Known colloquially as Ekspres and started in 1963 as an evening paper meant to compete with Večernje novosti, it arrived on the market as the fourth Belgrade daily.
After initial difficulties it eventually managed to build a sizable readership, so that by the early 1980s it achieved a daily circulation in excess of 200,000 copies.
[1] With the disintegration of SFR Yugoslavia followed by wars, the UN trade embargo, and the resulting severe financial crisis that hit Serbia, Ekspres' circulation nosedived.
Widely held view is that Milošević's wife Mira Marković ordered both the article and Ćuruvija's subsequent murder.
With its reputation severely tarnished, the paper continued after the October 2000 regime change, but its financial prospects looked very bleak.