While I in Zagreb, the first thing I do every morning is walk to a newspaper stand in the main city square. This is where I buy the last issue of Glas Istre (The Voice of Istria), which I go through over my morning coffee. By the time I reach the stand, there are three or four copies of the newspaper left. I assume about a dozen copies are sold there each day. Although there must be a few other outlets where it can be found, there cannot be but three or four such places in the Croatian capital. All told, no more than about fifty copies are sold every day.  Now, this is an atrocious newspaper. By and large, it is a collage of banal and/or corny pieces of news from so many little towns strewn around the peninsula. In general, the quality of journalism is abysmal. The newspaper is not guided by any editorial policy, with the possible exception of general support for the governor of Istria, who has been in power for nearly twenty years already. And yet, I buy it every single morning, for it is the only voice of Istria available in Zagreb. That much I am happy to grant it, anyhow.

Addendum (June 10, 2009)

This piece needs correcting. And fast. Ever since the local elections, the first thing I do every morning has nothing to do with local newspapers, Istrian or otherwise. As a matter of fact, I do not read any Croatian newspapers any longer. And no prize for guessing what I think about the results of local elections a few weeks ago, not to mention the electorate.