''Lidové noviny'' (''People's News'', or ''The People's Newspaper'', ) is a daily

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

published in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. It is the oldest

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

daily still in print, and a

newspaper of record A newspaper of record is a major national newspaper with large circulation whose editorial and news-gathering functions are considered authoritative and independent; they are thus "newspapers of record by reputation" and include some of the o ...

.The Czech media landscape—print media
It is a national news daily covering political, economic, cultural and scientific affairs, mostly with a

centre-right Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

view. It often hosts commentaries and opinions of prominent personalities from the Czech Republic and from abroad.

History and profile

''Lidové noviny'' was founded by Adolf Stránský in 1893 in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

. Its high prestige was due to the number of famous Czech personalities that were contributing—writers, politicians and philosophers—and its attention toward foreign politics and culture. It was also the first Czech daily publishing

political cartoons A political cartoon, a form of editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combine ...

. Its publication was interrupted during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. It changed its name to Svobodné noviny after the liberation before returnimg to the original name from May 9, 1948. It was closed down in 1952. In 1987 a group of

political dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 20th ...

s led by Jiří Ruml,

Jiří Dienstbier Jiří Dienstbier (20 April 1937 – 8 January 2011) was a Czech politician and journalist. Born in Kladno, he was one of Czechoslovakia's most respected foreign correspondents before being fired after the Prague Spring. Unable to have a livelih ...

, Ladislav Hejdánek, and

Jan Petránek Jan Petránek (28 December 1931, Prague – 10 November 2018, Prague) was a Czechs, Czech journalist, commentator and dissident during Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, communist era of Czechoslovakia. He was a signatory of Charter 77. Biography ...

recommenced the publication in a monthly

samizdat Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the document ...

version. In the autumn two "zero editions" were published and in January 1988 the first edition was issued. The paper has its headquarters in Prague. Since November 1989 it is being published legally and since the spring 1990 as a daily. Some years later it was merged with dissolving ''Lidová demokracie'', from which they inherited the blue colour of the title. In 1998 ''Lidové noviny'' became part of the German group '' Rheinisch-Bergische Druckerei und Verlagsgesellschaft GmbH'' (the publisher of the daily ''

Rheinische Post ''Rheinische Post'' is a major German regional daily newspaper published since 1946 by the ''Rheinische Post Verlagsgesellschaft GmbH'' company, and headquartered in Düsseldorf. The Post is especially dominant in the western part of North Rhine- ...

'' in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

) and its Czech subsidiary '' Mafra a.s.'', that is also publisher of the second largest Czech daily ''

Mladá fronta Dnes ''Mladá fronta Dnes'' (''Young Front Today''), also known as ''MF DNES'' or simply ''Dnes'' (''Today''), is a daily newspaper in the Czech Republic.Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

'', the TV

music channel Music television is a type of television programming which focuses predominantly on playing music videos from recording artists, usually on dedicated television channels broadcasting on satellite, cable, or Streaming Platforms. Music television ...

Óčko Óčko (stylised as Òĉko) is the first Czech music television channel, which started broadcasting in 2002. Majority of the audience are teenagers and people from the 12–35 age group. The program consists of music videos of music from all ...

'', the

radio stations Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-b ...

''Expresradio'' and '' Rádio Classic FM'' and the weekly music

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

''Filter''. In 2013, MAFRA a.s. became a subsidiary of the Agrofert group, a company owned by the Czech Prime Minister (as of 2018), Andrej Babiš. The publisher of the daily is Lidové noviny AS. The paper is published in

Berliner format Berliner, or "midi", is a newspaper format with pages normally measuring about . The Berliner format is slightly taller and marginally wider than the tabloid/compact format; and is both narrower and shorter than the broadsheet format. Origi ...

Circulation

''Lidové noviny'' had a circulation of 270,000 copies in June 1990. The circulation of the paper was 91,000 copies in 2002. In October 2003, the paper had a circulation of 77,558 copies. In December 2004 the paper had a circulation of 70,593 copies. It was 72,000 copies for 2004 as a whole. The 2007 circulation of the paper was 70,680 copies. In 2008 it had a circulation of 70,413 copies and reached up to 232,000 readers per day. The circulation of ''Lidové noviny'' was 58,543 copies in 2009, 49,920 copies in 2010 and 43,171 copies in 2011. Praha, Anděl, Sídlo MF a LN II

Personalities

Among the contributors and editors of the "old" ''Lidové noviny'', there were

Karel Čapek Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright and critic. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel '' War with the Newts'' (1936) and play '' R.U.R.'' (''Rossum's Universal ...

Josef Čapek Josef Čapek (; 23 March 1887 – April 1945) was a Czech artist who was best known as a painter, but who was also noted as a writer and a poet. He invented the word "robot", which was introduced into literature by his brother, Karel Čapek. ...

, Jaromír John, Richard Weiner,

Eduard Bass Eduard Bass, born Eduard Schmidt, (1 January 1888, in Prague – 2 October 1946, in Prague) was a Czech prose writer, journalist, singer, and actor. From 1910 he worked as a singer, journalist and cabaret director. From 1921 he was an editor of th ...

Karel Poláček Karel Poláček (22 March 1892 – 21 January 1945) was a Czech writer, humorist and journalist of Jewish descent. Life He was born in Rychnov nad Kněžnou into the family of a Jewish merchant. He attended the gymnasium there, but did poor ...

, Rudolf Těsnohlídek,

Leoš Janáček Leoš Janáček (, baptised Leo Eugen Janáček; 3 July 1854 – 12 August 1928) was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist, and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and other Slavic musics, including Eastern European fol ...

Jiří Mahen Jiří Mahen (born: Antonín Vančura; 12 December 1882 – 22 May 1939) was a Czech novelist, playwright and essayist. Life He was born Antonín Vančura, in Čáslav, to an old noble family of the Bohemian Brethren faith. In his grammar-s ...

, Jan Drda,

Václav Řezáč Václav () is a Czech male first name of Slavic origin, sometimes translated into English as Wenceslaus or Wenceslas. These forms are derived from the old Slavic/Czech form of this name: Venceslav. Nicknames are: Vašek, Vašík, Venca, Venda For ...

and the presidents

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk Tomáš () is a Czech and Slovak given name, equivalent to the name Thomas. It may refer to: * Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (1850–1937), first President of Czechoslovakia * Tomáš Baťa (1876–1932), Czech footwear entrepreneur * Tomáš Berdych ( ...

and

Edvard Beneš Edvard Beneš (; 28 May 1884 – 3 September 1948) was a Czech politician and statesman who served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, and again from 1945 to 1948. He also led the Czechoslovak government-in-exile 1939 to 1945 ...

Editors

This list includes only

editors-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

of the new Lidové noviny. * Jiří Ruml (1988–1990) *

Rudolf Zeman Charter 77 (''Charta 77'' in Czech and Slovak) was an informal civic initiative in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic from 1976 to 1992, named after the document Charter 77 from January 1977. Founding members and architects were Jiří Něm ...

(1990–1991) * Jaroslav Veis (1991–1992) * Tomáš Smetánka (1992–1993) *

Jaromír Štětina Jaromír Štětina (born 6 April 1943) is a Czech journalist, writer and politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament from 2014 to 2019 for the Czech Republic, representing TOP 09. He is also known as a war correspondent from th ...

(1993–1994) * '' Jiří Kryšpín'' (1994) –

interim An interim is a period of temporary pause or change in a sequence of events, or a temporary state, and is often applied to transitional political entities. Interim may also refer to: Temporary organizational arrangements (general concept) *Provis ...

* Libor Ševčík (1994–1996) * Jefim Fištejn (1996–1997) * Pavel Šafr (1997–2000) * Veselin Vačkov (2000–2009) * Dalibor Balšínek (2009-2013) * István Léko (2013-2021) * Petr Bušta (2021-)

References

External links