The Newspaper Editorial Board, the Strength of the Journalistic Success (The Case of Curentul )

• Author: Fanel Teodorascu
• Position: Danubius University of Galati, Faculty of Communication Sciences
• Pages: 254-257

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives

2010

254

The Newspaper Editorial Board, the Strength of

the Journalistic Success (The Case of Curentul)

Fănel Teodoraşcu

Danubius University of Galati, Faculty of Communication Sciences, teodorascu.fanel@univ-

danubius.ro

Abstract:

Curentul newspaper and Pamfil Seicaru, its owner and director, practically changed the interwar

journalism. The editorial board was made up of well-known journalists, with extensive experience and a

special polemic verve. Due to them, Curentul news paper soon became a distinctive voice in the interwar

media, its sources of information being among the most consistent and extensive. As a consequence,

Seicaru’s newspaper held a primacy of information during tha t a ge, being a paper of wide circulation,

moulding the public to like sensational and shocking news, those who read it accidentally. In one way or

another, the journalistic method of the editorial staff is similar in many wa ys to that of a tabloid as it was

conceived in t he interwar years. At the same time, Curentul was a r eal newspaper of civic opinion and firm

political attitude, despite some ideological and inherent der ailments in the interwar years preceding the

Second World War.

Keywords: audience; editorial; ideology; journalism; blackmail

Curentul newspaper is one of the most interesting journalistic achievements of interwar Romania. A

few years after its establishment, the newspaper competed with Stelian Popescu’s Universe, “the most

influential and wealthy press tycoon in interwar Romania” (Ciachir, 2008, p. 23). The journal founded

by Pamfil Seicaru enjoyed a warm welcoming from readers even from its first issues and the success

came as a result of the efforts made by the owner to hire experienced journalists and editors popular

among the public. Besides, the articles written in a highly polemical tone met the demands required by

the readers of those times. The first famous journalists hired by Seicaru in order to ensure a wide

circulation were Cezar Petrescu and Nichifor Crainic. It was not the first time when the three

journalists were working together, their journalistic careers having met repeatedly. When they had the

opportunity, Seicaru, Crainic and Petrescu made a good impression due to their talent showing

brightness to the newspapers or magazines they were signing in. Among their achievements, we can

include the brief, but fruitful collaboration at Neamul Romanesc. The publication, edited in a new

format, with the arrival of the three journalists in the editorial board, would be categorized as “a

Western newspaper” even by Nicolae Iorga (Crainic, 1991, p. 188). The leaving of the “trio” from

Neamul Romanesc, after an “unexplained moodiness” of the greatest journalist that “our race gave us -

Nicolae Iorga” (Crainic, 1928) created the premises of one of the most influential journals from

interwar Romanian – Cuvantul. In a short while, with the financial support provided by Titus

Enacovici, a former sponsor of Neamul Romanesc, the new paper would be among the top selling

publications in the country.

The disagreements between Nae Ionescu, who joined the editorial board in 1926, in order to replace

Nichifor Crainic, chosen as Secretary General of Cults and Arts Ministry, and Seicaru, led to the