Matija Babić (born 1978) is a
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
n journalist and entrepreneur best known for being the former editor-in-chief of the Croatian news website
Index.hr
Index.hr is a Croatian tabloid online newspaper, launched in December 2002 and based in Zagreb. It was founded by Matija Babić and was originally designed as a news aggregation website, providing news content from Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia ...
.
Biography
As a student of
University of Zagreb
The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...
's Faculty of Political Sciences,
Babić began his career in the media in the late 1990s when he launched political news websites Vlast.net and Izbori.net. This caught attention of Globalnet, one of the pioneering Croatian
ISP
An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...
s, who hired him as editor of their
web portal
A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayi ...
Online.hr. Although the portal managed to attract more readership during his tenure, the portal's parent company decided to cease funding the portal in late 2001 and in December 2002 Babić left Online.hr to found
Index.hr
Index.hr is a Croatian tabloid online newspaper, launched in December 2002 and based in Zagreb. It was founded by Matija Babić and was originally designed as a news aggregation website, providing news content from Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia ...
, one of the first Croatian Internet-only news outlets.
Initially designed as a
news aggregator
In computing, a news aggregator, also termed a feed aggregator, feed reader, news reader, RSS reader or simply an aggregator, is client software or a web application that aggregates syndicated web content such as online newspapers, blogs, ...
, Index.hr provided news content from both
Croatia
, image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg
, image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg
, anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capit ...
and all around the world. The website quickly gained popularity in the early 2000s and over time more original content produced by the growing staff was being added to the site, until it became a popular media outlet in its own right. Around the same time the website gained a reputation for
yellow journalism
Yellow journalism and yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate, well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include ...
after exposing a series of scandals, the two most notable being the 2003 controversy stirred by a discovered recording of popular singer
Marko Perković
Marko Perković (; born 27 October 1966) is a Croatian musician who has been the lead singer of the band Thompson since 1991.
Perković was born in the village of Čavoglave, SR Croatia, within SFR Yugoslavia, today a part of Croatia. He parti ...
in which Perković publicly performed "
Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara", a song praising the WWII fascist
Ustaše
The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croatian fascist and ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Move ...
regime,
and the 2004
celebrity sex tape
A celebrity sex tape is typically an amateur pornographic video recording involving one or more famous people which has, intentionally or unintentionally, been made available publicly. Such videos have often been released without the consent of t ...
scandal involving
Severina Vučković
Severina Vučković (born 21 April 1972), better known mononymously as Severina, is a Croatian singer-songwriter and actress. In 2006, the Croatian weekly '' Nacional'' listed her among the 100 most influential Croats, calling her "the only ''bo ...
, a pop singer.
Babić's website was sued by Vučković for
copyright infringement
Copyright infringement (at times referred to as piracy) is the use of works protected by copyright without permission for a usage where such permission is required, thereby infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, s ...
and breach of privacy. In 2004 part of the lawsuit about intellectual property was dismissed by the court, but was approved violation of privacy with a compensation of 100,000
kuna.
On account of the
Index.hr
Index.hr is a Croatian tabloid online newspaper, launched in December 2002 and based in Zagreb. It was founded by Matija Babić and was originally designed as a news aggregation website, providing news content from Croatia, Serbia and Bosnia ...
website's success, the South Austrian-based publisher
Styria Medien AG (who owned ''
Večernji list
''Večernji list'' (also known as ''Večernjak''; ) is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Zagreb.
History and profile
''Večernji list'' was started in Zagreb in 1959. Its ancestor ''Večernji vjesnik'' ("Evening Courier") appeared for the ...
'', one of the most widely circulated daily newspapers in the country) had hired Babić as editor-in-chief of ''
24sata'', a new tabloid newspaper which was intended to target "young, urban and modern" readers.
Babić left Index.hr and joined ''24sata'' which was launched in March 2005 and soon established itself as Croatia's third daily newspaper in terms of circulation, behind ''
Jutarnji list'' and ''Večernji list''. However, it was also criticized for sensationalism and poor quality of writing, and Babić was sacked only four months later in July 2005, following an issue which featured a cover page with then Prime Minister
Ivo Sanader
Ivo Sanader (born 8 June 1953) is a former Croatian politician who served as Prime Minister of Croatia from 2003 to 2009.
He is to date the second longest-serving prime minister since independence, holding the office for over five and a half ye ...
and the headline "Everybody Hates Sanader".
Babić then returned to Index.hr and continued to run the website for a while, holding the title of "author and editor of the project".
He has since left, and is no longer performing any functions at Index.hr. According to his colleague and former employee, Ilko Ćimić, Babić has moved from Croatia and resides in Bulgaria.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Babic, Matija
1978 births
Croatian Internet celebrities
Journalists from Zagreb
Living people
Online journalists
Businesspeople from Zagreb