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ELTA is a Lithuanian news agency based in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius. In a day, it receives about 5,000 news articles and produces about 300 articles in Lithuanian, Russian, and English. ELTA cooperates with foreign news agencies such as Reuters, Associated Press, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Polish Press Agency and others.[2]
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 who sought to make the ELTA news wire as efficient and reliable as a "Swiss watch".
Juozas Eretas became connected to Lithuania through Lithuanian students at Fribourg University in late 1917, recommended by the pro-Lithuanian professor Gustav Šniurier.[3]
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.[2]
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.[2]
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.[2]
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.[4]
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.[5] Companies controlled by Vitas Tomkus, publisher of the daily Respublika, acquired about 60% of ELTA in 2005. In 2006, Algirdas Pilvelis, publisher of the daily Lietuvos aidas, acquired 39.51% of shares that were owned by the government.[6]
In August 2017, Gitana Markovičienė announced plans to purchase the controlling stake in ELTA and became the new CEO.[7] 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.[8]
In 2022, Delfi news portals owned by the Estonian AS Ekspress Grupp bought all ELTA shares.[9] 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.[10]
ELTA directors were:[2]
