TransPress put an end to the Yugoslav state monopoly on newspaper distribution when the Belgrade-based company commenced operations in mid-July, according to reports from UNESCO and WAN.

UNESCO, which set up the company, and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), which oversees Trans Press’ on-site implementation, on July 16 announced the venture’s launching. The governments of Germany, Norway and Switzerland provided start-up funding. TransPress has a budget of $250,000.

With its fleet of three-ton trucks, TransPress will bring newspapers previously available only in Belgrade to other cities in Serbia, including Kragujevac, Cacak, Zrenjanin and Novi Sad. It hopes to buy five-ton trucks that will allow it to distribute newspapers in Montenegro. TransPress’ long-term plans include a nationwide distribution network with an alternative to government-controlled kiosks. Yugoslavs outside Belgrade regularly will be able to read the country’s four major independent dailies, whose combined daily circulation figures presently total 300,000, and three independent weeklies, whose circulation totals about 100,000 copies.

“Independent newspapers cannot be viable unless adequate business conditions are created, including a distribution network that puts those newspapers in the hands of readers,” said Timothy Balding, WAN director general, in a press release. “A distribution network free of government control is absolutely essential if other voices are to be heard, especially in a country where the government does not accept full freedom of the press.”