is an

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

n daily newspaper established on 5 June 1857, by

Johann Voldemar Jannsen Johann Voldemar Jannsen ( – ) was an Estonian journalist. He was one of the earliest figures of the Estonian national awakening, which he promoted through his newspaper, the ''Eesti Postimees'', and two Estonian Song Festivals. He wrote the nat ...

. In 1891, it became the first daily newspaper in

. Its current editor-in-chief is Priit Hõbemägi. The paper has approximately 250 employees. ''Postimees'' is currently published five days a week and has the largest circulation and readership in Estonia with 55,000 copies sold during the workweek and over 72,000 on weekends. Ninety-seven per cent of the paper's circulation is subscription-based with only three per cent sold individually. The weekend edition of ''Postimees'', published on Saturdays, includes several separate sections: ''AK'' (), ''Arter'', and a television-guide. The paper is owned by namesake media company

Postimees Group List of legal entity types by country#Estonia, AS Postimees Grupp (also known in English as Postimees Group), formerly known as AS Postimees and AS Eesti Meedia, is an Estonian media holding company headquartered in Tallinn. The company is curre ...

(formerly known as Eesti Meedia), which a company owned by entrepreneur

Margus Linnamäe Margus may refer to: * Margus (name), Estonian given name * Margus (city), a former Roman city at the locality of modern Požarevac, Serbia * Margus River, the Roman name of Great Morava; see Battle of the Margus A battle is an occurrence of ...

has a full control since 2015.

History

''Postimees'' is considered to be the oldest newspaper in Estonia. ''Perno Postimees ehk Näddalaleht'' (now ''

Pärnu Postimees ''Pärnu Postimees'' ('The Pärnu Postman', originally ''Perno Postimees ehk Näddalileht'' 'The Pärnu Postman or Weekly Newspaper') is an Estonian regional newspaper published in Pärnu County. First published on 5 June 1857, it is one of the o ...

''), a forerunner to the national ''Postimees'' newspaper, was first established as a regional newspaper in

Pärnu Pärnu () is the fourth-largest city in Estonia. Situated in southwest Estonia, Pärnu is located south of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and west of Estonia's second-largest city, Tartu. The city sits off the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of ...

on 5 June 1857 by

Karl August Hermann Karl August Hermann (23 September 1851 – 11 January 1909) was an Estonian writer, publicist, linguist and composer. Biography Hermann was born in Võhmanõmme, Põltsamaa Parish, Kreis Fellin in 1851. He studied at the Faculty of Theology of ...

bought the paper in 1886 and began publishing ''Postimees'' in

Tartu Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 97,759 (as of 2024). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres (152 miles) northeast of Riga, Latvia. Tartu lies on the Emajõgi river, which connects the ...

. In 1891 ''Postimees'' became Estonia's first daily newspaper. In 1896 the newspaper was bought by Tartu's intellectuals. It was edited by

Jaan Tõnisson Jaan Tõnisson ( – 1941?) was an Estonian statesman, serving as the Prime Minister of Estonia twice during 1919 to 1920, as State Elder (head of state and government) from 1927 to 1928 and in 1933, and as Foreign Minister of Estonia from 19 ...

who brought together many talented cultural figures such as

August Kitzberg August Kitzberg ( in Laatre Parish, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire – 10 October 1927 in Tartu) was an Estonian writer. Life Until 1863, August Kitzberg was known as August Kits. He grew up in Niitsaadu farmstead in Penuja village, A ...

, Anna Haava and Karl August Hindrey. Tõnisson became a long-time editor of the newspaper in the independent Republic of Estonia. ''Postimees'' has played an important role in Estonians' educational and cultural development. In 1948, during

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

occupation, the paper was renamed to ''

Edasi ''Edasi'' () was a newspaper published in Tartu, Estonia. The paper was published with this name between 1948 and 1990. History and profile The paper was the successor of ''Postimees'' of which the name was changed to ''Edasi'' on 1 May 1948 to ...

'' (). The paper returned to its original name in 1991. In 1995, ''Postimees'' launched its website, which started as an online version of the print edition. In 2000, the website was revamped and it began publishing online news on a daily basis. It has become one of the most frequently visited news portals in Estonia. During the 2007 ''

Bronze Soldier of Tallinn The Bronze Soldier (, ) is the informal name of a controversial Soviet World War II war memorial in Tallinn, Estonia, built at the site of several war graves, which were relocated to the nearby Tallinn Military Cemetery in 2007. It was originall ...

'' controversy, the ''Postimees'' website sustained damage in a

cyberattack A cyberattack (or cyber attack) occurs when there is an unauthorized action against computer infrastructure that compromises the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of its content. The rising dependence on increasingly complex and inte ...

reportedly originating from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

and, as a result of it, the website became inaccessible from outside Estonia for several days. In September 2013,

Schibsted Schibsted ASA is an international media group. The company has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The ...

has agreed to sell the paper's parent company Eesti Meedia which it has owned from 1998, exiting the Baltic market. A group of management headed by Mart Kadastik formed a company which purchased the 50% of Eesti Meedia; the other 50% was bought by a company owned by entrepreneur Margus Linnamäe. In August 2015, it was announced that Linnamäe's company would acquire Eesti Meedia in full. Kadastik would resign as the chair of the supervisory board of Eesti Meedia, and Linnamäe would take over the position. Toomas Issak left the management boards of both Eesti Meedia and ''Postimees''. Janeck Uibo, who has previously served as marketing director of ''Postimees'', would lead the paper. In March 2017, ''Postimees'' journalists accused daily's owner of meddling with the editorial policy of the news outlet. "To our knowledge, for the first time in the history of ''Postimees'', we are told about what o writeand how we should write. It is prescribed to us whom to cover and with what degree of criticism," said the department heads of the daily in a memo sent to the publication's owner Margus Linnamäe and its general manager Sven Nuutmann, denouncing an unprecedented pressure on their professional freedom.

Circulation

In the second quarter of 2013, the print edition of ''Postimees'' had 211,000 readers. Its average circulation in May 2013 was 54,000. The Russian version has an average daily circulation of 39,000. ''Tartu Postimees'' has 57,000 readers daily, and its average circulation is 18,700. ''Postimees'', whether via paper or web, reaches 613,000 readers in a month. 68,000 people follow ''Postimees'' by mobile according to a study conducted in March 2013.

Editions

''Postimees'' also owns print editions like ''Arter'', ''Postimees Extra'', ''Tartu Postimees'', and ''Den za Dnjom'' in addition to managing several well known online news brands, like Postimees.ee, tartu.postimees.ee, sport.Postimees.ee, Elu24.ee, Naine24.ee, Ilmajaam.ee, Tarbija24.ee, dzd.ee, limon.ee, tallinncity.ee, as well as postimees.ru. ''Postimees'' also has 34 special editions in Estonian and 12 in Russian. In March 2022, it also opened a Ukrainian-language news portal.Postimees avas ukrainakeelse uudisteportaali
Postimees, 8 March 2022. Since 2005, Russian-language version of the Postimees (Postimees na Russkom Yazyke) is published.

References

External links

*{{official website, postimees.ee
Postimees news in EnglishPostimees 1926 and 1930s
in Estonian Newspapers established in 1857 Newspapers published in Estonia Estonian-language newspapers Estonian news websites 1850s establishments in Estonia Mass media in Tallinn 1857 establishments in the Russian Empire