Written by: Lana Pavić
Photos: Daniel Gjurček
In February of this year, the Ipsos agency published the results of the first comprehensive survey of the readership of Croatian portals. The research was based on Dotmetrics technology, and showed that the Indeks.hr portal is by far the most read, with a fascinating 272,044,420 monthly page views (data for January 2025).
These results did not surprise those familiar with the domestic media scene, but they were an excellent incentive to talk to the man behind all of Index’s successes. He is Matija Babić, the director and owner of Index, a 47-year-old entrepreneur who does not mystify either his own work or his achievements. He refuses to call himself a journalist, is extremely reluctant to give interviews, but in his rare appearances he provokes divided reactions from the public. He is the type of public figure that you either love or get on your nerves. He has numerous critics who do not like his Index, but they read it every day, contributing to Babić’s great success that goes beyond Croatian borders.
How does it feel to be at the top?
Well, good… The data is new, public, but we have known for years that we are doing well. Over the past 15 years, we have only increased our dominance in the market. We are constantly working on adding new things, developing in various directions. Everything that other media outlets don’t do. I think we may be the only ones in Croatian media that really care about this business. This success is, therefore, just a consequence of that. Maybe because we didn’t get into this business for the money or the numbers. Of course, in the end, those numbers make us happy and that’s the only fair thing.
Now we are visited almost as much as everyone else combined, and the difference in quality, enthusiasm and everything we offer to society contributes to this. I believe that in the future, that difference will only increase.
Getting to the top is an art, but staying at the top is even greater. How do you think about competition; in a small country like Croatia, everyone wants a piece of the same pie…
Competition here is not great at all. One of the key problems of working in Croatia is a very small market that is not particularly rich. On the other hand, that’s actually a plus for someone like us.
In short, I think that there is no competition in Croatia. It is much easier to work in Croatia than it would be in Germany or Great Britain. At least, we would probably be able to earn a lot more there and create much bigger things…
In Croatia, you have almost no one to fight against. I think that few people do a good job and do their job honestly. So what we do is relatively easy.
We started more than two decades ago. Making any money at that time was almost impossible for us. On the one hand, we had the complete dominance of HDZ politically, and on the other hand, the complete dominance of people like, for example, Ivica Todorić economically. For a long time, we were the only media outlet that wrote objectively about Todorić. For a long time, we were also the only media outlet that wrote objectively about Sanader. And of course, the money didn’t come to us. However, what I always believed was that if you work honestly and if you put in the effort, at some point you simply become so strong that they can’t avoid you anymore.
You believed in your principle, but you had a number of collaborators with you for whom working on the portal was their primary job and basic source of income, which you would not have if the portal was not making money. How easy or difficult was it to fall asleep at those times, not knowing whether you would be able to pay people?
It wasn’t just about thinking whether I would be able to pay people, there were months when we really couldn’t. It was around 2012, 2013… It was very difficult to fall asleep then, those were days with a stomach ache.
When Index started having serious problems, I gathered all the people and informed them about the times that were coming. I told them that I thought that for anyone who had children, who needed greater security for other reasons, it was best to leave. However, a good number of people stayed, a good number of people believed in my vision, and I never had a dilemma that I would save Index. At that time, some advertisers cancelled our contracts because they believed that we wouldn’t be able to live to see the end of the year. But I, for one, never had that dilemma, even though we literally had no money.
My girlfriend at the time and I had no money for anything. We didn’t have a car, nothing, we didn’t have anything. Those were difficult times, but not for a moment did I have any doubt that we would save Index.
What was driving you; was it madness, was it spite, was it some higher idea that you don’t give up on?
All of the above. For business, perhaps the key trait is great perseverance, And I have it. I am very persistent in business, and I am certainly driven by spite.. The feeling that you are doing something right also helps. I really believed all along that what we are doing is right. In addition, I love the fight, but also revenge. There were times when I actively took revenge on some people.
Are these perhaps some accumulated frustrations from your youth?
All of us are a combination of what accumulates in us over time. I believe that I would not have had half of this success without frustrations. In business success, such things help. I think you have to be a little “crazy” to be able to build all of that, to have all that will, to sacrifice so much to succeed, to prove yourself in something.
If, for example, I had been a great athlete when I was young, if I had been tall, handsome, if all the women loved me, if I had been full of money, everything would probably be different. Otherwise, you prove yourself throughout your life, you fight. And frustration certainly helps with that.
Were there any days when you were afraid when Index first started? Fear for your own safety, possibly for your life? Were you afraid?
I wouldn’t say so. I’m a man who loves excitement. Boredom is much worse for me than even some kind of fear. Boredom is the worst. Maybe I’ve been afraid for others at some point in my life, but not for myself. In some dangerous situations, I would feel spite rather than fear. But maybe in some situations you’re not smart enough to assess whether there’s a serious danger involved. You’re simply pushing your own agenda. I’m quite stubborn and persistent. Plus, when you’re young, you simply don’t think about these possible problems.
You mentioned revenge a moment ago? Isn’t that a sign of cruelty?
I am a man who believes in my vision of justice and if you want justice, you need to fight for it yourself. If someone does you serious harm, you need to pay them back for two reasons. First, because you want to achieve your own justice, and then as a warning for the future.
For example, Slavko Linić, Minister of Finance in the Government of the Republic of Croatia from 2011 to 2014, caused us great harm for a while. The reason was that we were the only media outlet that dealt with his corrupt activities. I firmly set myself the task of dedicating years to causing maximum damage to him and his followers. For a simple reason: let it be a message to all others who want to harm us in a similar way, that the same will await them. And today we really try to do that.
But isn’t the principle that you should be guided by, then, that you yourself should be absolutely fair?
At that time, a part of the public seriously resented your failure to pay taxes, which is a legal obligation for legal and private entities.
I believe that each of us has our own vision of the world. What really matters to me is what I think is right, what the law thinks is right is less important to me. The law once thought slavery was right, the law thought Nazism was right. So what matters to me is whether I feel good about the actions I take.
I think that in a business sense I have always done the right and just thing, and who will share my opinion is less important to me. There is a circle of people who agree with me on this, these are people I am good with. I am proud of them and what I have done, even when it comes to tax evasion.
What formed your understanding of justice? Upbringing, some philosophical movement, religion?
Religion certainly did not. Although I have a certain respect for religion, it has not influenced me. I believe that a good part of ethics comes from us. I don’t think any of us are born evil, so if you don’t hear the Ten Commandments of God, you will feel like killing someone. You won’t. For example, as a kid I never liked to mistreat animals. No one needed to tell me that. It was simply in me…
In my formative years, some Croatian journalists, like Viktor Ivančić, were incredibly important to me. These are people who significantly shaped me, at least in a journalistic sense, but also in a general understanding of Croatia and the world. Viktor Ivančić most of all. But I don’t want to equate myself with him here, in fact I’m ashamed to put myself in the same sentence as Feral Tribune because I think that what Feral Tribune did was true courage. Not what I did. They were literally on the verge of life and death at one point.
So in my journalistic work, my ethics, or some would say ethics in quotes, definitely come from them. Ultimately, the entire Index and my entire journalistic work were a consequence of that. Which from today’s position I even blame myself a little for. Namely, I consider myself an extra talented person for a lot more interesting and fun things than doing stupid Croatian journalism.
You know, spending your life on a country of four million inhabitants. But now I’m where I am, in my current age I’m trying to find myself some more fun challenges and absolutely neither Croatia nor Croatian politics are of interest to me anymore. no life priority. I’m doing other things now.
How much work do you have operationally at Index, it’s always a matter of whether and in what way you deal with the portal?
I’m currently officially both the director and the owner, and whether I’ll be the director in the long term, I have no idea, probably not.
Have you ever wanted to train some new journalists in a journalistic sense? Are you involved in that?
I do, but indirectly; in a way that primarily the entire Index strategy is mine. What I’ve always really liked is the entire development of UX (user experience), and that’s one of the things that Index is, in my opinion, the best at, because we definitely provide the best experience when reading the portal. I’m also dedicated to developing all new directions…
In journalism itself, I deal exclusively with topics that are very interesting to me, which I believe are key, and that happens, say, once or twice a month. However, I must emphasize that I’m not a journalist at all. Journalism is just one of the things that interests me. For journalism, especially serious journalism, I have too little concentration, I can’t read something for a long time, let alone do some kind of detailed fact-checking. I can’t do that, I don’t have it in me. But that’s why there’s, for example, our editor Andreja Hudika, who is extremely dedicated to it. We’re a good match in those things.
For example, it’s much more important to me that the title sounds nice to me, that the sentence sounds nice to me, that it has spirit and humour. Then I just insert those numbers and facts that others do for me.
Today it’s quite clear that Indeks is very profitable thanks to numerous advertisers who want as much reach as possible. And yet, many who read portals don’t know how the media works in principle. They often speculate who is behind Indeks…
I can always be completely transparent, but I never feel the need to convince the public of anything. I’ve been doing this job since I was nineteen, and honestly, I don’t care what the public thinks. About me, about Indeks, about anything… I don’t even need to answer when someone comes to me and says – you’re paid by Plenkovic. It is important to me that people read me, and one of the good things about Index is that we even live off of people who hate us. That’s good for me, because if I lived only off of people who love me, I would have a little less money.
What is best of all, our entire financing is very, very transparent. Anyone can come to the portal and see how many ads there are. We live exclusively off of advertisers.
By the way, my great good fortune was that I didn’t need money when I was young. I was driven by ambition and the spite we talked about. I didn’t care about money. Back then, I just wanted to go out and have fun. Now I love money, but right now it comes by itself, so I can still be principled.
Somehow it seems that you don’t appreciate the importance of Index for Croatian society highly enough. For a functioning democracy, the existence of exactly such media is necessary. It is enough to look at Croatia’s neighbourhood and see what happens where media freedom is limited.
I am aware that we have made great sacrifices, especially in the first ten years, but whether we have seriously changed society for the better, I have no idea. I am glad, of course, when some people think that Index is the difference between Plenković’s Croatia and Vučić’s Serbia.
We are a media outlet that has always published major corruption scandals, which is partly why it was not possible for some force to completely rule Croatia, as is happening in Serbia. So I am flattered that we have truly changed society for the better.
They say that when people reach a certain level of income, as well as personal development, then they start to be interested in things such as gastronomy, healthy living, art, travel… Has that change happened to you too? It is true, you once told me that art is not something that you are particularly interested in…
Art is definitely not my thing, of course I am not saying that as something to brag about, but I simply do not understand it. Each of us has something, something we do not have. I don’t; maybe I would like to…
But that’s why you’re in love with gastronomy…
I cook a lot, but I’ve always loved food. But I love it in an anti-snobbish, “anti-Michelin” way. That’s what I try to show in TasteAtlas. That’s why, to some extent, my project has become a global hit. What is luxury today? Having time, having energy and, of course, health.
In gastronomy, the biggest thing is having access to good food. You can have that if, for example, you have a good garden. A garden that you take care of yourself. And you don’t need a lot of money for that anymore. People, especially young people, today greatly appreciate value for money.
So, today’s great luxury is authenticity plus something quality drawn from tradition.
When you mention young people, due to the rapid development of technology, we usually always question the future of media. What do you think the media of the future will look like?
Generally speaking, the media scene is democratizing, opening up. Various new formats are becoming much more interesting and people are becoming open to more and more things. Gatekeepers are over; It’s over with us only having Jutarnji and Vecernji, and then they serve up something for the whole society to think about. That doesn’t exist anymore, that story is over forever.
Part of the public sees you as impulsive, a bit arrogant. Is that felt in your work in the editorial office? Young people who work in the media today can’t stand that type of authority…
I’m absolutely never in the editorial office, I haven’t been there in five years. I’m in contact with them exclusively via Slack, that’s the system we use to communicate. But regardless of the communication channel, I never swear, I don’t insult anyone, never…
10 or 15 years ago I might have written something like you’re not normal, but not anymore. First, you don’t get anything out of it, you just show weakness. Second, you can’t talk to people like that anymore because they’ll quit. People quit for much smaller things these days. For example, chef Mate Janković, my best friend, would like to continue being like that in restaurants today. But you can’t – people will fire you right away. Even Filipinos. I would only work with them, by the way. Great people.
Does that mean you’ve grown up?
We’re all growing up. For me, the business and the results we achieve are incomparably more important than my ego. I have not become a softer person, nor a better person, but I know that I must not say anything bad to these people, because they will quit. And that’s it. Very pragmatic, actually…
Let’s get back to the nicer things. You have travelled a lot. Some have called your travels an escape from Croatia. What was it about?
Coincidentally, just before COVID, I travelled to Vietnam with the intention of resting for a few weeks. The pandemic took hold, part of the world closed down, and in Vietnam at that time there were still no cases of infection. And I decided to stay for a while. It was fantastic, especially because of the feeling of authenticity. At that moment, there were, let’s say, a thousand tourists in all of Vietnam. So that may never happen again; a time when you could experience authentic Vietnam.
We saw how Vietnam really lives, because tourism destroys authenticity. I have nothing against tourism, of course, because people have to make a living from something, but for someone who wants to see an authentic place, tourism is in a way a show.
Even the most beautiful places in the world, if they are touristy, I am not interested in them. At one point, we reached the very border of Vietnam and China. There are never any tourists there, there are no hotels, you sleep in some small rooms built of plywood and there are, let’s say, 20 people on that floor. You can hear everyone and everyone can hear you. Especially now, with the passage of time, I consider it more beautiful than any 5-star resort. These are real memories and real experiences. That is what I enjoy.
How do you see your own future?
All I know is that I want to constantly monitor what is happening around me. I try to get a sense of the direction in which things are developing and be prepared for it. However, everything is so fast and so intense that there is no peace there. However, these are the times in which I enjoy and in which I am doing well.
Already, Index, but not only Index but also some of my other projects, such as the new project Baby Food Snap, are heading in that direction. I consider myself to be among those in Croatia who understand this at least to some extent and know how to deal with it.
Balašević sang: “I’m already halfway there…” Are you a happy man?
I think I am. First, it is questionable what happiness is, but let’s say – satisfaction. Am I satisfied much more of the time than dissatisfied? Yes. In fact, there are very few things I am dissatisfied with. I am dissatisfied, for example, when I have to spend two hours on an interview. That is, for example, a situation in which I do not enjoy…
I keep a kind of happiness calendar for myself in which I write down the situations throughout the day or week that fulfil me. And then I try to repeat those situations in which I am happy as much and as often as possible, and I try to remove situations in which I am not happy from my life. So with this “engineering” approach I want to achieve that I am happy as often as possible.
