Changes & moves inside a Romanian media company, announced on blogs

Mediafax, the biggest Romanian news agency, Publimedia (print) and Apropo Media (online), all controlled by Adrian Sarbu, CEO Central Media Enterprises, will merge under Mediafax brand, according to Dragos Stanca’s blog

The new company will be headed by Cosmina Noaghea, former General Director of Publimedia, while the former general director of Mediafax will assume the position of Editorial Director of the agency and the director of Apropo Media will be in charge of the online division. The print division of the new company will also have a new chief.

The rumors about this merger are present on the market from some time. The three companies merger – that wasn’t yet officially announced – started this spring, when all of them moved in a single new headquarters. The merger will cause redundancies, while the financial crisis and changes in fiscal legislation determines also salary’s cuts.

Romanian blog Reporter Virtual also wrote about redundancies affecting the print company in the group, Publimedia.  Quoting inside sources, the blog is announcing important redundancies and salary cuts at the daily Gandul, at the financial newspaper Ziarul Financiar and also inside Mediafax news agency. The total number of redundancies will be of 150, according to blog’s sources.

In the last years, Adrian Sarbu sold an important part of his Romanian media properties to CME: ProTV SA – operating ProTV, AcasaTV, Sport.ro, ProCinema, ProTV International and the MTV Romania licence, the radio stations ProFM and InfoPRO and the online products from IBU – and MediaPro Entertainment.

According to Dragos Stanca’s blog, the newly merged company will be more attractive for investors, as Mediafax and Apropo Media had positive financial results in spite of financial crisis, even if Publimedia had problems with the cash flow.