You’ve probably seen Hey Cluj credit Romanian newspapers as the source of many of our stories. If you want to learn Romanian, or you just want to improve your grammar, or simply keep up with the local events, there are four news sources that we can recommend. We might not always agree with everything they print, but they generally help you keep up to date with that is going on.
(There are also Cluj TV channels and radio stations, in Romanian and Hungarian, that might be of interest, but those will be for another article.)
Făclia de Cluj.
This is a newspaper that is proud to be based in Cluj, but it now seems to have the ambition of competiting with the nationals. Today’s front page was about a protest in Bucharest. Sometimes page three is a translation of a full story from a source like The New York Times. They’ve had international stories on page two for years, but the scope and depth of international news has increased recently. If you want to know what’s going on in Cluj, Romania and the world, Făclia can be very interesting. And now with Orban gone, they seem to no longer be afraid of Hungary, as much. (There was the AI generated Trojan horse on the front page a couple of weeks ago, but now they seem to have gone back to real news and real photographs.) There is enough Cluj news to keep up with sports, what’s on, and what local politicians said, among other things.
Făclia is still very much a Cluj newspaper, and I am kind of annoyed that a few online directories do not include it as such.
Monitorul de Cluj.
This one is in color. You have wonderful pictures of events in Cluj, and beautiful stories to match. There is also news about Romania in general, and an occasional international story. It is a little more Cluj centered than Făclia, great if you get your international news from somewhere else.
The Saturday issue is slightly bigger, and includes Sudoku.
Ziua de Cluj.
This is almost completely Cluj based. Okay, there are also stories about Turda, which is where the nearby salt mines are. And, while you occasionally have a story of national interest, it tends to be something that will affect Cluj directly, like new laws on businesses. If you want a completely Cluj centric newspaper, which seems politically neutral for the most part, just the facts, this is a great paper.
No Sudoku, no color pictures, just plain old fashioned newspaper.
Gazeta de Cluj.
This is a Saturday paper, which has true “investigative journalism.” Here you’ll find corporate scandals, bribes, and it doesn’t shy from opinion. It is only once a week, so it’s not the best for events and fluffy stories, nor does it try to compete with the national papers.
It has a large format, or did last time I checked. It is also good for fact-checking online rumors about Cluj. (It doesn’t get them all, but it names and shames other so-called Cluj “news” sources that just print garbage.)
Their logo looks like Sherlock Holmes, which I guess guides their ethos of trying to find the hidden truth.
Conclusion
Which is our favorite? All four are useful. There might also be something in Hungarian that we haven’t reviewed. (A Hungarian language radio station, Kolozsvari radio, often has interviews with locals and a lot about what’s going on. Maybe in a few months, we’ll be reviewing Hungarian language sources.)
But anyway, if the one we want is sold out, we find another, and still get something from it.
Okay, so let’s give them awards…
Most international and cosmopolitan, while still being local: Făclia
Most fun and playful: Monitorul
Most to the point, just the news: Ziua
Most in depth on corporate scandals: Gazeta