Kadastik: No room for two quality dailies in Estonia

Photo: Toomas Huik

There is no room for two quality dailies in Estonia but the present situation will continue as long as Ekspress Grupp covers the losses of its daily Eesti Paevaleht, Mart Kadastik, CEO of the company Eesti Meedia that acquired Baltic media holdings including Estonia's largest daily Postimees from the Norwegian Schibsted group in a management buyout earlier this month, said on Thursday.

Kadastik said on the Kahekone (Dialogue) broadcast of ETV public television that Estonia, the smallest and not the richest media market in Europe, is definitely not able to maintain two daily or morning newspapers aspiring to quality.

«Neither Finland is able to do it, nor Sweden, nor Norway. This pulling oneself up by one's own hair on the grounds that we is Estonia are special, it doesn't lead anywhere,» said the long-time chief editor and chief executive of Postimees.

At present digital solutions offer publishers alternatives to a printed newspaper in entering other markets, he said. For Eesti Meedia the size of the print run of Postimees is not important because it's other branches of its business, especially printing, that must earn money. Since there's a limited offer of printing facilities in Scandinavia, Eesti Meedia sees printing services as a good business opportunity, according to Kadastik.

According to figures available from the Estonian Newspaper Association, Postimeess had a circulation of 50,500 copies and its Russian version of 8,700 copies in August. Eesti Paevaleht had an average print run of 21,700 copies. The biggest Estonian daily by print was the tabloid Ohtuleht, owned half and half by the rivals Eesti Meedia and Ekspress Grupp, with an average print run of 50,800 copies.