Diena is one of the two largest Latvian language newspapers. Recently, many Diena subscribers have been getting letters offering free half-year subscriptions. Find a friend who does not subscribe to Diena and that friend gets the newspaper for half a year, free of charge.
To myself, this reminds of North America, where newspaper sales have been falling for the last 20 years, with people abandoning the newspapers for other sources of news. The emergence of the Internet as a news source is accelerating this trend. North American newspapers have gone to offering themselves nearly free of charge and relying on advertising for revenues. But this strategy has not helped.
Are we seeing a repeat of this story in Latvia? The number of people subscribing to newspapers in Latvia is falling rapidly. (In particular, Diena's subscriptions have fallen by 14.7% compared to last year.) Offering free half-year subscriptions is way more generous that any promotional action ever done by any Latvian newspaper. Unlike the other Latvian newspapers, Diena is owned by a Swedish media multinational who can afford generous promotional actions to keep the newspaper alive.
In other news, Diena's editor-in-chief, Sarmite Ēlerte, resigned today, after being with the newspaper for more than 18 years (16 years as the editor-in-chief). When resigning, Ēlerte claimed that she wants to have a break after presiding over several major changes in the newspaper recently.
My opinion is that too much of Diena reporting recently has felt like LETA/AP news stories that are available free of charge on news websites. To survive in the Internet age, newspapers need to distinguish themselves from the free content that is available online.
I've also been somewhat unhappy with positions taken by Diena, for essentially the same reasons that LETA's blogger Maris Zanders in his post. (It's a very eloquant post - he says what I think but better than I would say it myself.) But I don't think that their troubles with the number of subscribers is due to that.
Showing posts with label Latvia - miscellaneous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Latvia - miscellaneous. Show all posts
Friday, June 06, 2008
Monday, May 05, 2008
Disgusted
Disclaimer: if you easily get disgusted by stories about what happens to your food before you buy it, you might want to skip over to the next post.
Maxima is the biggest supermarket chain in Latvia. They have a low-cost, low-quality image in Latvia and, for the last months, they've been trying to shed the "low-quality" part. Until recently, they were somewhat successful. Then, they plastered Riga with posters saying "Salad-washing is a myth!".
I used to think that "salad-washing" meant washing lettuce before making a salad out of it. I was badly wrong. It means taking unsold prepared salad which is beyond its expiry date (for example, rasols, which consists of potatoes, meat, pickles, beans and mayonaise) and putting it under running water to wash away the old dressing (mayo, in this case). After that, they put a new dressing on the salvaged meat and vegetables and sell it as new salad.
Maxima was trying to assure people that this is an urban legend, via posters and TV commercials. Unfortunately, former employees started coming forward with their stories of how they had to recycle expired food into food labelled as new. The stories have been all over Latvian news for last few days.
So, Maxima has shot itself in a foot. Before this, there were a few thousands of people gossiping about Maxima practices. Now, it's most of the country discussing whether expired salads indeed get washed. And if that's true, Maxima deserves every bit of the bad publicity they've gotten.
On the positive side, I've been buying prepared salads in stores other than Maxima (I didn't have a good image of them - even prior to this). And I've not had any health or even taste problems. So, maybe these practices are isolated to one store chain after all...
UPDATE (5/28): Maxima is so committed to disproving the rumours that they are setting up webcams in their production facilities, so that anyone can check on them over the Internet. Are they innocent, after all?
Maxima is the biggest supermarket chain in Latvia. They have a low-cost, low-quality image in Latvia and, for the last months, they've been trying to shed the "low-quality" part. Until recently, they were somewhat successful. Then, they plastered Riga with posters saying "Salad-washing is a myth!".
I used to think that "salad-washing" meant washing lettuce before making a salad out of it. I was badly wrong. It means taking unsold prepared salad which is beyond its expiry date (for example, rasols, which consists of potatoes, meat, pickles, beans and mayonaise) and putting it under running water to wash away the old dressing (mayo, in this case). After that, they put a new dressing on the salvaged meat and vegetables and sell it as new salad.
Maxima was trying to assure people that this is an urban legend, via posters and TV commercials. Unfortunately, former employees started coming forward with their stories of how they had to recycle expired food into food labelled as new. The stories have been all over Latvian news for last few days.
So, Maxima has shot itself in a foot. Before this, there were a few thousands of people gossiping about Maxima practices. Now, it's most of the country discussing whether expired salads indeed get washed. And if that's true, Maxima deserves every bit of the bad publicity they've gotten.
On the positive side, I've been buying prepared salads in stores other than Maxima (I didn't have a good image of them - even prior to this). And I've not had any health or even taste problems. So, maybe these practices are isolated to one store chain after all...
UPDATE (5/28): Maxima is so committed to disproving the rumours that they are setting up webcams in their production facilities, so that anyone can check on them over the Internet. Are they innocent, after all?
Monday, March 31, 2008
Real estate - April 1st edition
To those who read in Latvian, this collection of real estate ads may be quite hilarious.
Thursday, February 07, 2008
US visa update
Today, someone came across this blog searching for "visa waiver latvia estonia usa 2008". They were probably looking for this story but the story is not so good for Latvia. Estonia (along with Greece and Czech Republic) was added to US visa waiver program. Latvia (and 7 other EU countries from CEE) was not.
Still, it's a good story. Trends in Latvia often mirror Estonia, with one or two years delay. Canada stopped requiring entry visas from Estonians in September 2006 and from Latvians, one year later. So, visa-fre travel to US in 2009 and 2010?
Still, it's a good story. Trends in Latvia often mirror Estonia, with one or two years delay. Canada stopped requiring entry visas from Estonians in September 2006 and from Latvians, one year later. So, visa-fre travel to US in 2009 and 2010?
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Celebrating New Year in Riga...
Laimīgu Jauno Gadu! Happy New Year, everyone! All the best wishes for 2008...
I was in Riga for New Year this time. The big difference from America is that it's easy to buy fireworks for private use in Latvia (in contrast, some US states that ban private use of fireworks entirely, because of safety concerns).
So, in addition to the government-organized fireworks in the center of Riga, we have many smaller ones throughout the city, when people fire up the things they've purchased, from ground or from their windows. And it makes the New Year sky quite colourful.
In the predominantly-Russian suburbs of Riga (like the one in which I'm living), we actually see fireworks twice. First, at midnight Moscow time (since some people are watching New Year broadcasts on Moscow channels via cable or satellite). This corresponds to 11pm Riga time. Then, second time, at midnight Riga time.
In mid-1990s, my suburb would see roughly equal amounts of fireworks at 11pm and midnight. This year, there was a bit at 11pm but much less than it used to be. But, at the actual midnight, the spontaneous fireworks continued for an entire half an hour. Does New Year Moscow time no longer matter to people in Riga, even if their native language is Russian? Maybe...
And, after watching our new president Zatlers give a New Year speech, I'm quite sure that he needs some lessons in public speaking.
I was in Riga for New Year this time. The big difference from America is that it's easy to buy fireworks for private use in Latvia (in contrast, some US states that ban private use of fireworks entirely, because of safety concerns).
So, in addition to the government-organized fireworks in the center of Riga, we have many smaller ones throughout the city, when people fire up the things they've purchased, from ground or from their windows. And it makes the New Year sky quite colourful.
In the predominantly-Russian suburbs of Riga (like the one in which I'm living), we actually see fireworks twice. First, at midnight Moscow time (since some people are watching New Year broadcasts on Moscow channels via cable or satellite). This corresponds to 11pm Riga time. Then, second time, at midnight Riga time.
In mid-1990s, my suburb would see roughly equal amounts of fireworks at 11pm and midnight. This year, there was a bit at 11pm but much less than it used to be. But, at the actual midnight, the spontaneous fireworks continued for an entire half an hour. Does New Year Moscow time no longer matter to people in Riga, even if their native language is Russian? Maybe...
And, after watching our new president Zatlers give a New Year speech, I'm quite sure that he needs some lessons in public speaking.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
U.S. visas: a positive experience
Several times, I have written about the problems that Latvians (and other Eastern Europeans) have with obtaining US visa when they want to travel to United States. I have heard many stories of Latvians who have been refused US visa for no good reason. Both from my friends and from newspapers. (I've read that Latvian hockey star Martins Karsums could not obtain visa when he first wanted to play in US in 2002.)
I went to US embassy in Riga a few days ago, to apply for a visa for a short work trip to US. I had a better experience. Everyone was polite. I had my visa the next day. Unlike in 2002, I did not see anyone else being treated unfairly.
Maybe, the times are changing. In the last year, only 1.33% of Latvian visitors to US illegally overstayed their visa. The remaining 98.67% should not be treated with suspicion when they come to US embassy to apply for visa. And US embassy in Latvia may have understood that.
I went to US embassy in Riga a few days ago, to apply for a visa for a short work trip to US. I had a better experience. Everyone was polite. I had my visa the next day. Unlike in 2002, I did not see anyone else being treated unfairly.
Maybe, the times are changing. In the last year, only 1.33% of Latvian visitors to US illegally overstayed their visa. The remaining 98.67% should not be treated with suspicion when they come to US embassy to apply for visa. And US embassy in Latvia may have understood that.
Funny news story
The city of Riga buys 120 cell phones from a company named "Bīstamie sakari" (translation: "Dangerous affairs" or "Dangerous communications"). I hope the cell phones don't turn out to be dangerous.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Notes from Latvia
Some observations from a few weeks back in Riga:
- Traffic is much worse. 5 years ago, I could get home without traffic jams easily. Not any more.
- Same about (intercity) buses and trains. In July, Aleks had a post on how he spent 3 hours standing on overfull bus from Riga to Ventspils. I thought "he had an extraordinarily bad experience". No, I now have to think carefully which bus to take... so that I don't end up with a similar experience myself.
- Everyone is complaining about inflation being at 11%... but it seems that people are spending more rather than less. They are driving more, travelling more and so on...
- It looks like Riga has substantially more small children than a few years ago. In a future post with numbers, I'll discuss what is happening to Latvian birthrates...
Friday, September 14, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Found on the web
One day in Latvia. On August 31, 50 professional photographers and many more volunteers will take photos all around Latvia, to create a snapshot of everyday life in Latvia.
The first such event took place 20 years ago, on August 31, 1987. 30,000 pictures were taken. Here is a selection of those. Back then, nobody had any idea what surgeon Valdis Zatlers will be doing 20 years later...
The first such event took place 20 years ago, on August 31, 1987. 30,000 pictures were taken. Here is a selection of those. Back then, nobody had any idea what surgeon Valdis Zatlers will be doing 20 years later...
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Chocolate bear
Since I've had so many heavy real estate/economy posts recently... here is something less serious:
This is a 36kg chocolate bear, produced by Laima, the main Latvian chocolate producer.
The story behind it started last April when a brown bear swam on a piece of ice from Latvia to the Estonian island of Ruhnu, 37km away from Latvia. The bear was on the island for 4 months and it managed to avoid multiple attempts to catch it, until disappearing (swimming back to Latvia?) in August.
One year later, Laima produced the chocolate bear and gave it as a gift to the people living on the Ruhnu island. They have not eaten it yet... instead, they arranged for an artist to produce a plaster copy of the chocolate bear, for a permanent display on the island. When the plaster copy is ready in mid-September, they will finally eat the chocolate bear.
This is a 36kg chocolate bear, produced by Laima, the main Latvian chocolate producer.
The story behind it started last April when a brown bear swam on a piece of ice from Latvia to the Estonian island of Ruhnu, 37km away from Latvia. The bear was on the island for 4 months and it managed to avoid multiple attempts to catch it, until disappearing (swimming back to Latvia?) in August.
One year later, Laima produced the chocolate bear and gave it as a gift to the people living on the Ruhnu island. They have not eaten it yet... instead, they arranged for an artist to produce a plaster copy of the chocolate bear, for a permanent display on the island. When the plaster copy is ready in mid-September, they will finally eat the chocolate bear.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
More on US visas
As I wrote before, USA passed a new law that may result in visa-free travel for Latvians to United States by 2009. Maybe. Or not. Depending on some fine print and other things.
Latvia and five other Eastern European countries are not happy about that and have officially declared their disappointment. The news story about that has an interesting quote from a (Polish) employee of the US embassy in Poland. He/she recommends people to schedule their visa interviews for Friday. Consular officials are in a better mood on Fridays, because of upcoming holidays and deny visas to less people. (Here is the original Polish source for the quote.)
US claims that visas are being denied because the embassy officials are unsure whether people will return to Poland afterwards. Well, in Latvia, I have witnessed a number of denials to people who did not have any intention of staying in US illegally.
Latvia and five other Eastern European countries are not happy about that and have officially declared their disappointment. The news story about that has an interesting quote from a (Polish) employee of the US embassy in Poland. He/she recommends people to schedule their visa interviews for Friday. Consular officials are in a better mood on Fridays, because of upcoming holidays and deny visas to less people. (Here is the original Polish source for the quote.)
US claims that visas are being denied because the embassy officials are unsure whether people will return to Poland afterwards. Well, in Latvia, I have witnessed a number of denials to people who did not have any intention of staying in US illegally.
Monday, July 30, 2007
Latvians to be able to travel to US without visa... maybe, someday
On Friday, US Congress passed a security law that, among other things, expands the Visa Waiver program, which allows people from certain countries to visit United States without having to go to US embassy and obtain a US visa before their visit. Currently, there are 27 countries in the program (most of Western Europe and a few other countries, such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan).
Originally, Bush administration intended the expansion as a reward to Eastern European countries which supported US war in Iraq in 2003. Negotiations between Bush administration and US Congress took a while, with US Congress trying to set limits on how the program can be expanded and Bush administration trying to write the rules so that they would be the party which decides.
The new law says:
(1) the United States should modernize the visa waiver program by simultaneously--
(A) enhancing program security requirements; and
(B) extending visa-free travel privileges to nationals of foreign countries that are allies in the war on terrorism.
The law then defines the requirements for the new program. The most important benchmark is the percentage of visa applications from a country that are denied under the present system. If less than 10% of visa applications are denied, the country becomes eligible for visa-free travel. Alternatively, if more than 10% of applications are denied but the percentage of visitors to US who stay in US illegally instead of going back at the end of their visit is very small, the country may also be eligible. (US will define the numerical value of "very small" later.)
It's less than Latvia has hoped for. Only two Eastern European nations qualify under the "10% rule": Czech Republic and Estonia. A few others have slightly more than 10% visa denials. Hungary has 12% and Latvia has 15%. Poland has more than 25% denial rate.
Well, Latvia probably will not become eligible for visa-free travel in the first year of the new program. Maybe in 2008, maybe in 2010. Maybe under the next US President. (Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has been quite supportive of visa-free travel for Eastern Europeans.) But it is a step forward.
Getting US visa can be a quite painful. While researching this blog post, I came across this story from Hungary. A researcher at Central European University went to US Embassy in Hungary and this what the rant that she heard from the US consul:
I'll have to do at least one US visa application for a work trip before Latvians become eligible for visa-free travel. And I'm not looking forward to it.
UPDATE (4/8): According to Artis Pabriks (Latvia's minister of foreign affairs), it should take about one and half more years until Latvians can travel to US without visas. That would be the end of 2008 or early in 2009.
Originally, Bush administration intended the expansion as a reward to Eastern European countries which supported US war in Iraq in 2003. Negotiations between Bush administration and US Congress took a while, with US Congress trying to set limits on how the program can be expanded and Bush administration trying to write the rules so that they would be the party which decides.
The new law says:
(1) the United States should modernize the visa waiver program by simultaneously--
(A) enhancing program security requirements; and
(B) extending visa-free travel privileges to nationals of foreign countries that are allies in the war on terrorism.
The law then defines the requirements for the new program. The most important benchmark is the percentage of visa applications from a country that are denied under the present system. If less than 10% of visa applications are denied, the country becomes eligible for visa-free travel. Alternatively, if more than 10% of applications are denied but the percentage of visitors to US who stay in US illegally instead of going back at the end of their visit is very small, the country may also be eligible. (US will define the numerical value of "very small" later.)
It's less than Latvia has hoped for. Only two Eastern European nations qualify under the "10% rule": Czech Republic and Estonia. A few others have slightly more than 10% visa denials. Hungary has 12% and Latvia has 15%. Poland has more than 25% denial rate.
Well, Latvia probably will not become eligible for visa-free travel in the first year of the new program. Maybe in 2008, maybe in 2010. Maybe under the next US President. (Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has been quite supportive of visa-free travel for Eastern Europeans.) But it is a step forward.
Getting US visa can be a quite painful. While researching this blog post, I came across this story from Hungary. A researcher at Central European University went to US Embassy in Hungary and this what the rant that she heard from the US consul:
You work in an archive? Who wants to archive those dismal TV shows and cartoons? Anyway, it's beyond reasoning why they spend taxpayers' money on archiving programs that nobody is interested in. It's unbelievable that the CEU [Central European University] is spending money to preserve old photos, old nonsense, TV rubbish, spending money on sending people here and there, instead of helping Africans by sending aid.It's a humiliating story and I have heard similar ones from friends in Latvia. It seems that the way how US embassy staff treat visa applicants depends on the personality of the visa official (or even what mood the official is on a given day) at least as much as the actual visa application.
I'll have to do at least one US visa application for a work trip before Latvians become eligible for visa-free travel. And I'm not looking forward to it.
UPDATE (4/8): According to Artis Pabriks (Latvia's minister of foreign affairs), it should take about one and half more years until Latvians can travel to US without visas. That would be the end of 2008 or early in 2009.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Added to the blogroll
FotoLat, a photo blog about Latvia. I found it when the author commented on one of real estate posts!
Friday, July 06, 2007
Latvian architect honoured
While researching my real estate posts, I came across this...
American Institute of Architects has compiled a list "America's Favorite Architecture" consisting of 150 all-time best buildings in United States. (The list has 150 buildings because this professional organization is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.)
The list contains two buildings designed by Latvian American architect Gunars Birkerts: the University of Michigan Law School Addition (at #93) and the Museum of Glass in Corning, New York (at #136).
It's always nice to see another Latvian achieving something major in their profession. Birkerts also designed the project for the new Latvian National Library (aka "The Castle of Light"):
It was a real honour to have the famous architect design a building for his homeland. Our politicians, however, are still arguing about the money for actually building it.
American Institute of Architects has compiled a list "America's Favorite Architecture" consisting of 150 all-time best buildings in United States. (The list has 150 buildings because this professional organization is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.)
The list contains two buildings designed by Latvian American architect Gunars Birkerts: the University of Michigan Law School Addition (at #93) and the Museum of Glass in Corning, New York (at #136).
It's always nice to see another Latvian achieving something major in their profession. Birkerts also designed the project for the new Latvian National Library (aka "The Castle of Light"):
It was a real honour to have the famous architect design a building for his homeland. Our politicians, however, are still arguing about the money for actually building it.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
In the news
Latvian historian Heinrihs Strods has been denied Russian visa. He intended to visit Moscow to explore documents in Russian archives and to give a talk at a conference. Strods applied for visa several times, with support letters from the Latvian embassador to Russia and from a history institute of Russian Academy of Sciences and was repeatedly denied visa. This is a second instance when a well-known Latvian historian has been denied Russian visa. The first was Aivars Stranga in 2005.
This is quite outrageous. Apparently, in Putin's Russia, foreign historians are not allowed to do archive research unless Putin's government is sure that they'll interpret archive documents in desired way!
This is quite outrageous. Apparently, in Putin's Russia, foreign historians are not allowed to do archive research unless Putin's government is sure that they'll interpret archive documents in desired way!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
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