, including a special number which is always published ahead of elections. We managed to keep our circulation between 20,000 - 25,000 copies (on average: 23,567), making VREME the highest-circulation news magazine covering political issues in Yugoslavia.

The situation became dramatic towards the end of the year when all rules of business and moral conduct were simply ignored: the price of everything, from paper clips to petrol for the transportation of the paper started being charged in German marks, and the prices are still going up. It is as if an atmosphere of greed has taken over, and all are out to rip off the few remaining firms producing something. This is why we had to work out a scenario for a eventual temporary interruption of publishing, a drastic drop in the technical quality of the paper, a decreased number of pages or editions...

Perhaps the most important change is that in future, the paper will be sold on the streets on Friday. We wish to step up sales via our newsboy network, since that is the only real money we get. The big networks pay according to monthly settlements, so that for over 15,000 copies sold through the kiosks of a big Belgrade newspaper house in October, the amount of money we received added up to barely two state-guaranteed October salaries. This is why we are interested in stimulating alternative forms of sales and of selling only a limited number of copies through other sales networks.

Even though last year was not a good year for the newspaper business, we did manage to do a lot of things. With every issue of VREME, we carried a special supplement. Apart from the regular supplements (VREME NOVCA (finance), VREME ZDRAVLJA (health), VREME KOMPJUTERA (computers) and VREME NEKRETNINA (real estate), we also brought out special supplements on the cities of Bar and Valjevo, and special actions such as "Led Art" (Ice Art), "Rimski carski gradovi" (Imperial Roman Cities in Serbia), "Istorija Srpskog naroda" (The History of the Serbian People) - the last two supplements were linked to an exhibition at the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences and the oldest Serbian publishing house "Srpska knjizevna zadruga" jubilee and finally, "Srpski populizam" (Populism in Serbia) by Nebojsa Popov. The regular supplement "Vreme zabave" (show business) has grown into a monthly magazine and as such came out independently in the last two months of 1993. We also published a special supplement on the humanitarian activities and children's programs of the Soros Fund for Yugoslavia.

In the second half of 1993, VREME, together with the printing works "Publikum", founded the publishing house "Vreme knjige" (books). We published 12 books from the first series, as planned. "Sudbina i komentari" (Fate and Commentaries) a novel by Radoslav Petkovic, "Gatanje po pepelu" (Divining With Ashes), a collection of essays by Jovica Acin, anthologies of poems by Stevan Tontic and Milosav Tesic won all the big prizes and awards in 1993. The awards in themselves would not be of great importance were they not, as the initiator of this cultural undertaking, Predrag Markovic, said: "The beginning of a new tradition". We plan to publish two series of 12 books, the first should come out on March 1, and the second on October 1, 1994.

In the past 12 months, 15 new people have become part of VREME's regular staffs. We wish to express great satisfaction that cartoonist Predrag Koraksic has joined us. At the end of the year over sixty people earned a regular income working for VREME. Our newly-founded firm "Vreme marketing" has become a top advertising agency, and we are on the way to solving the question of our business premises for a longer period. The weekly's preparations and layout at VREME's "Graphic Center" are faster and more efficient, so that we expect to come out with a better designed and more attractive paper very soon. A serious undertaking which awaits us in 1994 is the launching of a European edition of VREME, and we hope to come out with it in spring.

It must be said that in all our activities, apart from business partners with whom we have worked for a long time, we have been helped by the Soros Fund for Yugoslavia and the association Droit de parol which helped organize the sending of aid approved by the European Union. Aid received from these two organizations consisted of graphic material, primarily newsprint and printing inks. In short, material not produced here, or not produced regularly.

In order to succeed in doing all we have planned, we will need the support and loyalty of our readers, and a continued good business relationship with our big advertisers. There is truth in the parable that VREME is in the position of a cyclist who has rushed off, but still isn't quite sure how the brakes work. We simply cannot afford to stop. Unfortunately, too many things do not depend on us, but one thing is certain - we will go on.