Hot Topic - Mecom

One thing to watch in 2009 – toxic debt - January 5, 2009
Multi-national publisher Mecom Group has become the most recent poster child for debt rattled publicly traded media companies. Once – and not long ago – the darling of rapturous financial projections it now can’t meet debt covenants exceeding €600 million, a figure that has increased more than ten-fold since the rapture. Media companies are becoming sub-prime, er, toxic.

When Was The Last Time You Saw A Newspaper Company Report: “Strong Advertising Markets Both on Print and Online”? Welcome To Europe Where Established Media Companies Are Doing Better And More Media Barons Are In The Making - May 15, 2007
Norway’s Schibsted reported ”Strong advertising revenues and improved circulation figures for the print versions of VG, and Aftenposten.” Mecom, another media company also headquartered in Norway, has been busy the last year spending close to €2 billion ($2.7 billion) buying up some 100 European regional newspapers. And Mathias Döpfner, chairman and ceo of Axel Springer, told Variety, “At the moment we are not only generating the highest profits with our newspapers in the history of our company, but also we are making money a lot faster with our newly launched newspapers.”

There’s A New European Media Baron – the UK’s David Montgomery -- and Like Media Barons Before Him He Is Judged On His Past Which Is Why Journalists In Germany, The Netherlands, and Now Norway and Denmark Are Not Happy - July 3, 2006
Like a bolt out of nowhere, David Montgomery’s Mecom Group has within less than a year established itself as a major European newspaper player. It’s newest target in what really looks like a reverse takeover, is buying Norway’s Orkla media empire for some €900 million in a deal set to close this month, assuming the politicians don’t get involved, and that could still happen since the Norwegian Culture Minister says he is not happy.