NIN (magazine)

NIN (НИН) is a weekly news magazine published in Belgrade, Serbia. Its name is an acronym for Nedeljne informativne novine (Недељне информативне новине) which roughly translates into Weekly Informational Newspaper.

Though a current events magazine in its essence, NIN also earned an esteemed reputation due to a long tradition of opening its pages to the best and the brightest within Serbian, and previously Yugoslav society, whether in arts, sciences, or even sports. This reputation has recently somewhat been tarnished as the magazine was forced into commercial competition with numerous political periodicals that sprung up in Serbia after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.

, the magazine had 35 employees.

In July 2008, the magazine celebrated the release of its, 3000th issue. On March 13, 2009, it was announced that a majority stake in the magazine was bought by Swiss media company Ringier AG. NIN was sold to Jelena Drakulić Petrović in August 2023.

NIN used to be highly critical of Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić's populist regime and considered one of few independent media outlets. This all changed when Drakulić Petrović took over the ownership. As a result of the pressure by the owner towards the editors and journalists to become pro-regime oriented, complete editors office with most of the journalists left NIN and founded a new weekly Radar.

History
NIN was originally started in 1935. During the late 1980s Slobodan Milošević and his followers converted major publications, including NIN, into media outlets of Serbian nationalism.

2009 sale
In 2007 NIN was preparing for privatization. At that time the magazine's ownership structure was: 87% publicly owned (društveni kapital), 10% owned by Politika AD, and 3% owned by the employees. A 60.9% stake (70% of the public stake) in the magazine was to be auctioned off on September 29, 2007 with starting price set at RSD13.2 million (~ €170,000). However, the auction as the method of privatization for the magazine was scrapped by the Serbian Privatization Agency due to employee demands and a new tender was set for sometime during spring 2008.

The tender was actually opened on October 30, 2008, and it closed on December 19, 2008. On December 25, 2008, it was reported that companies Ringier AG and Novosti AD submitted competing offers for 61.48% stake in NIN (70% of the magazine's public stake, which is in turn 87% of the total stake).

In mid-March 2009, it was announced that Ringier AG bought the majority stake in NIN for RSD57.455 million (~ €810,000). Soon afterward the magazine's headquarters moved from Cetinjska Street to Kraljice Marije Street at the same location where Blic daily (Ringier's other major asset in Serbia) has its headquarters. Sometime in April 2009, longtime editor-in-chief Slobodan Reljić was let go and replaced with Srđan Radulović, up to that point an editor at Blic daily. The change was done quietly without any press releases.

In September 2009, an open letter written by the magazine's longtime journalists to Ringier AG chairman Michael Ringier surfaced, in which they are criticizing some of the moves and changes since Ringier took over.

In January 2024, following a change in ownership, the entire editorial staff of the magazine have left the magazine. The editorial staff created a new magazine, Radar (news magazine).

The NIN Literary Award
In January every year, NIN's special jury vote on what they feel was the best novel released during the previous year and award it with Ninova nagrada (Нинова награда, the NIN Prize), which has over the years become one of the highest honors for contemporary Serbian authors. The award is also very relevant commercially, as its recipients usually go on to become bestsellers.

Editors
The list of individuals who performed editor-in-chief duties at NIN.
 * Milan Ćulibrk    May 2013 – Present
 * Nebojša Spaić    October 2010 – May 2013
 * Veselin Simonović (acting editor-in-chief) April 2010 – September 2010
 * Srđan Radulović  August 2009 – March 2010
 * Slobodan Reljić  October 2002 – July 2009
 * Stevan Nikšić    August 1998 – September 2002
 * Milivoje Glišić  March 1998 – August 1998
 * Dušan Veličković March 1994 – February 1997
 * Milo Gligorijević
 * Velizar Zečević
 * Teodor Anđelić
 * Mirko Đekić
 * Slava Đukić
 * Dušan Simić
 * Dragan Marković
 * Dragokjub Milivojević Uča
 * Frano Babieri
 * Đorđe Radenković
 * Stevan Majstorović
 * Najdan Pašić
 * Veselin Masleša