BTA Director General: LIK Magazine Is Expanding Its Mission with Editions in Foreign Languages

Filip Pavlov, BTA correspondent Stanimir Dimitrov

BTA Director General Kiril Valchev during the presentation of the latest issue of LIK magazine, September 1, 2025 (BTA Photo/Hristo Stefanov)

Sozopol, on the Black Sea,

01.09.2025 14:52

(BTA)

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LIK magazine is expanding its mission with editions in foreign languages, BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said Monday during a presentation of the latest issue of LIK, the BTA magazine for art and culture. The launch event was part of the "Price of Success" section of the forum.

Valchev emphasized the importance of the publication’s new initiatives, including its renewed look and its publication in foreign languages, which allow LIK to present Bulgaria on the international stage. He noted that the bold break with the magazine's traditional logo from the 1960s was not easy for him, but stressed that the magazine has sent over 300 issues to cultural institutions in Bulgaria and abroad over the past year, expanding the scope of its influence and accessibility. He also emphasized that the magazine has a completely new font, which itself is called LIK and which BTA started using at the beginning of 2025 as well.

The way of presenting each issue of the magazine is also new, Valchev said, pointing out that during the presentation of the current issue BTA will try to connect the Apollonia festival with 40 National Press Clubs of BTA in the country and abroad. He noted that another novelty is the video presentation of LIK, as well as LIK on the radio, namely on the Hristo Botev programme of the Bulgarian National Radio, hosted by LIK Editor-in-Chief Georgi Lozanov.

There is also interest from abroad, Valchev stressed. "For example, the University of Bucharest asked us to send them LIK because the Bulgarian studies professors said that they had studied the language using the LIK magazine. So, free access to BTA was expanded with the paper issue of the LIK magazine," he pointed out, adding that publishing the magazine in foreign languages is an important highlight and a serious investment, both in the translation itself and in the additional circulation.

Valchev recalled that in 2024, one issues was dedicated to Bulgarian science in Antarctica, which was published in English and Spanish, noting that there was a very great interest in this issue throughout the Spanish-speaking countries, through which the Bulgarian research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) passes. The issue dedicated to Bulgaria and UNESCO was published in Bulgarian and French, he noted, while the April issue was published in Bulgarian and Japanese. Several LIK issues have also been published in English.

Valchev also recalled the presentation of BTA's LIK issue at the EXPO 2025 in Osaka, dedicated to the world exhibitions in which Bulgaria participated. "The issue was published in Japanese. About 40 students of Bulgarian studies in Japan came from different universities and wanted to have both issues in order to use the magazine for learning Bulgarian", he noted. BTA will seek assistance to expand the possibilities of presenting future LIK issues, Valchev stated, just as the agency presented the issue dedicated to the Bulgarian National Radio in London at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute.

For the new forms of presentation of LIK magazine, Valchev thanked Editor-in-Chief Georgi Lozanov and Managing Editor Yanitsa Hristova, as well as the designers from BTA. “Let us thank the colleagues involved in these presentations, the readers, correspondents, reporters, as well as the people who have contributed to LIK over the past 60 years", he said. He noted that BTA has made major investments in recent years in the presentation of cultural and festival tourism.

LIK has dedicated its August issue to the 130th anniversary of organzed tourism in Bulgaria. It highlights one of the emblematic initiatives of the Bulgarian Tourist Union, the “Get to Know Bulgaria – 100 National Tourist Sites” movement. The initiative spans a wide range of natural, historical, cultural, and archaeological landmarks, their number being 242 as of 2024, with each presented in LIK’s August issue.

/MR/