''Sõnumileht'' was an

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

n tabloid

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, 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 poli ...

between 1995 and 2000. The newspaper was published in

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

, and it was one of the country's most popular tabloid-style productions. It was first published in 1995. At first it was a quality newspaper. In 1998, after the Norwegian media group

Schibsted Schibsted ASA is an international media group. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The ...

purchased a stake, it moved to being a tabloid. In 1999, ''Sõnumileht'' had a daily circulation of around 30,000, making it Estonia's sixth-largest circulation at the time. Sõnumileht maintained a serious press imago until 1998 while being run by editor-in-chief Mark Luik. Under the pressure of new owners, it turned to yellow media in October 1998 with a successful launch campaign. Around the same time Mart Luik resigned, the new editor-in-chief was the 25-year-old sports journalist Urmo Soonvald. It was in competition with Estonia's other tabloid newspaper '' Õhtuleht'' and in the summer of 1999 this led to a price war between the two newspapers. One result of this was that tabloid newspapers became very popular with Estonians and the circulation of both newspapers increased. On 3 July 2000, the two rival newspapers merged to form '' SL Õhtuleht''.

External links

Eesti Meedia
(parent company website) 1995 establishments in Estonia 2000 disestablishments in Estonia Defunct newspapers published in Estonia Estonian-language newspapers Mass media in Tallinn Newspapers established in 1995 Publications disestablished in 2000 {{Estonia-newspaper-stub