BPN 1596 De Pers stops

The Dutch freesheet De Pers will stop publication after five years by the end of March. The paper was appreciated as an originalquality paper. The Dutch market will be left with two throwaway freesheets: Metro and Sp!ts.

De Pers was started by the millionaire and only Dutch press baron after the Second World War Marcel Boekhoorn. He gained his fortune, amongst others, by buying the telecom company Telfort and selling it to the Dutch incumbent KPN. He was convinced on the basis of a business plan by the publisher Cornelis van den Berg, that the free newspaper would make other newspapers superfluous and upset the Dutch media landscape. Boekhoorn believed in the dream and pumped millions of euro in his dream.

When De Pers was launched on January 23, 2007 there were three free newspapers in the market: Metro and Sp!ts. Metro was started with the help of the Dutch railway company, while Sp!ts was the answer to Metro by the largest Dutch newspaper company De Telegraaf. Later the three were joined byDag, which was a lukewarm attempt by the ailing Perscombinatie (PCM) and did not see its first anniversary.

De Pers started to build up its circulation carefully, going from an urban distribution to a national distribution and from a six days in the week distribution to a five working days edition.

De Pers had a rough ride. It was praised by the readers as a quality paper, however the advising companies never really believed in it. The economic trend downwards since 2008 up to 2012 did not help. In 2009 the commercial exploitation was outsourced for 13 years to the Wegener company, specialised in regional newspapers, for a 16 million euro fee. For Wegener, De Pers was supposed to function as a magnet to attract national advertisements, which also would have an effect on the regional Wegener newspapers. Also the printing, distribution, IT and editorial staffs would cooperate with each other. But Wegener was in its own economic turmoil and did not make any hay on the advertisement market.

Wegener was unable to earn the 16 million euro fee and the turn over got stuck on only a few million euro. Wegener and Boekhoorn’s company Mountain Media have now agreed to stop De Pers. Wegener will pay 45 million euro to Mountain Media. This money will be used to buy off financial obligations against suppliers and 45 people editorial staff.

It is a pity that De Pers will disappear from the Dutch market due to the turmoil at Wegener. This morning De Pers published a press release, informing the market that De Pers is for sale. This operspective is not very encouraging, but the editorial staff could be an asset to an internet publication.

Recently the newspaper published a pdf with the best articles (in Dutch) of the past five years.

BPN 1596

BPN 1186 Dutch newspapers are rearranging the landscape again

It is summer time, but the Dutch newspaper publishers PCM and Wegener are talking about rearranging their common assets and about swapping titles. PCM wants to buy the minority share of 37 per cent in AD from Wegener, while Wegener wants to buy the free local newspapers of PCM.

The news that Wegener wants to sell its minority share in AD (the former Het Algemene Dagblad) is surprising. Until 2005 AD was a lost leader within PCM. But AD has picked up and had a circulation of 468.000 copies and was profitable last year. The newspaper merged at that time with the paid regional dailies of PCM and Wegener, leading to a national edition with seven regional editions. In the title PCM owns 63 per cent of the share, while Wegener has a minority of 37 per cent of the share; yet both have an equal say of 50 per cent in the venture. The 37 per cent of shares is valued at 20 million euro. Surprisingly PCM wanted to buy all the shares in 2006, but Wegener kept them, despite the difficult management of a daily newspaper by two newspaper companies, as insiders have indicated.

AD has an illustrious history of editorial items such as the annual green herring test. With a summer of sports events ahead such as the European Soccer Championship, the Tour de France and the Olympic Games it announced a trial of a sport daily. Although the results have been encouraging, a continuation has been called off.

At the same time both companies talk about swapping the free local media of PCM to Wegener. PCM has 27 free local editions with a circulation of 1 million copies in the delta between Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht. Wegener being a major regional publisher would like to expand its local free newspaper market. In this way ad sales people are able to sell package deals for their local paid media, but also their local free media.

PCM will be able to pay the AD minority share package from the revenues of the sale of ThiemeMeulenhoff to NDC/VBK for which it will receive 170 million euro.

The move by Wegener is unexpected as the new owner of Wegener, Mecom, said last year, that the company was committed to its minority share. But after a year things have changed: a profit demand of 15 to 20 per cent by the holding Mecom and the new management at Wegener. In the background also plays Mecom’s financial state of art and strategy. Presently the company is involved in the sales of its Norwegian daughter Edda Media, the former Orkla Media.

The talks are still in an early stage and are dependent on some conditions such as transaction documentation and the green light of the monopoly watchdog. PCM and Wegener hope to complete the deal before the end of the year.

Blog Posting Number: 1186

Tags: newspapers

Wegener part of Mecom now

The acquisition of the Dutch newspaper company Royal Wegener by the British Mecom Group Plc is definite. Mecom has picked up 86,56 percent of the Wegener shares. The parties have announced that Mecom declares its recommended public offer for all issued and outstanding ordinary shares in the share capital of Wegener unconditional. Mecom has decided not to announce a subsequent tender period for the outstanding shares. Mecom offered 800 million euro for Wegener. Mecom offered 17,70 euro per Wegenere share or 14,29 Mecom shares per Wegener share.

This ends the period for shareholders to hand in their shares and agree with the acquisition. As after the official period, there was more than 75 percent of the shares handed in, but not 95 percent, the period was extended. De facto Wegener is now part of the Mecom Group. Mecom has decided that there is no subsequent tender period for the shareholders who did not hand in their shares.

During the tender period Wegener shareholder Governance for Owners llp (GO) indicated that it did not agree with the offer. It looked for other parties of disgruntled shareholders. In September GO indicated that it was talking to those parties. But apparently they have been unable to convince them to withhold converting their shares. GO possessed a package of 13,3 percent of Wegener shares. Mecom will be able to smoke out GO.

In the meantime the acquisition has received the seal of approval from the Dutch monopoly watch dog NMa. The authority has agreed with the acquisition under the condition that Mecom will divest the majority of the free broadsheet newspapers group De Trompetter. These newspapers are delivered door to door in the South of the Netherlands. The NMa judged that especially in Limburg competition in the advertisement market was needed. Now a part of the Media Group Limburg will have to be sold, most likely to regional competitors such the German newspaper company Aachener Verlag or the Belgian publisher Concentra.

The acquisition has yielded unrest especially among the employees of the Brabant newspapers. Presently there are three newspapers (BN/DeStem, Brabants Dagblad en Eindhovens Dagblad) being produced in that province.. Mecom CEO David Montgomery is of the conviction that a regional newspaper can be produced by 75 employees. The Branbat newspapers exceed this norm.

Mecom sees this acquisition as another piece of the European continental puzzle. It has already regional newspapers in Germany, Poland, Denmark and Norway. By acquiring Wegener it covers a large part of the Netherlands.

Blog Posting Number: 909

Tags: newspapers

Mecom’s scorching policy on Europe

The British media investor Mecom is following a scorching policy in building a European newspaper and online empire. Having just published a prospectus for acquiring the Dutch newspaper company Royal Wegener, Peter Skulimma, member of the board charged with strategy, is on his next mission: the German market.

Mecom is expanding its newspaper and online business on the European continent. The company owns newspaper operations in Denmark, Norway and Poland. With Wegener the company will have the majority of the regional newspaper market in the Netherlands. And the company has already regional newspapers in Hamburg and Berlin. But the company wants more of the German market.

The Dutch newspaper market is a curious market with a dominance of national newspapers and rather strict regulations on cross-media ownership. But the German market situation is even worse, as can be seen from the typology of the German newspaper market. There are many regional newspapers and hardly any national newspapers, except for three titles: Bild, Süddeutsche Zeiting and der Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. This development is due to the legal framework which finds its origins in the legislation after the Second World War.

But Mecom wants to change the landscape of the German newspapers. It has already two newspaper operations in Germany and recently bought Netzeitung. But Mecom wants more. The company has been talking to the managers of the mostly family-owned companies. It has also started to throw up ideas like a Sunday paper for its Berlin newspaper, which would cost Mecom more than a seven digit figure to start up. In an interview with Reuters Peter Skulimma indicated in what direction he is thinking by dropping a few names, for example of the Sächsische Zeitung and the Süddeutsche Zeiting. So far Mecom has only companies in the Northern part of Germany. So a Southern or a national newspaper would be welcome to reach more nation wide coverage.

Establishing a stronghold in Germany would give Mecom the chance to connect the newspaper companies in the other countries from Norway to Denmark and Germany, from Poland to Germany and from the Netherlands to Germany. It would also open up the road for a sweep into Austria and Switzerland. From there Mecom either could go South to France, Italy or Spain. But it has also the opportunity to go East to Central and East Europe as well as the Balkan; this could be a likely option, given the experience with its Polish subsidiary

UPDATE 24 August 2007: A prospectus has been issued by Mecom in connection with the offer of up to 488,997,935 new ordinary Mecom shares of 0.6085888 pence each in connection with the proposed acquisition of the Dutch publishing group Koninklijke Wegener n.v. In the last month Mecom has expanded its sharehold in Wegener up to almost 30 percent. A note for a recommended public offer has been published.

UPDATE 28 August 2007: Mecom has published its official offer for Wegener shares and put then on 17,70 euro. This brings the total for the company on 800 million euro. The offer is the same as the offer of last June. Mecom already has 30,3 percent of the shares of Wegener.

Blog Posting Number: 850

Tags: newspaper: newspaper

My museum of content related artefacts (22)

1980: Apple II

In 1980 I got acquainted with Apple. In the company we had CP/M machine like the Superbrain (see photograph from the VNU Koerier). But as we were a new media lab, we tried everything; also Apple. To me the Apple was the same as the CP/M machines, but in 1980 the Apple was fascinating to me in as far as it made music. Apple as well as CP/M computers were ready for programming in Basic, text processing in Wordstar and calculating with Visicalc.

But at Christmas 1980, I took the Apple machine home and discovered the music on it. At that time to me a computer was no more than an automated typewriter and an enlarged calculator. The Apple II had a computer version of Switch-on Bach (listen to a fragment of the analogue version), a bestseller of the MOOG synthesizer music. I had bought the vinyl version in 1968 and still have it. It still makes Christmas 1980 stand out.

The Apple IIe in my collection is not the first Apple I worked with. From an acquaintance I got an Apple IIe, a machine produced from 1983 onwards. The keyboard was fixed to the machine. On top of it there is a separate dual floppy disk drive. The monitor is still in one of my moving boxes.

Come to think of it, the first confrontation with an Apple did not convert me to the Apple section. Despite the fact that I was impressed by the interface, I never bought an Apple for the company. When I worked for the newspaper company Wegener for one year in 1995, I was issued a portable Apple as the company was into graphics. I enjoyed the use of it, but once the year was over I did not feel unhappy going back to my Windows PC.

Yet I have always been impressed by the inventiveness of the company. Besides the many computers as Apple II, Lisa and Apple Book, it created the personal digital assistant Newton with handwriting recognition software; the iPOD; iTunes, the iPhone. Apple brought and still brings sound and vision to computing.

Next - Previous

Blog Posting Number: 831

Tag: digital heritage

Never a dull moment at PCM

The Dutch newspaper soap goes on. Having bought out Apax at an exorbitant sum of money, PCM saw the future with the Northern regional newspaper and book publisher NDC. They company even kicked out its CEO Mr Ton aan de Stegge, preparing the seat for the CEO of NDC. But yesterday the news came that PCM and NDC will not merge, as the managements could not agree on a common agenda.

So, more than three months have gone by. In the meantime the company is moving to new venues. It has published a daily free broadsheet DAG, which took care of some excitement. But no strategic decisions were taken as the proposed merger was being studied. And after three months, the conclusion is that both companies look like each other and a merger would be more of the same. PCM has national newspapers; NDC has regional newspapers. PCM has a book division with many imprints; NDC has a book division with many imprints. In short, more of the same. No real synergy. And if the two companies would have merged a cut of people and a cut in book titles would have been the logical conclusion to get to profit fast (at last for PCM).

The decision not to merge has been taken last Friday when the financial man of PCM and CEO ad interim Bert Groenewegen argued in a meeting of management, share holders and governors of both companies not to merge. Groenewegen had been the project manger for the study of the proposed merger.

Calling off the merger is not a problem for NDC as this has a good management in place and makes a handsome profit. But what will it mean for PCM. This company has had freak management since more than two years, had been governed by a weak group of directors and has lost a lot of money to Apax, while the newspapers were doing well. The CEO of NDC was seen as the saviour of it all. Now they have only a CEO ad interim, but one who worked with Apax (which is not a recommendation in these quarters).

So the board of directors will have to go after a new CEO fast. That is not easy as there are not many ex-CEOs with publishing experience and management experience of such a company. I personally would offer two names, one of an ex-CEO and one of a turn-around manager.

But having a quality CEO will not only suffice, I am afraid. The company better starts looking for a (foreign) company which will take over the newspaper and book conglomerate. Banks will not touch PCM any more, not even with a barge pole. And the publishing company will hopefully have learned from the Apax adventure and not invite a private equity investor. So there might be a business opportunity for a business related company. In The Netherlands there is no related company big enough for this. So foreign companies should perhaps look into the opportunity. As the Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool separated from PCM and was eventually acquired by the Belgian media holding De Persgroep owned by the family van Thillo, it would be a reversed take over, if the Persgroup would make an offer. It will not be the UK media investor MECOM, unless it will drop its plans for acquiring Wegener immediately. Or does the salvation come from the East, from a German newspaper publisher such as Holzbrinck? Or does Rupert Murdoch have PCM on its radar already, considering NRC-Handelsblad to be theTimes of The Netherlands?

Or will PCM go back to the last strategic proposal under Ton aan de Stegge, which would sell off the book division, except for the educational part? PCM would become a nice newspaper publishing company again and open to become a crossmedia publisher. Economically the company would be dependant on advertisement income, but it could at least seriously enter into the field of internet and venture internet radio and television.

One thing is certain: there is more news to come from PCM. And as I have said before: there is never a dull moment at PCM.

Blog Posting number: 802

Tags: newspapers

Wegener to be acquired by MECOM

Ever since the British media investor MECOM bought its first Dutch newspaper group Mediagroup Limburg from the Telegraaf Media Group, it was clear that the regional newspaper company Royal Wegener was the next target. Next step of MECOM was buying 24 percent of the Wegener share held by the Telegraaf Media Group. Now MECOM is negotiating an agreement to acquire the rest of the Wegener shares for about 800 million euro. The deal is not official yet, but it will be a friendly take-over. And, most important, the Dutch monopoly body will not interfere in the negotiations, but will await the results.

The take-over of Wegener has been a long awaited move. But did I write in 1995, when I was working for Wegener, that the company would be acquired by a German company, the reality of today is that Wegener will be taken over by a British media investor. MECOM, the British investor is weaving a European network of regional newspapers. Companies have been bought on Germany (BV Deutsche Zeitungsholdung), Norway (Orkla Media), Denmark, Poland and Ukraine. With Wegener MECOM adds 7 regional newspapers to the portfolio.

It is intriguing that MECOM, the investment vehicle of David Montgommery, a former CEO of the British newspaper The Mirror, buys only regional media. These media are mainly regional newspapers with internet extensions. But in Norway Orkla exploits radio and television stations together with newspapers. It is clear that MECOM will go after the complete media range in the various regions. Not much synergy can be reached on the news feeds, nor can sales efforts in regions be combined. Yet efforts for selling ads to newspapers, radio and television as well as internet can be combined. Perhaps in the end savings can be made on the buying of paper.

The arrival of MECOM as the new owner of Wegener has upset the labour unions. They fear labour reductions. They saw already 50 jobs go when MECOM bought the Mediagroup Limburg. Besides Wegener was in the middle of a reorganisation to make the company mean and lean. The transfer to the tabloid format meant that 300 people will be laid off; while other reductions have been announced. Yet the fear for lay-offs was also present in Germany. But so far, no reorganisations have taken place yet.

A surprise was the green light from the anti-cartel watchdog NMa. Their reaction to the indicative offer of MECOM on Wegener was that the NMa would not block the take-over. A spokesperson for the NMa said: The borders between national and regional media fade, just as the borders between newspapers, radio and internet. In this way new markets will develop. This will also generate new criteria for unacceptable media concentrations. The NMa expects MECOM and Wegener to offer their offer to be approved. It might be expected that there will be minor problems to be solved. The NMa forbade the Telegraaf Media Group, the former owner of the Mediagroup Limburg, to merge the two newspapers in the South of Limburg. With Wegener bringing in a third newspaper in the same region, NMA will have to make a ruling on this situation, e.g. the sale of one of the newspapers. As this region is surrounded by German and Belgian regions, competition might step in; on the other hand MECOM might extend the newspapers across the border and certainly the German border, given the German holding.

Tags: newspapers

Dutch newspapers on the move

There is a mixed bag of news in the Dutch newspaper World coming from various newspaper companies: Telegraaf Media Group, PCM (remember the postings Never a dull….), FD Media Group and Royal Wegener.

PCM
At last PCM has announced its intention to merge with NDC/VBK. Both companie will undertake a study of four months. The question is whether the two companies can merge. If so, it would be come a company with national and regional newspapers, with educational book companies as well as general book companies. Together the two companies would turn over 1 billion euro. The study will be directed by Mr Groenewegen CFO of PCM and Jan Roos chairman of NDC/VBK.

Comment: The two companies have the same structure. Both companies are overseen by foundations, looking after their ideal objectives. Together the companies would be the largest Dutch publishing company. However the question is whether the Dutch monopoly watchdog would allow the combination or ask the company to abandon parts of it.

Royal Wegener
This regional newspaper company, ready to be acquired by the UK company Mecom, has shown optimism about the display ad and classified ad market. The chairman of the board Jan Houwert reported the joint venture newspaper AD with PCM to be profitable now; Wegener has a 37 percent share in this venture. He also mentioned the new major shareholder Mecom, which holds 24 percent in Wegener. Mecom and Wegener hold talks, but these have not been conclusive yet. Mecom has shown interest in the acquiring Royal Wegener.

Comment: When Wegener is optimistic, be assured that things are looking up for the newspaper industry in The Netherlands, as the company is at the end of the national ad feeder line.

FD
The Dutch financial daily FD plans to launch a new online business publication next week together with the TV station RTL Nederland and the Norwegian publisher Schibsted. The name of the newspaper will be Z24. The online business newspaper will have an editorial staff of 12 people. The new publication, of which there will be no printed counterpart, aims at the target group of well educated men and women between 25 and 40 years old. The target group differs from its parent publication Het Financieele Dagblad that aims at business men and women. The co-operation of RTL Nederland, which has the business TV station RTLZ has not been formally confirmed yet. The co-operation with the Norwegian Schibsted is not a surprise as the FD group works already together with this newspaper in a business news consortium; besides one of the owners of FD, Mr Sijthoff, has a financial interest in the Norwegian publishing group.

Comment: This is an interesting project. FD Media Group has followed a cross-media strategy over the past years and has merged with Business News Radio into a successful media conglomerate. Now the media group is addressing a complete new target group with a daily online publication. Although the business newspaper has been in several consortia, usually in order to pick up ads, the media group now also goes into an editorial collaboration with a progressive Norwegian newspaper. FD Media Group has worked before with FD on an incidental basis, but now it looks like RTL Nederland is seeking co-operation with a newspaper and business radio group.

DAG PCM
PCM’s free daily DAG has appointed Bob Witman as the-editor-in-chief. He will be heading a 45 strong editorial staff and is responsible for all editorial information regardless of its platform (print, internet, mobile and narrowcasting. He was one of the strategists of the internet policy of the daily newspaper De Volkskrant. He is an experienced journalist and has experience with cross-media. Joris van Heukelom has been appointed as the director cross-media. He will be charged with the creative development and cross-media of DAG, the brand DAG and the creation of strategic partnerships with advertisers. DAG Media is a joint venture of PCM and KPN. (For those who understand have a look at the Adfolive movie).

Telegraaf
The newspaper company Telegraaf Media Group (TMG) and the broadcasting company SBS, in which TMG holds 20 percent of shares, will launch a multimedia platform for consumer news under the name of Wuz (an acronym for What u say, but than in Dutch) in the middle of June. Internet will be the core of the joint venture. Content mailed to the editorial staff can come online, in print, on mobile websites and in the SBS TV news programme. The target group is said to cover 2,2 million people online and 1,2 million TV viewers.

Comment: The national consumer newspapers are getting nervous again as PCM is preparing the launch of its free newspaper DAG. In order to distinguish themselves the newspaper are adding the epitheton ornans cross-media. It all started with the paid daily NRC.next, which started to use the adjective. PCM used the word when collaboration with the incumbent telco KPN was announced. Now also TMG is rushing to the new land of cross-media with Wuz.
It will be interesting to see how the concept of cross-media is going to realised with distinction. From the sound of the different press releases cross-media is no more than multi-channel. So far it sounds like there is no day-parting, no scaling of screens and no usage of the strong points of the various media. It will be interesting to return to this issue with half a year and research the cross-media concept as given shape by the various editorial staffs as well as the effects on the target audiences.

Blog Posting Number: 736

Tags: newspapers, cross-media

iLiad: forthcoming research on Dutch newspapers

It has been in the air ever since the iLiad was under construction by the Philips spin-off iRex Technologies: Dutch language newspapers on e-Readers. This week the Dutch Press Fund awarded a consortium of Dutch newspapers a grant of maximally of 362.950 euro for practical research into e-Readers. Three newspapers will partake in the research: the free newspaper Spits, the financial daily Het Financieele Dagblad and the national daily de Volkskrant. The research will take two years and the results will be offered to the newspaper sector.

The practical research will not be directed towards the technology, but will focus on how e-Readers can assist the change-over from the classic, static newspaper to the digital, dynamic newspaper content.

This research objective is broad. Yet one can ask whether another research has to be started up. Internationally there is an IFRA eNews research project going on. Closer to home, Wegener and Philips have done research into the usage of e-Readers by regional newspaper readers. The use of the e-Reader was tested over against other information devices. Especially the difference in usage between internet services and e-readers was tested. Very extensive research was performed with the Belgian newspaper De Tijd. This newspaper is a Flemish financial newspaper. I reported on the results of the research project extensively in my postings. But so far there is no decision has been made public that De Tijd will continue will the service.

The research in The Netherlands will be interesting as Het Financieele Dagblad will be the Dutch language partner in it. So it will be possible to compare the results between De Tijd and Het Financieele Dagblad as language and subject are the same.

New for the Dutch/Flemish language will be the research into the free daily and the paid national newspaper. De Spits is the counterpart by de Telegraaf of the Metro. It aims at the young commuters in urban areas. For de Telegraaf the newspaper the newspaper is an ad vehicle. The national newspaper de Volkskrant direct itself towards young audience with a good education and good job; a substantial part of the audience consists of singles.

The interesting part of the research will be the comparison between professional usage, usage for paid news and usage for free news. From my experience with the introduction of new devices such as CD-ROM players and electronic books, I expect that professional usage will be the leader of the three.

Interesting will also be the content question. Will the newspaper editorial staffs just transmit the newspaper as the pdf files on internet once a day or will they provide an iLiad edition once a day, in a day parting mood (morning, midday, late afternoon editions) or continuously changing news. From the internet experience it is clear that pdf is not a favourite type of edition and that continuously changing news is much appreciated. Given the wireless facility of the iLiad e-Reader a continuously changing news feed can be transmitted.

Personally I would also include the Readius in the project. The two e-Readers could be tested over against each other. The iLiad would be a single functional information device with an A5 screen, while the Readius would be a multi-functional communication and information device with a mobile telephone and a small screen, dedicated to information.

I look forwards to participating in tests of this research project. Of course I should get my iLiad to the repair service first.

Blog Posting Number: 732

Tags: iLiad, e-Reader, electronic book, digital paper, electronic newspaper

Never a dull moment at PCM

There is news again from PCM; but solid news this time. The Dutch newspaper and book publishing company has a new chairman of the board of directors. After all, but one of the board members have left, Mr Rob Bonnier has been appointed as the chairman, be it ad-interim.

The Foundation Democracy and Media, the major shareholder in the company, has appointed Bonnier, installing, at last, an experienced director. He finds Mr Caspar Broeksma, next to him as an ad-interim director.

Mr Bonnier has a lot of experience in the governance and management of stock quoted companies. He was the cfo of the paper company KNP BT from 1983 till 1997. Presently he is the chairman of the board of directors of DSB Bank and has some other directorships.

What is the governance and management state they find PCM in? The Foundation of Democracy and Media, after Apax’s exit, again the major shareholder of the company, needs shaping up with strong governors. The board of directors needs another two directors, as the old board has left, except for Mr Strengers. The daily management needs at least a new CEO, as now only Mr Bert Groenewegen, the financial man, is in function and is the last informed link to the company.

What do they find on their plate? Besides solving the immediate management situation, they will have to look into the merger talks that have been going on with the Foundation of Democracy and Media and the NDC/VBK, the Northern regional newspaper and national book publisher, since the beginning of the year. So far the CEO of NDC/VBK, Mr Jan Roos, has been tipped as the new chairman of the board of directors of the merger company PCM – NDC/VBK (my god what a name!).

On the other hand Mr Bonnier and Broeksma will find another problem on their plate. They will have to deal with the MNa, the Dutch monopoly watchdog. Their merger is going to be a major media concentration in Dutch newspaper world as well as in the book publishing world. MNa will have to consider the situation that after a merger there will be three major newspaper publishers: De Telegraaf, Royal Wegener and the PCM – NDC/VBK combination. De Telegraaf, a national newspaper company, wants to expand in broadcasting through its SBS link. Royal Wegener, a regional newspaper company, is being courted by the Europe oriented newspaper company MECOM. And the new combination has national and regional newspapers and will be dominant in book publishing. NMa might approve the merger, but with many condition.

So besides strengthening the governance structure of PCM, new daily management, most likely ad-interim, is needed immediately, while the new board members steer their merger plans passed the NMa. After a wild period at PCM, a new period might follow in which a solid strategic course for company can be set out in silence.

Blog Posting Number: 728

Tag: newspapers

Wegener on its road to foreign management

Last week I had the pleasure to see a forecast partly fulfilled. In 1995 I wrote in the Dutch publication Telecombrief Magazine, that the regional newspaper company Royal Wegener would be acquired by a foreign publisher within 10 years. At that time I supposed that it would be a German newspaper publisher as the circulation area of Wegener boarders with Germany. There was a lot wrong with the forecast. The foreign publishers missed my deadline already for two years. And the participating publisher is not German, but British. But the basic forecast still stands: not for long Wegener will be acquired by a foreign publisher.

Last week David Montgomery's British Mecom Group picked up a 24 percent minority share in Wegener. This had been in the air since a year, when Mecom took over the Limburg Dagblad. The minority share package was in the ownership of newspaper company Telegraaf Media Group. But as this company was not allowed to expand its influence in the newspaper sector, it put the shares in the safe and waited for an offer. Now that De Telegraaf has cashed, the company can invest the money in television and digital media.

Mecom will deploy 108 million GBP for a 24 per cent stake in the Dutch publisher Wegener, which has about 20 per cent of Holland's newspaper market. Mecom and the publicly-listed Wegener will now enter into talks, with Mecom seen as a likely candidate to make an offer for the entire company.

In April 2006 Mecom won the bid for The Media Groep Limburg B.V., Grafisch Bedrijf Media Groep Limburg B.V. and De Trompetter B.V. (freesheets) and paid 200 million euro. The high price was seen as part of a strategic investment. And so it turned out. Now Mecom is after Wegener, which has seven daily paid-for newspapers in the central part of the Netherlands, including De Gelderlander, a title with a daily circulation of 154,000 copies. It is expected that Mecom will need to pay an estimated 550 million euro in order to get the other 76 percent of the shares. If the British company succeeds, the acquisition will shake up the newspaper scene in The Netherlands.

And there was more news from Wegener. Han van den Berg, manager strategy with Wegener, said: Wegener has money for multimedia. Wegener has invested in digital media since 1995, doing foolish investments and some daring ones. In the pioneer years of Internet Wegener started a joint venture with a broadcast company; within half a year this was broken up with a big fight remaining as there was no written agreement from the start. Then came the project City Online, a Web 2.0 project avant la letter with local portals; but the project failed due to a heavy 3D-environment and other technical and ethical problems. Besides the editors-in chief of the regional newspapers wanted to have more influence.

But presently Wegener has built up its digital media around its own newspapers (the digital commons and regional portals) and it has started digital expansions of its classified ads such as Jobtrack and Autotrack. It has also collaborating with the Yellow Directory service iLocal. And the company has taken a 37 percent minority share in the beleaguered housing site Funda.
Wegener presently earns 2 percent in digital media of its total amount of 650 million euro in revenues. Major money maker in digital media is Funda. The other activities do not really contribute yet. The company wants to push its 49 percent joint venture with iLocal.

It is only a matter of time that Wegener will fall into foreign hands.

Blog Posting Number:690

Tags: newspapers