Прага Посты: Чехиядағы ағылшын тілді газеттің тарихы

Newspaper

The Prague Post was an English language newspaper covering the Czech Republic and Central and Eastern Europe which published its first weekly issue on October 1, 1991. It published a printed edition weekly until July 2013, when it dropped the printed product but continued to produce online material. (The current website located at PraguePost. com has no affiliation with the original newspaper.) In 2016 the Prague Post filed for bankruptcy. The Prague Post’s archives are available at https://archive. org/. Compared to other Prague based English newspapers, Prognosis 1991 1995 and Prague Pill 2001 2003 —the Prague Post was the longest running English language newspaper in the Czech Republic. Its target audience included English speaking expatriates living in the Czech Republic or neighboring countries, Czech readers seeking news from an international perspective and tourists visiting the Czech Republic. With a print run of about 19,000 copies, The Prague Post reached approximately 40,000 readers a week with its print edition published every Wednesday. In 2013, The Prague Post ceased its print edition and moved to an online only format. The history of the newspaper began in Prague, two years after the Velvet Revolution, specifically in 1991.

The Prague Post was an English language information source in the Czech Republic through its newspaper, and related products and services. The Prague Post newspaper was published by Prague Post, spol. s r. o. (spol. s r. o. = Ltd.). and Kent Hawryluk, two employees of Prognosis, an English language monthly newspaper in Prague which began publication in March 1991, came to the realization that there was a ripe market in the then Czechoslovakia for a weekly broadsheet newspaper. Together with Monroe Luther, an investor from Houston, Texas, they formed Lion's Share Group, a privately held, Czech limited liability company (spol s r. o.) that was created to be the information leader in the region. Kent Hawryluk served as Founding Publisher and Lisa Frankenberg as Founding General Manager. Other programs introduced at that time were the Business Network, Lion's Share Group Publishing and the Prague Post Foundation (set up separately as a Czech registered, non profit foundation, and which later became The Prague Post Endowment Fund with the change in Czech nonprofit laws). The mission of The Prague Post was simple and direct: to publish the best possible English language newspaper for and about the rapidly changing Czechoslovakia and more broadly, Central Europe. The aim was to place particular emphasis on news, business, and cultural listings. Alan Levy, a foreign correspondent for the International Herald Tribune and author of So Many Heroes, an eyewitness account of the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, was hired as the Founding Editor in Chief. The original staff hired by Levy included former reporters and editors from a wide range of magazines and daily newspapers, including the Sacramento Bee, Sacramento Union, The New York Review of Books, Business International, the Grinnell Herald Register, Fortune magazine and the Tampa Tribune. Lion's Share Group established the wholly owned subsidiary company Prague Post s. r. o. in March 1994 to take over the publishing of the newspaper, while Lion's Share Group became a holding company.

The Prague Post has won a number of European awards for its innovative newspaper design. In November 2007, the paper saw a fifth consecutive win in the category of “Front Page Weekly Newspaper” as well as a Portfolio award for Design Editor Caroline Wren at the European Newspaper Awards. “Layout has always been very important for us,” commented then managing editor Will Tizard. “It is necessary to reflect our progressive reporting style from various fields in the layout," he said, adding “we are very proud of Caroline Wren's work.”

In 2010, the paper won Best Sectional Front Page at the same event for its Tempo cover story on guerrilla knitting, "Going Rogue".

Past writers and other staff of The Prague Post have gone on to a wide range of positions in the international media as well as in other sectors. Here are some examples. Lisa (Frankenberg) Leshne, the newspaper's co founder, became Executive Director, International of The Wall Street Journal Online WSJ. com and now works as a Literary Agent and Talent Manager at the agency she founded, The Leshne Agency. She represents Ivan Klima, Deborah Copaken, Jesse Itzler, Julissa Arce, Jukebox the Ghost member and webcomic artist Tommy Siegel, AJ Mendez (AJ Lee), and Christie Pearce Rampone. Mark Baker, the paper's first business editor, is the author of a number of travel guides, including books for Lonely Planet on Prague, the Czech Republic and Slovakia as well as guides for Frommer's, Fodor's and National Geographic Society among others. Douglas Lytle served various roles at The Prague Post from 1991 until 1994 including managing editor. He is the author of Pink Tanks & Velvet Hangovers (North Atlantic Books/Frog Ltd) and bureau chief for Bloomberg News in the Czech Republic and Slovakia and an editor for Eastern Europe. Will Tizard, former managing editor, is Central/Eastern Europe correspondent for Variety and the author and editor of several travel guides including the Time Out Prague Guide and National Geographic Traveler: Prague and the Czech Republic. He is also a journalism and documentary professor at Anglo American University and documentary film maker based in the Czech Republic. Ross Larsen was deputy news editor, news editor and senior editor at the Prague Post from 1992 to 1999. He later worked for search engine AltaVista in California and Dow Jones Newswires in London. He now works as an editor for Bloomberg News' EMEA Real Estate team in London. Michael Mainville was a reporter at The Prague Post from 2001 to 2002. He now works as the Caucasus correspondent for Agence France Presse. Dean Calbreath was business editor of The Prague Post from 1993 to 1996. He is currently a reporter and columnist with The San Diego Union Tribune and was part of an investigative reporting team that won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize. Michael Wann, the technology and science editor for Msnbc. com, is a former managing editor of The Prague Post. Siegfried Mortkowitz was a news reporter and columnist for The Prague Post from 1996 to 2001. He went on to work for Newsweek and later returned to Prague after working for 10 years as the Paris correspondent for the German Press Agency (Deutsche Presse Agentur). Dinah A. Spritzer served a variety of editorial roles for The Prague Post from 2001 to 2005. She presently writes on Central and Eastern Europe for The New York Times, USA Today and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. She also teaches international reporting at New York University in Prague. Kurt Vinion was a former staff photojournalist 2000 2001 and photo editor 2006 2008. He was awarded several 1st place awards in the Best of Photojournalism for his international social issue reporting as well as a hand full of awards in Czech Press Photo. He is currently a resident of Prague where he runs his own wedding & portrait business https://www. kurtvinion. com in addition to guest lecturing at local universities. James Pitkin was a former copy editor, culture editor and news reporter with The Prague Post. He went on to work for Willamette Week, an alternative newspaper in Portland, Oregon. Richard Andrade was a designer with The Prague Post from 1993 1996. Since 1999 he has been the Founder and CEO of BarristerBooks, Inc., the entity which operates the Internet's largest network of independent legal academic bookstores. Michele Legge was a Prague Post reporter from 1995 to 1999. She now manages media for the Australian Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs in Canberra. Andrew Greene was a business reporter and news reporter with The Prague Post from 2012 2013. He has resumed his position as a political reporter with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Canberra. Clare Speak was a news reporter and editor at The Prague Post from 2013 2014. She is now the editor of English language news website The Local Italy.

The Prague Post Endowment Fund began as the Prague Post Foundation, a local non profit organization founded in 1992. The goals were to enrich education and foster a place for the non profit sector in the Czech Republic. Originally the PPF published a weekly column, "Networking," which was the only source of news and information about the newly developing Czech Civil Society and non profit sector. It also provided bi weekly English language education programs based on The Prague Post newspaper for secondary schools throughout the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In 1997, Czech laws changed to recognize the increasing role of non profit organizations. The Prague Post Foundation became The Prague Post Endowment Fund. Educational materials were sent along with The Prague Post to more than 60 schools throughout the Czech Republic. The Fund provided scholarships and supported young journalists.

The Prague Post Playwriting Contest started in 2007 with the goal of bringing together artists and the theater going community. For its inaugural year, more than 100 scripts were submitted. Organized in conjunction with The Prague Playhouse, a local English language theater company, the contest theater entertainment for the expat community and also sought to help galvanize local writers, actors, producers and directors.