Új Szó

Infobox Newspaper
name = "Új Szó"


caption = August 9, 2008 cover page
type = Daily newspaper
format = print & online
foundation = December 1, 1948
ceased publication =
price =
owners = Vox Nova p.l.c. (Petit Press)
publisher = Petit Press
editor =
chiefeditor = Norbert Molnár
assoceditor =
maneditor =
staff =
language = Hungarian
political = somewhat liberalism
circulation = ~43,000
headquarters = Bratislava, Slovakia
sister newspapers = SME, The Slovak Spectator, Korzár and various regional My noviny newspapers [ [http://www.petitpress.sk Petit Press.sk] ]
oclc =
ISSN =
website = http://www.ujszo.com

Új Szó ( _en. New Word) is a Hungarian language only daily newspaper published in Bratislava, Slovakia. It also publishes a weekly Sunday supplement titled Vasárnap ( _en. Sunday, before 1990: "Vasárnapi Új Szó").

History

The Új Szó was established by a party order on December 1, 1948. It originally started as a weekly magazine of the Hungarian branch of the Communist Party of Slovakia (KSS) first printed in December 15, 1948, but quickly transformed into a daily newspaper which was first printed on May 1, 1949.

The banner of the newspaper was Workers of the world, unite! at first, than after a governmental order, from May 21, 1951 was changed into "daily newspaper of the Communist Party of Slovakia". The newspaper slowly melts from the hardline communist doctrine to the point where, during the Prague Spring in 1968, denies cooperation with the ruling party. Later its control transfers from the media section of the party to directly to its central committee.

Új Szó was a frontrunner of the defending of the minority rights of the Hungarians in Slovakia as much as it could in different times. Being the newspaper of the communist party's central committee, always had some impact on the government's minority policies, but only after 1968 started acting as a "real" defender of minority rights and became the target of Slovak nationalists. Later in that year, on October 7, 1968 the newspaper launched a somewhat independent weekly weekend magazine under the name "Vasárnapi Új Szó".

During the night of March 8-9, 1987 the headquarters of Új Szó, Csemadok and some other Hungarian organizations' based in Bratislava were attacked and damaged, but no one was injured.

On January 14, 1988 the then chief editor József Kiss was elected into the Central Committee of the Communist Party, as such being the first ethnic Hungarian in that position. On December 18, 1989 Új Szó rehabilitated all of those associates whom were fired or excluded on political reasons.

On January 2, 1990 the banner changes into "Czechoslovakian Hungarian leftist newspaper" and on the next day, its publisher changes from the KSS to the Pravda Publishing Company. (Pravda means truth in Slovak) Three days later the weekly weekend magazine of Új Szó shortened its name from "Vasárnapi Új Szó" to "Vasárnap". Later in that year the paper switches to Apollopress Publishing, then to Slovakopress, then to Vox Nova plc (which is established by the then editorial guard of the newspaper) and again changes its banner to "independent newspaper". Its editors quickly joined the newly established Czechoslovakian Journalists Syndicate's Hungarian subsidiary. The banner has changed twice since, first in 1994 to "Slovakian Hungarian daily newspaper" ("szlovákiai magyar napilap") and in July 2008, when it left all subtitles.

51% of the publishing company "Vox Nova" was sold to Socpresse in 1992 to gain financial stability for Új Szó. However Socpresse soon got into financial trouble on its own, and had to sell the (otherwise profitable) paper to "Rheinische Allgemeine Verlag und Druckerei" (publisher of Lidové noviny, Rheinische Post and various other newspapers) in 1996. They soon grow their ownership to 90% in Vox Nova, when, in 1999 sold it to "Passauer Verlagsgruppe", which fused with Grande Presse in 2001 to form the current (as of June 2008) publishing company, Petit Press, and thus Új Szó became "sisters" with various regional and nationwide Slovak newspapers, most notably with SME and The Slovak Spectator.

"Vasárnap" being the weekend subsidiary of Új Szó had followed the same way until 2001, when the two became fully separated. (Until 2001 both newspapers had the same chief editor)

Meanwhile the online version of the newspaper had launched too, first at "ujszo.sk", which is now redirecting to the current website, "ujszo.com". Both the online and print version of the newspaper underwent a design refreshing in July 2008, and the banner of the online edition was replaced by the newspaper's which was also somewhat redesigned.

Sources

External links

* [http://epa.oszk.hu/html/vgi/boritolapuj.phtml?id=01252 Archive of Új Szó online] (2001-2007), epa.oszk.hu (Elektronikus Periodika Archívum) (Hungarian)
* [http://www.foruminst.sk/index.php?p=kronologia&t=a&xp=&w=&MId=&Lev=&Ind=8&P=konf,hu#top Chronology of the Hungarians in Slovakia] (Hungarian) ( [http://www.foruminst.sk/index.php?P=index,en, English version] )
* [http://www.aber.ac.uk/cgi-bin/user/merwww/index.pl?rm=lang_detail;id=127;lang=1 Mercator Institute] research on Hungarian language in Slovakia