Novi Sad Daily Dnevnik Says Its Survival Is in Doubt After Accounts Blocked
The 84-year-old paper's accounts have been frozen since 2 November over a tax debt of about 31m dinars, delaying salaries for its 94 staff.
The management of Dnevnik Vojvodina Pres, publisher of the Novi Sad daily Dnevnik, said on Thursday, 5 November, that the paper faces the hardest challenge in its 84-year history after its bank accounts were blocked on Monday over a debt to the Tax Administration. The blockade has delayed payment of the second half of September salaries, the company said in a statement carried by Beta and Tanjug.
How big is the debt
According to the Novi Sad portal Moj Novi Sad, the accounts were frozen on 2 November over about 31 million dinars (roughly 265,000 euros) owed in taxes, and staff had also not received pay due on 25 October. The company formally employs 94 people. Management said the workforce is larger than the company's income can realistically support, and that it is still repaying debts from earlier periods on top of current costs.
An appeal for help
Management said it had prioritised employees since taking over the company four years ago, and pointed to a redesigned website, which it says reaches more than half a million unique users and ranks among Serbia's 30 most visited portals on the Gemius list. It appealed to institutions, companies and businesspeople for support, and asked media associations and fellow journalists to back the paper's fight to survive. The statement did not set out a plan for repaying the tax debt.
A long history of trouble
Dnevnik, founded in 1942, describes itself as the only Serbian-language Cyrillic daily in Vojvodina and the second-oldest newspaper in Serbia; it marks its anniversary on 15 November. Moj Novi Sad reports that the majority stake was sold in 2018 to Novosadska TV for 600 euros, that the accounts were briefly blocked in April 2025 and September 2026, and that the paper has received more than 46 million dinars from public media co-financing calls over the years.
The crisis comes as Serbia's media landscape is under scrutiny: the European Commission's report this week again called for transparency of media ownership and of state co-financing of media content.
Sources
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