Print Market

During Albania’s half-a-century long communist regime, from 1945 to 1991, the press was tightly controlled by the ruling party and its affiliated trade unions. In this period 8 national and 27 regional newspapers were published. The main publications were the daily newspapers ‘Zeri i Popullit,’ [Voice of the People] and ‘Bashkimi’ [Unity], which were published six days a week. ‘Zeri i Popullit’ was the official publication of the Albania Labor Party and ‘Bashkimi’ the official publication of the Trade Unions of Albania.  Most of these publications went down with the collapse of the communist regime in 1991, when restrictions on freedom of expression were lifted and the power structures that supported them collapsed.  The first newspapers to be established after the pluralistic system of government was installed, was ‘Rilindja Demokratike [Democratic Revival],’ with the first issue hitting the stand on January 5th 1991, as the official newspaper of the then newly-created opposition Democratic Party. The first independent newspaper ‘Koha Jone’ [Our Times] was soon to follow on May 11th 1991, founded by a journalist, Nikolle Lesi.

The number of print media in the country reached a peak in the mid-2000s, when various reports put the number of print outlets at more than 200. Since then, due to the wave of digitalization in news consumption there has been a decline in both the number of publications and readership.  The outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, was almost a decapitating blow for the print market in Albania and many outlets were closed. Currently in the market there are eight daily newspapers, including a sports newspaper, a weekly business magazine and a number of monthly magazines.  There are no official data on press circulation and readership but according to some reports the country’s best selling newspapers do not have a circulation greater than 5000 copies per day, while most newspapers sell less than 1000 copies. There are several press distribution agencies, but two are the main ones. One of them belongs to the state-owned postal company, while the other to Focus Group, publisher of the daily newspapers Panorama, Panorama Sport and Gazeta Shqiptare.     

According to a media consumption survey published by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network in July 2023, print media was used as a source of information every day or almost every day by 4% of the population and at least once a week by another 7%.  There are no public data on the readership of newspapers in Albania. The sample of newspapers selected as part of this study includes all seven daily newspapers that publish news and the weekly business magazine Monitor.