Romanian media outlet going to the Czech market

Mediafax, a press agency owned by the Romanian Media Mogul Adrian Sârbu, COO of the CME, is extending on the Czech market. At the end of 2007, a Czech company owned by Media Pro Management SA was registered in Prague, with Mihai Predescu as a GM. According to Media Pro sources, Mediafax-Prague will be more than a newswire and there are some other plans for Eastern Europe.

CME and Adrian Sârbu own Pro TV, the leader of the TV market, and various other print, new media, radio and TV assets.

Free Romanian newspaper: successful, preparing for a local market assault

‘Compact’, the free newspaper launched by Ringier Romania at the beginning of May, 2006, is preparing two local editions, ‘Compact de Cluj’ and ‘Compact de Timis’ - says [RO] the editor in chief of ‘Gazeta Sporturilor’, Catalin Tolontan, on his popular football & media blog, Tolo.ro. In case the news is true, Compact might meet at Timisoara a competitor called ‘Timis Expres’, published by Informmedia, an Austrian publishing company.

‘Compact’ is the first free newspaper launched in Romania. It distributed 147,500 copies in average in its first two months after launch, according to the first figures available at BRAT.ro (the Romanian ABC).

• The ‘Compact’ Internet site [RO], including the blog [EN-RO] about Bucharest of Marco Stettler, the newspaper’s Swiss publisher.

Romanian oligarchs slow down their assault of the media market

According to the latest unofficial informations, ‘Adevărul’, a title recently taken over by the controversial Romanian oil mogul Dinu Patriciu, desisted its plans for a local editions expansion. The management of the new press holding also announced several weeks ago, at a meeting with the ‘Adevarul’ team, that Patriciu’s plans for a television would be put on hold.

It all could be interpreted as bad news for the market, but actually the opposite is true. Finally, one of the Romanian oligarchs started to resize his strategy according to the HR available on the market and to some coherent development plans, possibly due to the appointment of a professional print media manager as a GM of his holding, in the person of Razvan Corneţeanu, former executive director of the most important division at the successful Ringier Romania.

Patriciu’s strategy rethinking might be followed by Sorin Ovidiu Vîntu, the other big and controversial new investor on the market. Voiculescu and Sîrbu, the two other Romanian media moguls, might also slow down some of their very brisk and schematic development plans. And Ringier Romania, the ‘5th Big’ in Romanian media, might lose less of its employees in the future. | More…

Evenimentul zilei’s staff assaulted by offers (updated)

Evenimentul zilei, one of the top three general Romanian newspapers, lost two of the journalists on its board because of offers made by Adevarul, the daily recently taken over by Dinu Patriciu, one of the controversial Romanian billionaires who have recently started an assault of the Romanian media market. After Laurentiu Ciocazanu and Ovidiu Nahoi last Friday announced they would leave the Evenimentul board for the positions of editor-in-chief and deputy-editor-in-chief at Adevarul, rumours started appearing about offers made by Adevarul management to a dozen of other Evenimentul staff writers. According to some other sources, Evenimentul is preparing some counter-offers.

On Thursday, November 23rd, Evenimentul zilei’s Editor-in-Chief Razvan Ionescu held a meeting with the entire team of the publication where he announced training opportunities for the team and admitted offers were made to journalists. According to other sources, there will be a 7% general salary increase at Evenimentul Zilei. Ionescu also said he would have individual talks with employees during the next days. | More…

Romanian TV & print group expansion on the Internet

The number of sites launched or relaunced by Media Pro has raised to at least five. Authorised sources from Media Pro confirmed that Infosport.ro, a new site belonging to the CME-Adrian Sîrbu so-called media empire, will soon be up, after the launch of Dariaiubireamea.ro and Iubirecainfilme.ro and the relaunch of Acasatv.ro and Protv.ro. Media Pro has started an expansion on the Internet with the founding of Media Pro Interactiv, the new media division of a press holding owning the most successful commercial TV station in Romania, Pro TV, some other televisions and radios and an important print division. The general director of Media Pro Interactiv (MPI) is Orlando Nicoara (blog, RO), a well-known manager which has left Boom/Netbridge earlier this year with a dozen of key people to start the MPI.

Two spokespersons of Media Pro confirmed for the NewsIn press agency the launching of Infosport.ro, without disclosing any date or content directions. The domain belongs to Pro TV SA, a part of the Media Pro structure. According to the rumors on the market, another on-going project of MPI is Loredana.ro, a site belonging to a famous Romanian singer, Loredana Groza, also a Media Pro top manager’s wife. Loredana.ro is owned by the record company in the Media Pro holding.

Human resources crisis on the Romanian media market

Money can’t buy you happiness for sure on the Romanian media market. Three of the richest and most controversial Romanians, Dinu Patriciu, Sorin Ovidiu Vîntu and Dan Voiculescu, launched or disclosed plans for launching new titles on the print media market, TV stations or Internet sites this year. Their plans brought the market on the fringe of a human resources crisis.

Latest buzz: Patriciu went to Vîntu and Voiculescu to propose a mutual agreement, in order to avoid reciprocal HR damage… | More…

Turkish group Dogan Media’s expansion into Romania: high-profile Romanian in top position

A high-profile Romanian will hold a key position in the Turkish media group Dogan’s business in Romania, one source close to the company’s management told Comanescu.ro. Dogan is planning a massive expansion in Europe and will launch an entertainment channel, Kanal D, on Romanian cable networks next spring. Involvement of Dogan Media on the Romanian market has aroused a great deal of discussions among managers in other Romanian TV companies. According to the rumors, Dogan is aiming high and has lots of money to achieve its purposes.