Brent Sadler told the N1 staff that no one from outside would be brought in as program editor. Otherwise, there is tension and speculation among journalists in the United group
“It stays within a family” – no one from outside will be brought in, everything will stay in the family. In those words it is Brent Sadler, the new director and head of the editorial board to the employees of N1 talked about plans for a successor Igor Božić, the former first man of television. This is confirmed for “Vreme” by several sources from that meeting.
Everyone present took it as a promise that the editorial function will be taken over by someone who already works at N1 or at least in another media United groups. “But we have no idea if they already have someone in mind,” says one source.
Igor Božić himself hasn’t picked up his things from the office yet, but he doesn’t show up at work either. Officially, he is decommissioned and “unassigned,” but still has a valid contract and salary.
One of the sources speculates that Božić could be offered to “fall higher”, that is, some consulting position in the company, formally higher than the one he had.
Why did Sadler make an urgent phone call to Božić
At the aforementioned meeting with employees, where the temperature was occasionally raised, Sadler did not speak specifically about further plans. He reiterated that editing and content remain the work of editors and journalists.
“But he has never told us that we have to do something or that we shouldn’t,” says one source, and others agree.
All of Sadler’s remarks at the N1 morning collegiums so far have been in the yes direction television contributions should be professional and at a high production level.
At the meeting, Sadler admitted that on March 31, the day of the police raid on the Rectorate and the accompanying citizens’ protest, he telephoned Igor Božić with the suggestion that, instead of live broadcasting the protest, he should regularly broadcast Dnevnik. As he said in front of N1 journalists, he considered it unprofessional that there is no Dnevnik in the regular program schedule, and the protest could be followed within the Dnevnik.
It sounded to some of the attendees that Sadler wrote as a minus to Igor Božić that he did not listen to him that evening, and that he was allegedly indiscreet and told the newsroom about the content of that conversation.
The same applies to one conversation in which Sadler allegedly told Božić that he would try to “de-escalate” the relationship with the authorities, but that he “doubts” that he would succeed. And that was the topic of the meeting with the employees.
Until the conclusion of this text, Sadler did not respond to earlier calls and messages from the “Vremen” journalists, so it is impossible to convey his side of the story.
What is the final idea?
Since it is officially registered as director N1, Nova, Danas and Radara, Sadler did not make concrete moves except for avoiding Božić. “If he really wants to focus only on working more professionally, then it will still turn out well,” says one of Vremen’s interlocutors.
Another adds: “So far, it does not seem that the management is ready to take drastic steps in a short period of time, but we also thought that they would not replace the director, so there he is, ‘unassigned, but employed’.”
And this Tuesday (April 14th) there was a protest in front of the N1 newsroom, which was not entirely pleasant for many journalists because they still hope that they could continue to do their work normally, although without Christmas at the helm.
“And our audience is electrified now,” says one N1 source. “Let’s say that now for some reason the representatives of the government decide to respond to the calls and that we finally have the other side, many would perceive it as a betrayal. And in fact, it should be like that.”
Speculations and theories
There is still a lot of speculation about the very purpose of the United Group “repackaging” in the media. The most common is that it is an agreement with the authorities – which Sadler and the United group deny. According to that theory, N1 and the others should not be completely silenced, but their blade should be dulled until the election.
According to the second, the United group would like to sell all the media in Serbia in a package with the N1 centers in Zagreb, Sarajevo and Ljubljana and Podgorica’s Vijesti. That way they would make money once again and then – after last year’s sale of cable operator SBB and sports rights – they would have nothing with Serbia.
But the question is whether the media buyer would have honest intentions in that case. Because what will the media that the government treats as enemies and that in that situation can hardly earn money for themselves from advertisers and others?
Funding is stable for now thanks to N1 and Nova’s previous sister contract with cable operator SBB, which pays them monthly per subscriber. That contract expires in four years.
Source: Vreme
