I’m not including any “revista” in newspaper format, and I am only including those that are in the Romanian language which can be easily found in kiosks in Cluj. Revistas, or magazines, like Magazinul, deserve their own article. And there are newspapers in other languages that give useful information, which might be reviewed separately.
Adevărul (monday to thursday)
Adevărul means “the truth.” A lot of what is printed is opinion rather than “adevărul”, but there are enough facts to keep you informed.
Adevărul has many articles that might interest someone new to Romania. There are political analysese, and almost every day we see an expert’s opinion on the government crisis or the military situation and national security. It covers the kind of things American students ask me about when they hear I live in Romania. They also had experts cover the AfD election. (I strongly disagree with their chosen expert on many fronts, she seems to have forgotten anything about Germany in the second half of the 20th century, but anyway.)
On the sixth of October, there was an article about Napoleon’s secret order getting deciphered with AI by Carter Church.
“Potrivit lui Church,” according to Church. “Fiecare domeniu are o listă de probleme de nisă nerezolvată.” You can find the original English version online, to see if you guessed the correct translation.
Like most Romanian newspapers, Adevărul is strongly pro-AI. “Tehnica ar putea fi folosită și de istoricii Antichității,” The technique could also be used by historians of the Ancient World, they say. (That’s not the most pro-AI thing.)
On the seventh of October there was a one page article about the legend of Vlad Tepes, and how he is associated with Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” Not all Romanians would agree with the article, but it includes important historical facts to understand how Bran Castle was associated with Vlad and where the legends begin.
There was also an article about test scores in Romania, an opinion piece. Adevărul has a lot of opinion pieces, where experts analyse the news. It reminds me of Al Jazeera, The Guardian, DW, or CNN, not for political reasons, but for format reasons. (It seems more conservative than The Guardian, but far less far right than Al Jazeera.)
Adevărul weekend (fridays)
This is a great newspaper for Romanian learners as it has a lot of articles that would interest people new to Romania. There are car reviews, cultural knowledge quizzes, interviews with film and tv stars (and other famous Romanians), and often a large historical biography. On the 2-4 October edition, for instance, there was a piece about Ion C Brătianu, Romania’s longest serving prime minister.
I spoke to some American soldiers at a history museum in Cluj, and they said something about learning about World War II. Most westerners do not know much about Romania during the second world war, Adevărul weekend has a lot of articles concerning that period.
Like Sunday papers in the USA, and Saturday or Sunday papers in Britain, it is much longer than the daily paper, but it also has more pages (thus more articles and more information).
Adevărul Weekend is generally conservative, even though it often seems anti-sovereigntist. It seems to be like John Major (or PNL in Romania), politically.
The closest UK equivalent would be The Observer.
Click!
I assume this is from the sound a camera makes when you take a photo.
I don’t read Click! much but I have nothing against people who do. This might be one of the most popular Romanian newspapers, and it has a lot of celebrity news, a lot of pictures, and of course normal news stories. Some of those pictures are a bit too “tabloid” for my taste. Not as papparazi as some British newspapers, but moreso than other Romanian newspapers.
I would put it somewhere in between The Express and The Mirror. Or, maybe The Sun and The Mirror, with a touch of Hello magazine. And I know those are on opposite ends of the polical spectrum, I’m talking about format and style here.
But I haven’t read enough issues to give a full review. And yes, they probably have a fuller Friday issue, which I haven’t read. From what I have read, it has a very good style that makes it easy to read. But some of the pictures make it less than ideal for classroom use, especially teaching teenagers.
Libertatea
“Libertatea” means “liberty.” If liberty accepted an article in English, it would be “The Liberty.”
This is an investigative paper, and it is still entertaining and easy to read.
It has a lot of interesting regular bits, like exchange rates, bank interest rates,
On Friday, it includes the TV guide. Although the Friday paper is more important.
I would say it is the least tabloid. It has longer celebrity interviews than Adevărul, however. And it probably has the best investigative reporting (I don’t count talking to academics, think tanks, and other “desk bound experts” as investigative.) But it has fewer articles of historical interest (in my opinion.)
Apart from politics, I would say it is closer to The Times and The Telegraph, in that it is not as tabloid as other papers.
Ziarul Financiar
“The Financial Newspaper,” or, “The Financial Daily.” In Romanian the definite article is on Newspaper (ZiarUL) because it is attached to the noun.
This is the only specialist magazine I am including. It’s between Forbes Magazine and the Economist, then take that result and mix it with The Financial Times of London.
I haven’t read that many issues, and it is not as widely available as the above three. There are those fluffy interviews of business leaders, but there is also useful information about corporate news, the economy, financial predictions, and just some general news that could affect your job or your business. Yes, I know that environmental and science news could also affect your business, and sometimes we do see this is Ziarul Financiar.
It is on the border of what I would include as a newspaper, and I would supplement it with a local paper for some news stories that might not affect stock prices. If you only had one news source, I would pick from the above three instead. However, sometimes the main newspapers ignore the financial news (or just give a weak, overall analysis) so I wouldn’t rely on them for financial news.
Others
If I didn’t include a newspaper, it doesn’t mean I disapprove of it.
Foreign languages
I haven’t read as many issues of Hungarian language papers, German language papers, or those in other languages. (Romanian Insider is in English, and I haven’t seen it in physical form.)
online only
I’ve seen Gândul online, but not in print. Other large newspapers are now only available online. Yes, this could be a future article.
Supplements
Gazeta sportului is now part of Libertatea. ‘Free with Libertatea,’ it’s been reduced to a few sports pages.
Local papers
We had a separate issue about Romanian language papers from Cluj. Each town has its own newspapers, many are worth reading.
Magazines
And I was once told that “Certitudenea” is a newspaper. I didn’t include “Certitudenea,” or “The Certainty,” because I don’t see it as a “newspaper” in the British sense of the word. Others have accused it of being “antisemetic.”
I wouldn’t compare it to the “The Dearborn Independent.” Most of the articles are more pro-Romanian than anything else. I might strongly disagree with a lot of what is written there, but I don’t think its authors should be arrested for it. (Voltaire’s quote doesn’t seem to have as much traction with a few in Romania as it does in the USA, Britain, and France.) If they said the same about other minorities, they wouldn’t get in as much trouble. (Don’t even get me started on the stuff some “normal” newspapers say about the Rroma. Or how Al Jazeera uses dogwhistles to attack the Bahai.)
But I can read an entire issue and not be any the wiser to what is going on in Romania right now. Its writers talk a lot about archeology, past wrongs (real or imagined) against Romania, and often use pen names from history, like the names of famous poets that have been dead for over 100 years. (Don’t quote the writers, the real Caragiale, the real George Coșbuc, the real Eminescu, etc, never said that.) There are some current events, but these have more to do with limitations on free speech. If anything, I would call it a history journal. There are interesting articles and opinions on pre-historic Romania, but not a lot of up-to-the-minute insights about what is happening today.
It is significant enough to list as a “magazine.”
And there are a few other papers that are inbetween Certitudinea and a normal newspaper. They might cover some current events, but seem more like a “magazine” than a “newspaper.”
Many other publications have less hard news, and even if they have science updates and useful things to specific industries, it is hard to know what is going on in Romania through them. These specialist publications are usually less political and more factual than many national newspapers, and I sometimes wish the writers could take that style to mainstream newspapers.
Religious and specialist newspapers
There are also some religious newspapers, Catholic or Orthodox, that might interest you. They deserve their own article.