Vakarų ekspresas (), published in

Klaipėda Klaipėda ( ; ) is a city in Lithuania on the Baltic Sea coast. It is the List of cities in Lithuania, third-largest city in Lithuania, the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, fifth-largest city in the Baltic States, and the capi ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

is the largest regional newspaper of

Lithuania Minor Lithuania Minor (; ; ) or Prussian Lithuania (; ; ) is one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. It is a historical region of Prussia, where Prussian Lithuanians (or Lietuvininkai) lived, now located in Lithuania and the Kaliningrad Obla ...

and

Samogitia Samogitia, often known by its Lithuanian language, Lithuanian name ''Žemaitija'' (Samogitian language, Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see Samogitia#Etymology and alternative names, below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five ...

. The circulation is approximately 10,000 copies, with a primary focus on events within Western Lithuania. ''Vakarų ekspresas'' is published daily, except for Sundays. Its supplements include ''Eteris'' (TV guide), ''Autosalonas'' (automobiles), ''Sveikata'' (health), ''Litas prie lito'' (financial), ''Jūros vartai'' (regional news), ''Kultūros uostas'' (culture) and ''Šeštadienis'' (Saturday edition). The newspaper is distributed in

Gargždai Gargždai () is a city in western Lithuania located in Klaipėda County. The Minija River flows through the city.John S. Jaffer ShtetLinks: Gargzdai (Gorzd), LithuaniaJewishGen, Inc., the Home of Jewish Genealogy. Accessed June 18, 2011. The Garg ...

, Skuodas,

Mažeikiai Mažeikiai (; Samogitian: ''Mažeikē''; ; ) is a city in northwestern Lithuania, on the Venta River. It has a population of around 32,000, making it the eighth largest city in Lithuania and eighteenth largest city in the Baltic States. Th ...

Palanga Palanga (; ; ) is a resort town, resort city in western Lithuania, on the shore of the Baltic Sea. Palanga is the busiest and the largest summer resort in Lithuania and has sand, sandy beaches (18 km, 11 miles long and up to 300 metres, 10 ...

Kretinga Kretinga (Yiddish: קרעטינגע) is a List of cities in Lithuania, city in Klaipėda County, in north-western Lithuania. It is the capital of the Kretinga District Municipality. It is located east of the popular Baltic Sea resort town of Pala ...

Plungė Plungė (; Samogitian: ''Plongė''; ) is a city in Lithuania with 17,252 inhabitants. Plunge is the capital of the Plungė District Municipality which has 33,251 inhabitants (2022). Two parts of the city are separated by the Babrungas River and ...

Telšiai Telšiai (; Samogitian language, Samogitian: ''Telšē'') is a city in Lithuania with about 21,499 inhabitants. It is the capital of Telšiai County and Samogitia region, and it is located on the shores of Lake Mastis. Telšiai is one of the ol ...

and

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

History

The origins of the newspaper date back to 7th July 1988, when a group of young journalists and technicians, who were employed by the then Communist Party-owned newspaper "''Tarybinė Klaipėda''" (), published an independent publication entitled "''Persitvarkymo naujienos''" () in the aftermath of the first meeting of the

Sąjūdis The Sąjūdis (, ), initially known as the Reform Movement of Lithuania (), is a political organisation which led the struggle for Lithuanian independence in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was established on 3 June 1988 as the first oppositi ...

activists. The initial circulation of the publication was 30 copies, and from the second issue onwards, it was renamed "''Mažoji Lietuva''" (). During this period, the editorial offices were situated in two cities, Klaipėda and Vilnius, reflecting the ambition to establish a publication that would embody qualities of youthfulness,

liberalism Liberalism is a Political philosophy, political and moral philosophy based on the Individual rights, rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property, and equality before the law. ...

and courage. The newspaper's character was defined by its role as a national political weekly, and its circulation between 1989 and 1991 ranged from 30,000 to 50,000 copies. For a period of eighteen months, ''Mažoji Lietuva'' enjoyed the distinction of being the most widely read newspaper in Lithuania. After this period, the publication underwent a rebranding, resulting in the launch of ''Vakarų ekspresas'' on 15 September 1990. The primary objective of this transition was to offer an alternative to ''Tarybinė Klaipėda''. From January 1992, the publication was published three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. In 1993, the weekly edition of ''Mažoji Lietuva'' was discontinued and ''Vakarų ekspresas'' became a daily newspaper. In 1999, the newspaper's official website, www.ve.lt, was launched.

Prominent journalists

* Ramunė Visockytė * Vytautas Čepas * Gintaras Vaičekauskas

References

External links

Official website
Newspapers established in 1990 Lithuanian-language newspapers Daily newspapers published in Lithuania 1990 establishments in Lithuania Newspapers published in Klaipėda {{Lithuania-newspaper-stub