De Persgroep

De Persgroep is a Belgian publishing company owning media assets in Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands. The firm is owned by the Van Thillo family.

History

In 1978 the family obtained 60 percent of shares in the Flemish publishing company Hoste. In 1990 the rest of the shares were acquired and the company’s name was changed to De Persgroep. In 2013 the group’s annual turnover was 901 million euros.[1]

In 2002 De Persgroep entered the book publishing sector.[2] The company also began to deal with DVD distribution.[2]

In 2014 De Persgroep acquired Mecom Group.[3]

In 2018 De Persgroep acquired Roularta's 50 percent stake in Medialaan. Roularta received a 50 percent stake in Mediafin and 217.5 million euros in cash.[4] This turned De Persgroep into the sole owner of Medialaan. The company intends to merge Medialaan with its newspaper and magazine publishing holdings.[5]

History of the Dutch subsidiary

PCM Publishing was created though the merger of two companies: Perscombinatie and Meulenhoff & Co. Perscombinatie (de Volkskrant, Trouw and Het Parool) acquired in 1994 the majority stakes in Meulenhoff & Co. The Perscombinatie's name was shortened to PCM and publication of newspapers and books became its core activities.[6] In late 1995 PCM acquired the Nederlandse Dagbladunie (TVNZ and Algemeen Dagblad) and became publisher of four of the five national newspapers, four regional titles and door-to-door papers in the Randstad.

After a brief adventure with a foreign investment company, in 2003 Het Parool sold to the Belgian media company De Persgroep NV. In 2005, Algemeen Dagblad and four regional newspapers were housed in AD New Media BV, with a PCM interest of 63%.[6] In July 2009, De Persgroep acquired a majority stake in PCM Publishing, forming the subsidiary De Persgroep Nederland,[6] A number of transactions were connected to the main acquisition. PCM sold in July 2009, the house-to-house papers of PCM Local Media to Wegener. Shortly after acquired PCM the stakes of Wegener (37%) in AD New Media BV. The acquisition included also the printing house of Wegener in The Hague. PCM sold the NRC Handelsblad and nrc.next for 70 million euros to Egeria,[1] as well as the PCM Algemene Boeken (b.o. Meulenhoff & Co). As a result, became Persgroep Netherlands the publisher of Algemeen Dagblad, de Volkskrant, Trouw and Het Parool.[6]

TV and radio

De Persgroep owns Medialaan, the owner of the following television and radio stations and other businesses:

Belgian TV channels

  • ATV (50%)

Radio stations

  • Q-music (Netherlands, as of mid-2005)
  • Radio BemBem (children's radio, digital/cable), defunct

Newspapers

Newspapers owned by the company are as follows:[7]

Belgium

Former assets

  • De Tijd, Flemish financial daily (previously co-owned with Rossel, De Persgroep has since sold its stake to Roularta)
  • L'Echo, French-language financial daily (previously co-owned with Rossel, De Persgroep has since sold its stake to Roularta)

De Persgroep also used to publish free city papers (now all defunct), called Zone 02/ in Brussels, Zone 03/ in Antwerp, and Zone 09/ in Ghent.

Denmark

Netherlands

National

Regional

Magazines

One of the company’s subsidiaries Magnet Magazines publishes the following magazines:

See also

References

  1. 1 2 (in Dutch) Wilco Dekker, "Persgroep geïnteresseerd in overname NRC," De Volkskrant (8 May 2014). Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  2. 1 2 Hilde Van den Bulck; Sil Tambuyzer; Stef Ackx (2011). "Readers' Responses to Product+ Strategies of Print Media Brands: Increasing Readership or Commoditization of Print Media?". International Journal on Media Management. 13 (1). doi:10.1080/14241277.2010.545362. Retrieved 17 April 2015.
  3. ↑ Andy Sharman; Robert Cookson (30 June 2014). "Belgian publisher De Persgroep buys Mecom for £200m". Financial Times. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  4. ↑ "Roularta stapt uit Medialaan en in Mediafin". Knack.be. Roularta. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  5. ↑ "Medialaan en De Persgroep Publishing worden één bedrijf". Medialaan.be. Medialaan. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Over de Persgroep: Historie," De Persgroep Nederland. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
  7. ↑ Koen Panis et. al. (2014). "Does Media Cross-Ownership Translate into Cross-Promotion?". Journalism Studies. doi:10.1080/1461670X.2014.953780. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
  8. 1 2 Alan Hope (27 May 2015). "De Persgroep takes over Humo, Story and Vitaya magazines". Flanders Today. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
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