Mart Raudsaar to become editor-in-chief of Postimees

Photo: Eero Vabamägi / Postimees

Mart Raudsaar, current manager of the Estonian Association of Media Enterprises and editor-in-chief of the parliament's periodical Riigikogu Toimetised, will take over as editor-in-chief and executive publisher of the daily Postimees from February.

Andrus Raudsalu, chairman of the management board of Postimees Grupp, said that Raudsaar has a very strong background in journalism and will be a worthy addition to the Postimees team. "As a long-time media lecturer, Raudsaar knows many of the current best journalists personally and I am certain that under his leadership, Postimees will continue to stand for the values of high-quality and free journalism. Additionally, thanks to longstanding experience as manager of the Association of Media Enterprises, Raudsaar has a good overview of the business models of media companies both here and elsewhere. Finding and implementing a modern and, in the longer perspective, sustainable business model for Postimees will be one of the big challenges that we will be committing to together with Raudsaar," Raudsalu said.

According to Raudsaar, his objective in cooperation with the excellent team at Postimees will be to publish Estonia's best newspaper that covers topics important to the people, society and state of Estonia. "Throughout the history of Estonia, Postimees has been one of the most important publications and I am certain that this will be the case in the future as well," he added.

Mart Raudsaar will also become a member of the management board of AS Postimees Grupp.

Raudsaar studied journalism at the University of Tartu in 1992-1996 and graduated with a master's degree in media studies from the University of Oslo in 2000.

In 1993-1996, Raudsaar worked as an editor for the magazine Favoriit (Favorite), served as member of the Elva city council from 1993 to 2002 and as a reporter for the newspaper Eesti Kirik (Estonian Church) in 2000-2001. From 2005 to 2007, he edited Politseileht, a former magazine of the Police and Border Guard Board.

From 2001 to 2011, Raudsaar worked as a lecturer at the Institute of Journalism and Communications of the University of Tartu and as a lecturer of media relations at the Narva College of the University of Tartu from fall 2010 to fall 2011. From 2011 to 2017, he worked at Tallinn University.

On June 30, 2010, the supervisory board of the Estonian Newspaper Association, now named the Association of Media Enterprises, appointed Raudsaar executive director of the association starting from Aug. 1, 2010. Raudsaar has been a member of the Noo rural municipality council and chairman of the finance committee since 2017. From 2016, Raudsaar has been involved in the supervisory board of News Media Europe, an umbrella organization for the European news media industry.

Raudsaar has published a number of articles in nearly all of Estonia's larger newspapers and several magazines and has on multiple occasions expressed his opinion regarding issues concerning Estonian journalism, source protection and freedom of speech.

From 2014, Raudsaar has been working as editor-in-chief of the parliament's periodical Riigikogu Toimetised.

In relation to starting work at Postimees, Raudsaar will withdraw from the positions of manager of the Association of Media Enterprises and chief editor of Riigikogu Toimetised.