ELTA

History

Interwar

ELTA was founded in March 1920 in Kaunas, the temporary capital of Lithuania, by Juozas Eretas, the first director of the agency, a literature professor, publicist, and public figure of Swiss descent.

ELTA was founded based on Lithuanian press bureaus that were established in Switzerland, Denmark, France, Sweden, Germany during World War I. The agency was owned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Between 1920 and 1940, ELTA cooperated closely with the most prominent foreign agencies – its five teleprinters used to send news from Reuters (UK), DNB (Germany), Havas (France), Stefani (Italy) and TASS (Soviet Union). ELTA also employed correspondents in Berlin and Moscow.

Soviet occupation

When Soviet troops occupied Lithuania in 1940, ELTA was incorporated into TASS and relayed news from Moscow. Lithuanians who escaped the Soviet occupation established a free ELTA Information Bureau in Berlin in 1944, headed by Antanas Valiukėnas. The Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania (VLIK) published various ELTA bulletins in Lithuanian, German, Italian, English, Spanish and Portuguese.

From 1953, a bulletin in German called ELTA-Pressedienst began to be published in Reutlingen; from 1954 – in Italian in Rome called ELTA Press; from 1956 – in New York in English called ELTA Information Service; from 1961 – in Buenos Aires in Spanish.

In 1965, the agency's Information Service, led by the VLIK and supported by the National Fund, was moved from Germany to the United States of America, with branches remaining in Munich and Rome. Agency bulletins were published periodically in Lithuanian, English, Italian and German, and aperiodically in Spanish, Portuguese, and French in Brazil, Italy, France, Venezuela, West Germany, and the United States.

Post-1990

When Lithuania restored independence in 1990, ELTA also re-established its independence from TASS and its direct contacts with the leading global agencies. In 1996, ELTA was partially sold by the government of Lithuania (the law required the government to retain at least 35% of the shares). In 2003, MG Baltic owned 50.86% and Achema Group owned 6.75% of the shares. Companies controlled by , publisher of the daily Respublika, acquired about 60% of ELTA in 2005. In 2006, , publisher of the daily Lietuvos aidas, acquired 39.51% of shares that were owned by the government.

In August 2017, Gitana Markovičienė announced plans to purchase the controlling stake in ELTA and became the new CEO. The deal for the purchase of 80% of the shares closed in February 2018. GM Media Invest, owned by Markovičienė, acquired the remaining 20% of shares in January 2020 to become the sole owner of ELTA.

In 2022, Delfi news portals owned by the Estonian AS Ekspress Grupp bought all ELTA shares. According to Ekspress Grupp's 2023 annual report, the acquisition of ELTA (along with news portal Lrytas) contributed significantly to the company's revenue growth, with 72 employees transferred from the acquired companies.

Directors

ELTA directors were:

• Juozas Eretas (1920–1922)
• Matas Šalčius (1922–1923)
• (1923)
• Magdalena Avietėnaitė (1924–1926)
• Justas Paleckis (1926–1927)
• (1927–1928)
• Edvardas Turauskas (1928–1934)
• (1934–1939)
• (1939–1940)
• Kostas Korsakas (1940)
• Jurgis Griška (1941)
• Aleksejus Jermakovas (1944–1945)
• Andrejus Murachtanovas (1945–1953)
• (1953–1978)
• Feliksas Pažūsis (1978–1982)
• Algimantas Mykolas Stankevičius (1982–1989)
• Robertas Grikevičius (1989–1990)
• Rolandas Barysas (1990–1991)
• Vidmantas Putelis (1991)
• Adolfas Gurskis (1992–1993)
• (1993–1996)
• Kęstutis Jankauskas (1996–2004)
• Raimondas Kurlianskis (2004–2005)
• Rimantas Kanapienis (2005)
• Algis Kalanta (2005–2006)
• Gražina Ramanauskaitė-Tiumenevienė (2007–2015)
• Romas Bubnelis (2015–2017)
• Gitana Markovičienė (2017–2022)
• Daiva Juozaitytė (2022–2023)
• Vytautas Bruveris (since 2023)

References

References

1. "Lietuvos telegramų agentūra ELTA apyvarta".
2. "Juozas Eretas". Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras.
3. "ELTA". Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras.
4. Baltic News Service. (20 May 2003). "Elta likely to be fully private by year's end". The Baltic Times.
5. Baltic News Service. (6 October 2006). "Leidėją A. Pilvelį FNTT pričiupo prieš pat baigiantis bylos senaties terminui". Alfa.lt.
6. Baltic News Service. (11 August 2017). "Buyer appointed as CEO of ELTA news agency". The Lithuania Tribune.
7. (30 January 2020). ""GM Media Invest" įsigijo likusius 20 proc. Eltos akcijų".
8. (31 May 2022). ""Ekspress Grupp" perka naujienų agentūrą ELTA".
9. (2024). "AS Ekspress Grupp: Consolidated unaudited interim report for Q4 and 12 months of 2023". AS Ekspress Grupp.
10. Šniukas, Domas. (2020-02-26). "ELTA". Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras.
11. BNS. (1 July 2022). "Naujienų agentūros ELTA direktore tapo D. Juozaitytė, vyr. redaktoriumi – V. Bruveris". Kauno diena.
12. BNS. (18 May 2023). "ELTA vyriausiasis redaktorius V. Bruveris taps ir naujienų agentūros direktoriumi". Kauno diena.