first romanian investment in regional media

Press agency Mediafax was launched this week on the Czech media market, in a 1,5 million-euro investment of MediaPro Management. The company hired 120  people, including reporters, editors, press photographers and graphic designers and a network of correspondents in 24 cities. Mediafax is the news biggest provider and market leader in Romania [launched 1991] and it was first step of MediaPro media empire developed by Adrian Sarbu.

executive director of Czech Mediafax is Mihai Predescu [ex editor in chief and producer of Pro TV now CME] and editor in chief is Martin Švehlák who worked also as

free business daily E 15 in Prague

Mlada Fronta AS, a privately owned Czech publisher, said it will launch a free daily business newspaper in late November. E15 [“15 Minutes for Economy and Business”] will report on business, economy, politics, environment and life style, focusing on managers and staff of leading companies in Prague. the paper will be published five times a week with an initial circulation of 50,000 copies and with a similar concept of London’s City A.M . its editor-in-chief will be Tomas Skrivanek, former deputy editor-in-chief of the Euro business weekly. there are now three free daily papers available in Prague – Metro, Metropolitni Expres and 24 hodin. E15 may add pressure on the Hospodarske Noviny [partly owned by the publisher of german Handelsblatt], only czech business daily newspaper. [sources: Czech News Agency /Associated Press]

ringier takes over czech newspaper Aha!

One more movement after the one in Serbia from ringier who buys also the czech daily newspaper Aha! from Ebika and in the same time the whole editorial team, consolidating its position as leader on the dailies market in the country. Ringier also owns the most successfully sold daily in Czech Republic, Blesk, which has a sales average of 444,000 copies and an audience of 1,548,000 readers (2006) and the sports daily Sport with sales of 67,000 and audience of 297,000 readers (source: wan/world press trends). Aha was launched in October 2004 and has recorded average sales of 140,022 copies per edition in august 2007, due to a circulation of 211,477 and an audience of 347,000 readers.