RIGA — Citadiena.lv, the online news site created by former Diena staffers that resigned from Latvia’s largest daily in protest, will begin publishing a weekly print magazine early next year.

The magazine’s creation marks the transition for the venture from a well-produced but amateur website to a full-fledged business. Citadiena.lv was put together by Diena’s top journalists after they left the country’s most influential paper when its new ownership was not disclosed. The website has been up and running since October and staffed on a completely voluntary basis.

The first edition of the magazine is set for publication at the end of January or beginning of February. The title has not been released yet but the content has been decided to be general news, economic news, culture and society.

“The way we define it is a mixture of The Economist and Vanity Fair,” Pauls Raudseps, the former Diena opinion section editor and current Citadiena.lv staffer, told Baltic Reports. “It’s going to have a very serious internet aspect as well. The key to having a successful media, is to have both elements.”

The website Citadiena.lv will be updated daily with shorter-length articles, while the weekly magazine will have longer-form pieces. Investment for the project is still being negotiated.

“The important thing to say is we’re very focused in making sure that everyone knows who they are, no jack in the boxes, nothing like that,” Raudseps said. “We want to make sure there’s a range of investors and none of them have a dominant share in the community, that’s a way to show we have broad support and we’re not a tool for any interest. No politicians, so people understand that this is a publication out serve readers.”

The magazine will publish in Latvian, but Raudseps said editions in other languages could be down the road.

“We’re starting in Latvian,” Raudseps said. “If we think it can be sold abroad, we’ll consider other languages.”