Industry | Media |
---|---|
Founded | 1954 |
Headquarters | Roeselare, Belgium |
Key people | Willy De Nolf (founder) Rik de Nolf (CEO) |
Products | L'Express Knack |
Website | roularta.be |
Roularta Media Group is a publishing and broadcasting company based in Roeselare, Belgium. [1] Its operations were started in 1954.
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]
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.
Local media
Newspapers
Magazines
Television
Newspapers
Magazines
Television
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.
De Tijd is a Belgian newspaper that mainly focuses on business and economics. It is printed on salmon pink paper since May 2009, following the example of its colleagues Financial Times, Het Financieele Dagblad, FT Deutschland and many more.
L'Express is a French weekly news magazine headquartered in Paris. The weekly stands at the political centre-right in the French media landscape, and has a lifestyle supplement, L'Express Styles, and a job supplement, Réussir. Founded in 1953 by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber and Françoise Giroud, L'Express would be considered France's first American-style news weekly. L'Express is one of the three major French news weeklies alongside Le Nouvel Obs and Le Point.
Lire is a French literary magazine covering both French and foreign literature. The magazine was founded in 1975 by Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber and Bernard Pivot. It was owned by the Roularta Media Group until January 2015 when it was acquired by French businessman Patrick Drahi. In 2016, Drahi sold his magazines to SFR. In 2017, Lire was acquired by Jean-Jacques Augier and Stéphane Chabenat.
Le Point is a French weekly political and conservative news magazine published in Paris. Le Point is one of the three major French news magazines.
DPG Media Group is a Belgian media group. It is active in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark. The exact ownership structure is not clear; it is believed that the group is mainly owned by the Belgian Van Thillo family. The company employs about 6,000 people.
Weltbild Publishing Group is a major German publisher and media retailer based in Augsburg. It is partner of the holding company DBH Deutsche Buch Handels GmbH & Co. KG and itself it is owned by the dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church of Germany. The name Weltbild roughly translates to "worldview".
Mediafin is a Belgian media group. The company was established in 2005 when it was bought by De Persgroep and Rossel. Its name was switched from Publisher Tijd to Mediafin. De Persgroep and Rossel hold a fifty percent stake in Mediafin.
Karl Meersman is a Belgian editorial cartoonist, living in Sint-Niklaas. He is known for his weekly caricatures in the popular magazines Trends and Knack. Meersman is married to former VRT-television journalist and presenter Lies Martens.
L'Expansion was a French former monthly business magazine based in Paris, France, which existed between 1967 and 2017.
Knack is a Belgian Dutch-language weekly news magazine covering local news, politics, sports, business, jobs, and community events.
The mass media in Belgium is characterized by its diversity due to the linguistic divide in the country.
Rudy Aernoudt is a Belgian professor, writer, politician, economist and philosopher, born in Torhout. He was many times Chief of staff of the Ministers of economy and innovation both in Flanders and in Wallonia, of the Belgian Minister of economics and scientific policy and of the President of the European Economic and Social Committee, Henri Malosse. He is the only person to serve as Head of Cabinet at the European, Belgian, Walloon and Flemish levels. He is professor of corporate finance at the Universities of Ghent and Nancy and Professor of Economics, Monetary and Geopolitical Environment for the International Executive MBA, a joint venture of HEC Paris and UCLouvain.
Classica is a monthly French classical music magazine founded in 1998.
Le Vif/L'Express is a weekly news magazine published in Brussels, Belgium. It has been in circulation since 1963.
Vi over 60 is a Norwegian language monthly magazine for seniors and is published in Bergen, Norway.
Trends is a weekly Dutch language business and finance magazine published in Brussels, Belgium. It is the only business and finance magazine in the country.
Notre Temps is a French language monthly lifestyle magazine for seniors published in Paris, France. Founded in 1968 the magazine targets seniors.
Mieux Vivre Votre Argent is a monthly business magazine published in Paris, France. It has been in circulation since 1968.
Mondiaal Nieuws, also called MO* - Mondiaal Magazine, is a Flemish quarterly alternative news magazine with a special focus on globalization. The magazine is published as a supplement of the news magazine Knack in Brussels, Belgium.