Hétfői Hírek - substitute newspaper in the system of the Hungarian press

Abstract

The weekly publication Hétföi Hírek , which played a significant role in the development of the Hungarian press system in 1957-1985, is considered and analyzed. The author introduces a new definition of “substitute newspaper” into scientific circulation in relation to this publication, the only media that was published on Monday, a day off for the Hungarian mass media. In addition to news content, the weekly, which had two issues (morning and evening), posted incident reports, advertisement, and announcements. The newspaper was distributed mainly through street sales, which is typical of Hungarian tabloid periodicals. The Hétföi Hírek edition had the characteristics of both a quality and mass edition, so we can talk about its mixed format. The analysis of the “substitute newspaper” is essential for understanding the features of the Hungarian media in their historical context, as well as for studying the activities of the media in the formation of a certain model of reality, managing information flows, motivation and behavior of society. The analysis of Hétföi Hírek is carried out for the first time, based mainly on research conducted by the author in Hungary, using archival sources and applying an interdisciplinary methodological framework.