A printerbreeding tale

The ‘Averea’ newspaper was published today with a different layout, three weeks after 50 to 60 people left the leading tabloid in Romania, ‘Libertatea‘, to take over ‘Averea‘. The journalists, led by Adrian Halpert, the editor-in-chief of ‘Libertatea’, claimed that Ringier Romania, the Swiss editor of the tabloid, hardly rewarded the editorial team for the the very high income brought by the title, estimated at over 7 million euros in 2006.

Negotiations led by Ringier Romania with the resigning team convinced some 20-30 people to stay with ‘Libertatea’. All the board, except for Ana Nita, the lifestyle editor, left together with the editor-in-chief to publish ‘Averea’. Ana Nita was appointed by Ringier Romania as the new editor-in-chief of ‘Libertatea’.

‘Libertatea’ (’The Liberty’) sells between 250 and 270 thousand copies per day, in average, according to BRAT, the Romanian ABC. ‘Averea’ (’The Wealth’) was launched in 2005 as an economic daily newspaper, but due to poor sales (a couple of thousand copies) was rebranded into a tabloid earlier this year, before the ‘Libertatea’ team move, and achieved slightly more than 20 thousand sold copies. Adrian Halpert, ex-’Libertatea’, the new editorial director, stated to the Romanian press agency NewsIn that the graphic and editorial transformation of ‘Averea’ is still ongoing.

Simultaneously with the ‘Libertatea’ collective resignation, the controversial Romanian oil mogul Dinu Patriciu took over ‘Averea’ to include it into a previously announced press holding, together with ‘Adevarul’, a quality newspaper, and two televisions which are yet to be launched. The new holding is run by Razvan Corneteanu, which also left Ringier Romania some days before the ‘Libertatea’ team departure. Corneteanu’s departure was widely commented in the Romanian media market, because of his reputation of a tough, but however very efficient manager, working for Ringier Romania for more than 13 years.

‘Averea’ as a tabloid, spring, 2006

‘Libertatea’, november 8, 2006

Averea face lift, November 8, 2006

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1. [...] However, ‘The Independent’ claims (EN) that ‘Libertatea’ is in the middle of a fierce sales competition with the rival ‘Averea’, while the last official figures known refer to an average of 250 thousand copies sold/day for ‘Libertatea’, while ‘Averea’ is credited by BRAT (RO), the Romanian ABC, with only 20 thousand copies. The source of the error might have been the fact that over 50 per cent of the team of ‘Libertatea’ left the newspaper a few weeks ago, to relaunch ‘Averea’ (EN), but the change process only started. Among others, ‘Averea’ is yet to change its name into ‘Clic’ or ‘Click’ and to do some other adjustments during the next two months. [...]

   Pingback by Romanian Media Explained » The ‘tabloids war’ continues: ‘Libertatea’ takes over Naomi Campbell’s ‘dumb romanian’ housekeeper — November 18, 2006 #

2. [...] Overall, the crucial moment in the decision process of the 2+2 (new+old) moguls on the Romanian media market will be the publishing of the sales figures of the new ‘Averea’ [EN], to be relaunched in the near future as ‘Click’. Very good results of the former team at the very successful ‘Libertatea’ (Ringier) with Patriciu’s new tabloid title is the best that a new investor on the market can expect. The me-too strategy of the former ‘Libertatea’ journalists and the constancy of their old title suggest, however, not-so-good news in that respect. [...]

   Pingback by Romanian Media Explained » Romanian oligarchs slow down their assault of the media market — December 14, 2006 #

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