Galery

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Is there something you wanted to accomplish, but you failed?

Yes, there are two things which at the beginning we thought we could achieve in parallel, but they didn’t happen. One was to make the radio station Voice FM. Another thing I imagined, but did not happen was for the example to multiply in other cities. I imagined that with our assistance will appear Voice in Thessaloniki, Larissa, Patras. Even Voice of Sofia! The strange thing was that even some people came from Bulgaria. We had a contact in Thessaloniki with the publishers of Soul magazine. But it is difficult to do these things. You should see them as something more than media more than print. This industry is currently struggling with a decline all over the world. Issuing is not good entrepreneurial decision.

Here work people who are more than journalists, they are in direct contact with life in Athens. At times it seems Athens Voice knows more things than the others...

I don’t know if we know something more. Maybe the fact that we are independent allows us to say much more. It is very different to work in a big media group that has connection with banks and construction companies for example, than in a newspaper that was founded by journalists and it belongs to journalists. This gives you a freedom and independence to say things without being interested in what the other people would think. That’s why it may seem as if we know a lot and say a lot. If we know more, it is only because of what I said earlier. That we go and see things. Very often we create events. The difference is at every level. It is one thing to be in a building in Exarchia like us, and it’s a different thing to be in a glass building in Kifisias where downstairs the boss also has other activities. This is an independent newspaper, free press. One of the five, six largest. We counted the number of readings with Focus Bari and it appeared that it is quite high. We have 340 thousand readers. We also made a web site which has 300-400 thousand visits. We entered the social media, since the summer we have facebook and you can see how the number of our friends increases every week. People love our newspaper. They consider it to be their best. It’s not like the others, which are based on large media groups. In Greece, the intervention of politics in the media is to a very big extent. Big TV media have lost their value. They consider themselves as part of the upper power. While people to this consider Athens Voice to be "their" newspaper. I see this in the way they come to us. They come into our office asking why you wrote I don’t know what... People constantly write me letters.

What are the main challenges that the media and the Athens Voice are struggling with now, in times of crisis?

Athens Voice incomes are from advertising. Advertising, however, faded in Greece. The economic crisis is very severe. The decline, which we are witnessing is very bih. Here we have an additional problem, except for the general crisis in newspapers around the world due to the introduction of electronic media. In Greece, the media are subsidized by the state. They are associated with government management, live on state advertising. And now we have an economic crisis and government spending are constantly cut, the printing industry is struggling with enormous problems. But we have no such problems, because although we are a big newspaper, we have never taken state advertising, as indeed we should. We fight however with the decline in advertising. It is very difficult. But I will endure... if the entire Greece does not go bankrupt.

What do Athenians prefer to read the in times of crisis?

Tips, advice, help on where what they can find a cheaper place to go without spending too much money. This is with regard to the information block. They are interested in where there are events and what kind. Sometimes we give out gifts like tickets for premieres, parties, concerts. We are trying to find sponsors so that the various cultural events to have free entrance. People are interested in this. On the other hand, aside from the information block, they are also interested in how we interpret events. We show them a position in which we say things as they are. Without someone from above telling us what our direction should be. And also say the unpleasant things. Athens Voice is perhaps the only newspaper which does not flatter the general opinion. It does not say what everyone wants to hear. And everyone wants to hear certain things. Lakis Lazopoulos for example said on television: "Our poor people, how much they suffer, what they did to you" etc. He uses clichés as a whole. Here we have many of those. This is our national ideology. Right or left, they all say the same things. Nevertheless, we do not say things that people want to hear. On the contrary. We constantly say: "Do not sympathize us!" We always tell them the bitter truths, and their love for us does not change. They seek the truth. They want them.

Nearest plans for the newspaper?