Stjepanovic Joins Nova.rs, Newsroom Refuses to Cooperate

Pedro Vargas Santos David, owner of Alpak Capital and director of United Media Digital, the company that runs the Nova portal and newspaper, came to the Nova.rs newsroom and introduced Marko Stjepanovic to staff as the future editor in chief, and Ivana Mastilovic Jasnic as his future deputy. The newsroom published a report on the meeting on October 8, 2026, at 4:05 p.m., and said the same day that it will not cooperate with the new leadership until all elections are over.

With elections approaching, the move raises the question of who edits one of the most widely read portals in the country. Management’s position is currently known only from the newsroom’s own account and from an interview the deputy editor in chief gave to Cenzolovka.

What did the owner tell staff?

According to the newsroom’s report, Vargas was accompanied by Brent Sadler, executive director of the Adria News Network program. Vargas invited staff to cooperate, said Stjepanovic and Mastilovic Jasnic would run the newsroom and that journalists would be free to work. He stressed that the newsroom should be neither pro-government nor pro-opposition, and said the changes came because of a large financial loss.

Stjepanovic addressed staff briefly: everyone is entitled to their own view, but they should wait, because he will show what he can do through his work. When he was accused of being a pro-government journalist, Vargas answered in his place: “Why do you think he left Blic?”

Staff asked that the changes wait until all elections are over. Vargas refused, arguing that a new editor in chief is necessary because the newsroom does not have one, and reminded employees that their employment contracts oblige them to cooperate. He also told staff that, besides the Serbian Progressive Party, the European Serbia coalition and the Socialist Party of Serbia would advertise on the portal, and through the newsroom he invited representatives of the Student List to appear on Nova.rs as well.

Why is the newsroom saying no?

Ratko Femic, deputy editor in chief, told Cenzolovka that in a vote at the newsroom meeting “about 80 percent of people came out against” accepting Stjepanovic, while the rest abstained. The newsroom’s October 8 statement puts the figure at 75 percent of employees at the portal and the Nova newspaper. Both sources agree on one point: nobody voted in favor.

Femic explains his position this way:

We did not have a single vote in support of him being here. If a man has not built authority here and the whole newsroom rejects him, he may have been appointed legally, but he is not legitimate, because people do not accept his authority. That is our position.

The newsroom’s statement takes the same view, saying:

We believe that his move from the pro-government Blic to the free Nova newsroom, in the middle of an election campaign, is neither accidental nor well-intentioned, and that its aim is to weaken the critical stance of our journalists, as well as to monitor election day itself.

According to the same statement, the newsroom left the door open for later: after the elections, Stjepanovic is welcome at a meeting where he would explain how he intends to run the portal.

The list of journalists: fact and assessment

A statement from 62 employees dated October 1 claims that Sadler came to a meeting with Femic carrying a list of journalists from pro-government outlets, such as Alo and Novosti, whom he wants to hire for three months. In the interview, Femic says Sadler brought the list but that, as he sees it, they dropped the idea because of the staff revolt and the support of colleagues from N1, Radar, TV Nova and the region. That is his assessment, not a confirmed fact.

Vreme, whose claims are relayed in the Cenzolovka piece, writes about five female journalists, four of whom have so far worked at Alo and Novosti, and adds that the attempt to hire them has “for now” failed.

Who is Stjepanovic, and what happened to reach?

According to sources cited by Cenzolovka, Stjepanovic edited the Blic portal for years. This spring Predrag Mihailovic took his place, and Stjepanovic, as announced, stayed at the company as head of editorial products and audience strategy within Global Media Unit. Femic points to the new owner’s choice of “people from the regime’s Blic” as a problem and claims Stjepanovic “made that outlet what it is”, which is his opinion, not a data point. The sources do not say what role Mastilovic Jasnic had at Blic.

Femic also claims the economic consequences are already visible. Nova’s advertising and promotion budget was cut at the end of September, and, as he puts it, over the course of the month the portal “fell, say, from third to fifth place”, with an estimate that it could be seventh or eighth by the elections. The Gemius ranking for September, relayed by Cenzolovka, places Nova fourth, behind Blic, Kurir and Mond. Femic added that management promised verbally there would be no layoffs for now.

On October 1, staff also warned that management is advertising election lists at prices they describe as astronomical, which perhaps only the Serbian Progressive Party could afford.

What does the newsroom plan?

Femic says he does not intend to resign and will not urge colleagues to, but that he does not want to make life easier for those who would change the newsroom. He says:

We are working under occupation conditions, but we are working.

He adds that the newsroom will not give in easily: “We will not allow such a reputation to be destroyed by bringing in people from regime media to lead us.”