A note to our readers
Since its birth as a joint venture between Kathimerini and the International Herald Tribune in March 1998, Kathimerini’s English Edition has sought to provide its readers with comprehensive coverage of what is happening in Greece and the region and what people are talking about at the breakfast table. We have striven to do this quickly, accurately and in an interesting way, as befits the cooperation between two newspapers which are leaders in their fields in Greece and internationally. We set the bar very high for the small but very experienced staff of Kathimerini’s English Edition, and they have consistently exceeded expectations. Two years ago, in June 2008, this same team produced Athens Plus, quickly winning the prestigious award of Europe’s best-designed weekly newspaper. Our papers appeared to be going from strength to strength. Until we hit the worst financial crisis in memory. No one can tell how severe it will be nor when it will end. In order to ensure that we can keep producing the core of our newspaper we are forced to reduce our daily pages to between two and four (from 4-6). We will also have to slim down Athens Plus slightly (it will, however, continue to provide weekly television schedules, film screenings, etc.) while strengthening our presence on the web. We need to cut costs to survive and this will entail reducing some services and cutting editorial costs. This is a very difficult time for the whole country and however much we tried to trim costs painlessly we were unable to achieve this without the risk of this joint venture going out of business. We need to be here, striving every day to maintain our readers’ confidence in our work – work that is not a luxury but a necessity in the storms ahead.
