Roularta

Roularta Media Group is a publishing and broadcasting company based in Roeselare, Belgium.[1] Its operations were started in 1954.

Roularta
IndustryMedia
Founded1954 (1954)
HeadquartersRoeselare, Belgium
Key people
Willy De Nolf (founder)
Rik de Nolf (CEO)
ProductsL'Express
Knack
Websiteroularta.be

History and profile
Roeselare-Roularta

Roularta was established by lawyer Willy De Nolf[1] in 1954.[2][3][4] The group operates in the France, the 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 publishes Dutch language and French language magazines in Belgium.[7][8] The group was top magazine publishing company in Belgium in 2008 with a 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]

In addition, the group is the owner of some French magazines most of which it acquired in 2006.[12] These include L'Express,[13] 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.[12] The group also owned the Norwegian magazine Vi over 60 from 1999 to June 2008.[14][15]

The other segment includes co-ownership of Medialaan[16] 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][17][18] In addition, the group has internet properties such as lexpress.fr, knack.be and letudiant.fr.[11]

In 2004 the Roularta acquired the Press News, the Belgian publisher of Royals, Dynasty, Hors Serie and Ace magazines.[19] In March 2012 the group started the Dutch edition of the news and lifestyle magazine the Good Life in Belgium.[20] Coface Services Belgium was bought by the group in March 2013.[17] In September 2014 the group became the sole owner of the DSDW and Roularta Printing which had been partly owned by it.[21]

Sale of Medialaan

In 2018 De Persgroep acquired Roularta's 50 percent stake in Medialaan. Roularta received a 50 percent stake in Mediafin (publisher of the Belgian financial dailies L'Echo and De Tijd) and 217.5 million euros in cash.[22] Roularta announced the deal fit well with its intention to refocus on local media and the publication of quality magazines and newspapers for a quality-seeking target audience.

Assets

Flanders (Belgium)

Local media

  • De Krant van West-Vlaanderen
  • Deze Week
  • De Zondag
  • Steps

Newspapers

Magazines

  • Knack and its supplements Knack Weekend, Focus Knack, Bodytalk and MO*
  • Sport/Voetbalmagazine
  • Trends and its supplement Trends Style
  • Plus Magazine
  • Feeling
  • Flair
  • La Maison Victor

Television

  • Focus/WTV
  • Kanaal Z

Wallonia (Belgium)

Newspapers

Magazines

  • Le Vif/L'Express and its supplements Le Vif Weekend, Vif Focus and Bodytalk
  • Sport/Foot Magazine**
  • Trends-Tendances and its supplement Trends Style
  • Plus Magazine
  • Flair
  • La Maison Victor
  • Télépro (with Bayard Presse)

Television

  • Canal Z

International

In the beginning of the 2000s Roularta had investments in Slovenia.[23] As of 2010 the company was the owner of the Slovenian biweekly City Magazine.[23]

The La Maison Victor magazine is not only published in both the Flemish and Walloon parts of Belgium, but also in the Netherlands and Germany. The Walloon version is distributed and sold in France as well.

Roularta owns stakes in two publishing companies, one in the Netherlands and one in Germany. Both are joint ventures with the French press and publishing company Bayard Presse.

  • SPN (Senior Publications Nederland) (Netherlands)
    • Plus Magazine
    • +Gezond
    • Plus Puzzels
    • G/Geschiedenis
  • Bayard Mediengruppe Deutschland (Germany)

References
  1. Jennifer Sterling (4 October 2006). "Free Papers, Lifestyle News Buoy Belgian Publisher". The Wall Street Journal. Brussels. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  2. "Roularta Media Group NV". Bloomberg. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  3. "Annual Report" (PDF). Roularta Media Group. 2003. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  4. "Roularta Media Group NV (ROU)". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 16 December 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  5. "Annual Report" (PDF). Roularta Media Group. 1999. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  6. "Case Study: Roularta Media Group" (PDF). Ondit. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  7. Bart Van Besien (2010). "The case of Belgium" (PDF). Media policies and regulatory practices in a selected set of European countries, the EU and the Council of Europe. Athens: The Mediadem Consortium. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2015.
  8. Peggy Valcke; Eva Lievens (2010). Media Law in Belgium. Kluwer Law International. p. 28. ISBN 978-90-411-3329-8.
  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. "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. "Roularta to sell seven French magazines to tycoon Patrick Drahi". Reuters. 8 January 2015. Retrieved 13 April 2015.
  13. Michael Mould (2011). The Routledge Dictionary of Cultural References in Modern French. London; New York: Routledge. p. 513. ISBN 978-1-136-82573-6.
  14. "Roularta sells Norwegian magazine 'Vi over 60' to Aller for 4.6 million euros". Finanz Nachrichten. 23 June 2008. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  15. "Roularta sells Norwegian seniors magazine VI over 60 to the Aller group" (Press release). Roularta Media Group. 23 June 2008. Retrieved 16 March 2015.
  16. Ike Picone; Caroline Pauwels (2013). "Belgium: Big Changes in a Small News Economy". In Paul Murschetz (ed.). State Aid for Newspapers. Berlin; Heidelberg: Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-3-642-35691-9.
  17. "Coface Services Belgium acquired by Roularta Media Group". Business Information Industry Association. 29 March 2013. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  18. David Ward (2004). "A Mapping Study of Media Concentration and Ownership in Ten European Countries" (PDF). Dutch Media Authority. Retrieved 11 February 2015.
  19. "Press News BVBA has been sold to Roularta Media Group". Oaklins. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
  20. "Roularta launches Dutch edition of Good Life magazine". M&M Global. 22 March 2012. Archived from the original on 16 December 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  21. "Roularta Media Group buys 100 pct of DSDW and Roularta Printing". Reuters. 17 September 2014. Retrieved 16 December 2014.
  22. "Roularta stapt uit Medialaan en in Mediafin". Knack.be. Roularta. 2 October 2017. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  23. Peter Bajomi-Lazar (2014). Party Colonisation of the Media in Central and Eastern Europe: Modern Business Decision Making in Central and Eastern Europe. Budapest; New York: Central European University Press. p. 202. ISBN 978-963-386-041-0.
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