Blic, one of the highest circulation daily newspapers in Serbia, had come up with a great journalistic idea: an eight-day series of articles (small encyclopaedia) under the theme, “All about Serbia.” The articles would feature thought-provoking, eye-opening information on Serbia from various angles: population, economy, health, crime, etc.

But where would Blic get the data – and the maps – needed for such an ambitious project?

Blic Deputy Editor Milorad Ivanovic visited the Public Relations Unit of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, requesting assistance with the large volume of detailed information he needed for this project. The Statistical Office willingly complied, sharing many relevant publications and useful links with him.

During his visit, Mr. Ivanovic was also introduced to DevInfo Serbia – a database system maintained by the Statistical Office containing the latest national human development data. The software caught his eye: he was impressed not only by how easy it was to use, but especially with its built-in mapping features.

To date, Blic did not have any in-house map generating capability; it relied completely on externally prepared maps. As a result, the prospect of developing low-tech, in-house map production skills excited Mr. Ivanovic greatly. The Blic journalists quickly learned the DevInfo Serbia software, and immediately they began using it to search for data and generate the needed maps for the feature articles.

No one could have predicted how much of a national hit this article series would be. When the articles along with their accompanying maps finally ran in the Blic over an eight-day period from 18 to 25 July 2010, the overall daily newspaper circulation jumped by an average of 10,000 copies! The article topics - Population, Economy, Health and Nutrition, Crime, Traffic and Ecology, Education, Culture and Sport, and Policy and Army – successfully grabbed the attention of the public, who were eager to pore over the fascinating data and maps. Even several weeks after the series had finished its run, readers were still visiting the Blic office to purchase back copies of the issues they had missed!

Mr. Ivanovic and the rest of the Blic management were tremendously satisfied with the new in-house research and mapping capabilities afforded them by this new software. As an outcome of this project, discussions are under way between Blic and the Statistical Office to find new ways to integrate DevInfo with future journalistic needs.