Roularta Media Group

Roularta Media Group
Industry Media
Founded 1954 (1954)
Headquarters Roeselare, Belgium
Key people
 Willy De Nolf (founder)
Rik de Nolf (CEO)
Products L'Express
Knack
Parent Koinon NV
Website Roulerta Media Group

Roularta Media Group is a publishing and broadcasting company based in Roeselare, Belgium.

History and profile

Roeselare-Roularta

Roularta Media Group is a publishing company from Belgium.[1] The company was established by lawyer Willy De Nolf[1] in 1954,[2][3] and is a subsidiary of Koinon NV.[4] The group operates in the France, Netherlands, and Portugal in addition to its native Belgium.[2][5] The chief executive officer of the company is Rik de Nolf,[4] who succeeded his father, Willy De Nolf, in the post in 1981.[1]

In the early years the group published and distributed free newspapers in the Dutch-speaking regions of Belgium.[1][3] The first publication of the company was a weekly magazine, De Weekbode.[3]

The group has two main segments: Print media and audiovisual media.[2] The print media segment consists of free newspapers such as De Streekkrant, De Zondag and Steps published in Belgium[6] and magazines.

Roularta Media Group has both Dutch language and French language magazines in Belgium.[7][8] The group was top magazine publishing company in Belgium in 2008 with total revenue of 101,062,000 €.[9] The same year it owned 24.2% of the French language magazines and 10.6% of the Dutch language magazines in the country.[7]

The group is the sole owner of news magazines published in the country and has a monopoly in this sector.[10] News magazines Knack and Le Vif/L’Express are owned by it.[6][11] The Belgian business magazine Trends is also part of the company.[8][12]

In addition, the group is the owner of some French magazines most of which it acquired in 2006.[13] These include L'Express,[14] L'Expansion, L'Etudiant and Point de Vue.[4] At the beginning of 2015 the group sold some of its French titles, namely L'Express, L'Expansion, Mieux Vivre Votre Argent, Lire, Classica, Pianiste and Studio Cine Live, to French businessman Patrick Drahi.[13] The group also owned the Norwegian magazine Vi over 60 from 1999 to June 2008.[15][16]

The other segment includes co-ownership of VMMA[17] which includes TV and radio activities (Q-music, 4FM) and of the Regionale Media Maatschappij which owns two local TV channels, Focus TV and WTV.[6] Kanaal Z/Canal Z which is a Belgian news and business channel is also part of the group.[6][18][19] In addition, the group has internet properties such as lexpress.fr, knack.be and letudiant.fr.[11]

In 2004 the Roularta Media Group acquired the Press News, the Belgian publisher of Royals, Dynasty, Hors Serie and Ace magazines.[20] In March 2012 the group started the Dutch edition of the news and lifestyle magazine the Good Life in Belgium.[21] Coface Services Belgium was bought by the group in March 2013.[18] In September 2014 the group became the sole owner of the DSDW and Roularta Printing which had been partly owned by it.[22]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Jennifer Sterling (4 October 2006). "Free Papers, Lifestyle News Buoy Belgian Publisher". The Wall Street Journal. Brussels. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "Roularta Media Group NV". Bloomberg. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 "Annual Report" (PDF). Roularta Media Group. 2003. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  4. 1 2 3 "Roularta Media Group NV (ROU)". Bloomberg. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  5. ↑ "Annual Report" (PDF). Roularta Media Group. 1999. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Case Study: Roularta Media Group" (PDF). Ondit. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  7. 1 2 Bart Van Besien (29 October 2010). "The case of Belgium". Media policies and regulatory practices in a selected set of European countries, the EU and the Council of Europe (PDF). Athens: The Mediadem Consortium. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
  8. 1 2 Peggy Valcke; Eva Lievens (31 July 2010). Media Law in Belgium. Kluwer Law International. p. 28. ISBN 978-90-411-3329-8. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  9. ↑ Anne Austin et. al. (2008). "Western Europe Market & Media Fact" (PDF). ZenithOptimedia. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  10. ↑ Karin Raeymaeckers. "Media landscapes. Belgium". European Journalism Centre. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  11. 1 2 "Roularta Media Group will attend the Large and Midcap event in Paris on 2 and 3 October 2014". Euronext. 23 September 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  12. ↑ Peggy Valcke; Eva Lievens (2011). Media Law in Belgium. Kluwer Law International. p. 28. ISBN 978-90-411-3329-8. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  13. 1 2 "Roularta to sell seven French magazines to tycoon Patrick Drahi". Reuters. 8 January 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  14. ↑ Michael Mould (27 April 2011). The Routledge Dictionary of Cultural References in Modern French. Taylor & Francis. p. 513. ISBN 978-1-136-82573-6. Retrieved 31 December 2014.
  15. ↑ "Roularta sells Norwegian magazine 'Vi over 60' to Aller for 4.6 million euros". Finanz Nachrichten. 23 June 2008. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  16. ↑ "Roularta sells Norwegian seniors magazine VI over 60 to the Aller group" (Press release). Roularta Media Group. 23 June 2008. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  17. ↑ Ike Picone; Caroline Pauwels (2013). "Belgium: Big Changes in a Small News Economy". In Paul Murschetz. State Aid for Newspapers. Berlin Heidelberg: Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-3-642-35691-9. Retrieved 2 December 2014.
  18. 1 2 "Coface Services Belgium acquired by Roularta Media Group". Business Information Industry Association. 29 March 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  19. ↑ David Ward (2004). "A Mapping Study of Media Concentration and Ownership in Ten European Countries" (PDF). Dutch Media Authority. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  20. ↑ Rachel Lehmann-Haupt (1 August 2004). "Deals & Developments". Folio: the Magazine for Magazine Management. 33 (8). Retrieved 16 December 2014. – via Questia (subscription required)
  21. ↑ "Roularta launches Dutch edition of Good Life magazine". M&M Global. 22 March 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  22. ↑ "Roularta Media Group buys 100 pct of DSDW and Roularta Printing". Reuters. 17 September 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
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