Belgium’s Mediahuis takes over the controls of Telegraaf group

DutchNews, June 26, 2017    

After a bitter battle for the contol of Amsterdam’s Telegraaf Media Groep, Belgium-based Mediahuis is in the driver’s seat. And some changes are in the air, reports TMG’s largest circulation newspaper the Telegraaf on Monday. 

In an interview with Belgian newspaper De  Tijd, Mediahuis CEO Gert Ysebaert said he has a great deal of respect for Talpa, his adversary in the struggle. Talpa is the investment company of Dutch media tycoon John De Mol and it now holds some 40% of TMG shares.

 ‘Talpa is primarily a media company while we are a publisher with audio-visual activities. It’s reasonable to think we can do business together on that basis,’ Ysebaert explained. ‘But first of all there has to be an element of trust. The manner in which the bidding war for TMG was carried out left little room for trust. That has to grow.’ 

Mediahuis provided details of how TMG will operate within the group on Friday. Aside from intensifying partnerships within the group, there will be a new common approach to the advertising market. In addition, Ysebaert said TMG would return to profitability by 2019. The circulation of the Telegraaf has fallen by 100,000 over the past few years. 

The new Belgian chief said earlier that he would like to drop the controversial shock blog GeenStijl (No style) from the TMG stable. ‘We want to concentrate on professional journalism which adheres to a certain ethical plane. There are limits,’ he told the Volkskrant. 

The takeover of TMG means that all the big Dutch dailies are now in the hands of two Belgian media groups.