The newspaper was founded in September 1996 by a group of Austria-based businessmen that included Peter Kelbel and Aleksandar Lupšić, who simultaneously bought Bratislava's "Nový čas" though the original newspaper had been started a year before (in 1995, as weekly) and had drawn some journalists who had previously been working for Borba and Nasa Borba. At the time of his investment in "Blic", Lupšić had strong ties to Milošević's wife Mira Marković and her party Yugoslav Left (JUL). The first issue of "Blic" appeared on September 16, 1996 thus becoming the 10th daily newspaper to be published in FR Yugoslavia at the time (the other nine being "Politika", "Borba", "Dnevnik", "Pobjeda", "Narodne novine", "Večernje novosti", "Politika ekspres", "Naša borba", and "Dnevni telegraf").