Pandemic leaves Kosovo without printed daily newspapers

Pandemic leaves Kosovo without printed daily newspapers

SeattlePI.com

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PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Ibrahim Gashi sold daily newspapers in downtown Pristina for 35 years, until they didn't come anymore.

Azem Qerkini, an accountant and newspaper collector, misses the time when he went to Skopje, the capital of neighboring North Macedonia, in search of a copy he needed.

Imer Mushkolaj, a journalist, dreams of once more drinking his morning coffee while flipping through the daily papers.

Until March last year Kosovo had five daily newspapers, though they all had small circulations. One of them, Koha, sold about 10,000 copies a day at times when the news was most interesting.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been no more newspapers physically printed in Kosovo, only online versions. The pandemic was "the final straw, unfortunately turning Kosovo into the only country in Europe, maybe wider, without a daily paper,” said Mushkolaj.

Agron Bajrami, editor-in-chief of Koha Ditore, would like to get back to printing. “Many, probably more older-generation people still would like to read the newspaper physically, to touch it as a paper,” he says. "But at this moment, it’s not possible economically.”

Online newspapers are a different business model, however, that has tested Koha Ditore. The newspaper is facing an uphill struggle trying “to educate the people that they need to contribute by paying for the news that they get," Bajrami says.

It was the lockdown that brought an end to printing. For months, people were stuck at home, unable to go into the streets in search of news, and advertising accordingly reduced. People turned to smartphones and TVs.

Newspapers had to focus on training journalists for the online media.

“The technology has made many newspapers, formerly traditional newspapers, try to behave as if they were broadcasting live,”...

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