Total Croatia News is 6 months old, a small milestone celebrated with some rather fine wine at Paradox Wine and Cheese Bar in Split last night.
Total Croatia News, a website which publishes news about Croatia in English, has celebrated its first six months with a press party at Paradox Wine and Cheese Bar in Split, reports Index.hr on January 9, 2016. The project is the idea of Paul Bradbury, an Englishman who lives in Jelsa on the island of Hvar and writes about Croatia.
Danni Matijaca is a member of Paul’s team, which brings together 28 contributors from around the world. “In six months, we have entered the ranks of the 300 most-popular websites in Croatia. We have readers from 210 countries, but we still have not been able to break into North Korea. There are four of us writing daily. We come from all over Croatia, we have no newsroom but work through e-mails, Skype, WhatsApp… Every day, we produce about fifteen articles, 60 percent of which are translated stories from Croatian media and 40 percent is original content”, says Matijaca.
Total Croatia News is not the first website about Croatia in English, but is the first which deals with serious topics. “There are a few websites in English, but they are more travel oriented and cover lighter topics. We are the first to cover more substantial topics as well. We are mostly focused on the economy and tourism, since these two areas are interesting for people who live abroad and want to know something about Croatia. We are trying to be positive as much as possible, since there are good stories in Croatia waiting to be told”, says Matijaca.
To be the first with the news from Croatia in English does have its advantages. “We covered the elections minute by minute. We even had one of the most accurate analyses before the elections. Media from the BBC to the Independent and the New York Times followed what we were publishing, even linking to our articles since we were an extremely fast and reliable source of information. When Huffington Post and The Sun published an apology in connection with a fictional story about uncontrolled passage of The Sun’s reporter through the borders on the refugee route, they reported that Total Croatia News published the evidence shown by Interior Minister Ranko Ostojić, even though we clearly said in our story that Index was the source of information. But, since we were the only ones publishing in English, we ended up as a source which forced the journalist to take back his story and to close his Facebook profile because he started receiving an avalanche of negative comments”, explains Matijaca.
“I got a very good piece of advice at the beginning of my online writing career from a blogger from America,” says Bradbury. I asked her what was the best way to write a blog? She told me: ‘It is very simple, just five words: Give People What They Want.’ And that is what we have been doing with the Total project for the last four years. We have Total Split, Hvar, Inland Dalmatia, Munich. Seven months ago, I realized that there was no daily news service about Croatia in English, which was a bit strange considering that Croatia has been a member of the EU for two and a half years. I saw an opportunity to attract readership from diaspora, foreigners interested in Croatian tourism, but also, as was the case with Total Hvar, a lot of local people who appreciate a different approach to what is going on in Croatia. For the blog on Total Hvar I have received a lot of e-mails from people who say they do not speak English, but put our stories in Google Translate in order to find out what is going on.”.
It is interesting how he sees his new project. “Maybe this is not the best word politically at this moment, but we want to be a ‘bridge’ between what is happening in Croatia and the international community. Our goal was to translate articles from the Croatian media, as well as publish original stories, to see where it would take us. My impression about the Croatian media is that there is not enough independent opinion. We encourage people to write about their Croatian communities, whether in Osijek or California, and now we have 28 colleagues from around the world.
“We have also found excellent experts who write for us, true experts in their field, which has helped give us more credibility in the early months. These include Jo Ahearne, the only Master of Wine making wine in Croatia; Cliff Rames in New York with his pioneering Wines of Croatia project; our host tonight Zoran Pejovic from Paradox hospitality, who is among the most innovative and respected restaurateurs in Croatia; Emmy-award winning Ashley Colburn who has done wonders promoting Croatia internationally; Andrew MacDowall, a freelancer journalist for the FT, Guardian and Independent among others; Sarah-Jane Begonja from Chasing the Donkey, one of Croatia’s leading bloggers; the phenomenal work of translator Vedran Pavlic; and a special mention to Croatia’s finest photographers and timelapse masters, Romulic and Stojcic, for allowing us to use their entire photo archive. The contributions of all 28 have been valuable and gratefully received, and we are always eager to accept new contributors.
“We even had a few exclusives, such as the visit by Demi Moore to Croatia, a story about the Christmas star which caused a stir in Jelsa. The best example of our positive approach is a story about Zagreb. The article was published in the Best European Destinations. There were 50 cities nominated for the best Christmas destination in Europe, so not really a special story. But Danni wrote a story that Zagreb was nominated, and nothing much happened for two days, but things started moving after PR expert Krešimir Macan shared a story on his Facebook profile. The rollercoaster effect was so strong that Zagreb was eventually voted the best Christmas destination in Europe. This is an example of how we can truly be a bridge.
“Another good example is the story about The Sun reporter who allegedly travelled through the refugee route without showing his passport. We translated an article by Index with the evidence offered by Minister Ostojić and that was the first story in English which disproved The Sun. I put a link to our story on The Sun’s comments page, and our website soon crashed due to the ensuing traffic. Five hours after I wrote an opinion piece on the topic, it was quoted in the Huffington Post with a link to our site. We are not opinion makers, but we can be a good bridge. We want to be positive, which is quite difficult at the moment in Croatia”, says Bradbury.
“An important part of our global reach is status as a Google News partner, which means that our articles are indexed immediately by Google and available in their news section, as well as appearing in Google Alerts. As few people write news in English about Croatia apart from the very top stories, this has been an important window for us to celebrate Croatian business success and young Croatian entrepreneurs and innovators. When Tim Oreskovic was named Prime Minister-designate, Danni immediately did a detailed profile on him. Her article was number one on Google for five days for Mr. Oreskovic’s name.
“It has been an exciting six months, and the next six look equally challenging. My thanks to all the TCN team, from Moscow to California, as well as our readers for their fantastic early support, and not forgetting my wife Miranda and two girls for their considerable support.”
