What Happened in 1914? - Structure, Columns and Types of Articles in the Tabloid Az Est

Abstract

In 1914 a world-wide conflict unfolded in the history of mankind, a conflict effecting not only the front lines but felt in the heartlands of the powers at war, in all the aspects of everyday life.One of these aspects was printed media, practically the sole vehicle of spreading information at the beginning of the 20th century. From the mid-nineteenth century onwards up to the first decade of 20th century fundamental changes took place in the media world, urged on by technical development and by business considerations. As a consequence new types of newspapers, tabloids among them appeared. There were attempts to modernize legal conditions as well: the short-lived press law of 1914 for example tried to find solutions for the press problems of the half century after 1848. But with the outbreak of war, wartime censure was initiated which cut short the efforts of legislation and highly affected the work of the press. The daily paper Az Est (founded by Andor Miklós) could become a success story even among these circumstances, it could achieve tremendous popularity right after its start and it could increase the number of readers in the war years as well. My paper examines the effects of the outbreak of war and of war censure on Az Est, on its daily work, on its structure, and explores how it managed to keep its quality tabloid character, its popularity and its circulation numbers against all odds. The 1914 issues of the newspaper helped to elaborate the topic.