Racy Newspaper Catches Romania’s Eye

A new daily newspaper has taken Romania by storm, soaring to become the top seller in just three months with a Western tabloid-style cocktail of news, sensation, satire and social gossip.

Press freedom ushered in by the December, 1989, revolution brought an explosion of titles, but most stuck doggedly to the political line of one party or another.

None managed to inform and entertain readers at the same time.

Then came Evenimentul Zilei (Event of the Day), and politics had to compete for the front page with sex, crime and ghost stories.

“A rapist enjoys the same rights as President Ion Iliescu to hit the front page of our paper if his story is dramatic enough,” said the paper’s chief editor, Ion Cristoiu.

The eight-page tabloid--few papers here run to more than eight--bulldozed its way into the market, overtaking all the titles that sprouted in the revolution that toppled Stalinist ruler Nicolae Ceausescu.

“We changed the hierarchy of values cast by other dailies which think politics must be a front-page issue,” Cristoiu said.

Sample headlines: “Unhappy Husband Kills Wife Because She Grilled Chicken,” “Rapists Keep Village Under Terror,” “Pope Is President’s Election Agent,” “Rats Prepare for Winter.” They mingle with more serious news and with Cristoiu’s own astute political analyses.

“The paper’s circulation has jumped from 30,000 to 365,000 copies daily since its June launch,” Cristoiu said.

Its closest rival is the daily Adevarul, with a circulation of 239,000.

Adevarul and several other dailies have now begun to adopt a racier style to meet the new challenge.

Before Ceausescu’s execution, the media were totally controlled by the ruling Communist Party--and colorless.

Papers treated their readers to an exclusive diet of transcripts of the dictator’s speeches or articles praising him.

Evenimentul Zilei focuses on down-to-Earth human-interest problems presented in a “proselike form, easy to keep in mind and retell,” said Cristoiu, 44, a literary critic-turned-editor. “We live in the Balkans, and people here are hungry for unsophisticated stories which they can tell their neighbors and comment on.”

He said the paper was making a handsome profit despite its higher cover price; it costs 20 lei (5 U.S. cents), while other dailies cost 15 lei (less than 4 cents).

It employs 60 young reporters. “Some of them had no experience at all when they joined the paper, but now they move like old foxes,” Cristoiu said.

“I brought some old hacks to work with me when we launched Evenimentul. But they soon left because it was hard for them to understand that the old days are gone and that it is not enough to display the president’s picture on the front page.”

The daily is financed by Expres, Romania’s largest press publishing house.