Dir Sejt

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Dir Sejt (pronounced /dɪə ˈseɪt/; Ambian for The Times) is a bi-weekly Ambian newspaper owned by Sejtgessel. The newspaper was formed in 1904 and is Amberia's oldest continuously running newspaper. Considered Amberia's newspaper of record by international media pundits, Dir Sejt has been praised for it's strong reporting style, but has been criticized for it's often bombastic headlines and a heavy focus on political news.
The newspaper has traditionally been a broadsheet newspaper, but in recent years Dir Sejt, under the guidance of CEO Arman Blankell, has been moving towards a more tabloid-esque look and feel, in attempts to win back readers switching to other newspapers. Despite this, Dir Sejt has a strong and loyal fanbase, reporting a total of around two million readers in 2019 alone.
== History ==
Dir Sejt was first conceptualised in 1900 by Gottfried Howick. Howick had been looking into the newspaper industry and saw the potential it could possibly carry. He took up a part-time job at a sawmill in Cantshire and after three years raised enough money to buy a printing press from Jetzeburg. The first issue of the newspaper was published on April 11th, 1904. The newspaper initially had low reading numbers; reportedly, some didn't know what the point of the newspaper, while others weren't interested enough. After broadening the newspaper's coverage from Cantshire only to the entire country, Howick noted that front-page stories on important current affairs issues did really well for reading numbers, and the paper aimed to do that.
By 1930 the paper alleged to have 500 thousand readers across Amberia, with around 34 people working on the newspaper in it's headquarters in Cantshire. Around the same time, Dir Sejt's first rival, Dir Ambjerani-Papera, started up, ending Dir Sejt's monopoly in the Ambian newspaper industry. When the Great War started in 1936, Dir Sejt's front cover solely had bold black text reading "WIE IST BAR KRAJGE", meaning 'we are at war'. This edition did really well, inspiring Dir Sejt to run with big bombastic headlines.
Dir Sejt's well-known yellow logo was introduced in 1945; originally, it was red, but this was changed as the communist movement sparked in Amberia.
Howick died in 1956 from liver cancer. He was succeeded as CEO by Luitpold Clausewitz.
== In popular culture ==
Dir Sejt's notability has led to people often parodying or referencing the newspaper, either in comedy or in other situations. In 1989, the satirical newspaper Fluminusz entered publication. For some time, the paper had a yellow logo like Dir Sejt and parodied it's headlines. Fluminusz decided to drop this style and create a more unique one in 2007, however, after Dir Sejt's owners, Sejtgessel, threatened legal action against Fluminusz, who at the time were an independent publication. Ironically, Fluminusz was bought out by Sejtgessel in 2020, after the former entered bankruptcy due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The paper has been parodied many times in television shows. The Jonathian sitcom series The Blue Man parodied the newspaper during an episode of season two, translating the paper's name into English. Dir Abingen also parodied the newspaper with the fictional publication 'Dir Abina', meaning "the plane".
Category:Newspapers
Category:Newspapers in Amberia
Category:Amberia
Category:Dir Sejt
Category:Sejtgessel