Mediahuis has acquired the remaining 30% of shares in the German publishing house Medienhaus Aachen GmbH. At the beginning of 2022, the European media group acquired 70% of the shares in Medienhaus Aachen GmbH from the founding families of the “Aachener Zeitung”. The remaining 30% was held by Rheinische Post Mediengruppe, which has now sold its shares to Mediahuis. With this transaction, Medienhaus Aachen is now fully owned by the Mediahuis Group.
The expansion into the German region of North Rhine-Westphalia at the beginning of 2022 was an important step for Mediahuis, which entered the German newspaper market for the first time. As the majority shareholder, Mediahuis has supported the German publishing house in its digital transformation over the past two years. In doing so, Medienhaus Aachen was able to fully utilise the knowledge and network that Mediahuis has to offer as a group and significantly accelerate its digital growth.
Paul Verwilt, COO Mediahuis Group and Chairman of the Shareholders’ Meeting of Medienhaus Aachen: “Over the past two years, together with Managing Director Andreas Müller and his colleagues at Medienhaus Aachen, we have taken important steps in the digital development of the company and its news titles. After two years of constructive cooperation with Rheinische Post Mediengruppe, we have jointly agreed that a structure with one shareholder instead of two media groups will benefit the further development of Medienhaus Aachen and can further accelerate the digital transformation. The fact that the publishing house of the “Aachener Zeitung” is now 100 per cent owned by the Mediahuis Group underlines our belief in the continued successful and sustainable future of Medienhaus Aachen and at the same time strengthens Mediahuis’ growth ambitions in the German market.”
Johannes Werle, CEO of the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe: “For several decades, the Rheinische Post Mediengruppe has been involved in publishing in the Aachen city region via the Aachener Nachrichten, the first licensed newspaper in Germany. The merger with the Aachener Zeitung in 1975 later resulted in a significant minority shareholding in the merged company. Now it is time to close this chapter. In its regional media business, Rheinische Post Mediengruppe is focussing even more intensively on the media brands in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, which it already controls and has developed further digitally. We would like to thank all the employees of Medienhaus Aachen for their achievements to date and wish them all the best for the future.”
Medienhaus Aachen is a leading media group in the Aachen, Düren and Heinsberg region (North Rhine-Westphalia). In addition to the “Aachener Zeitung”, Medienhaus Aachen’s portfolio also includes other print and digital media, radio, logistics, trade fairs and postal services. The Medienhaus Aachen Group employs 300 people (excluding delivery staff).
Rheinische Post Mediengruppe is a medium-sized media company based in Düsseldorf. It publishes the Rheinische Post, the highest-circulation daily newspaper in the Rhineland, and the General-Anzeiger Bonn, the highest-circulation daily newspaper in Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg district. The media group holds a majority stake in the Saarbrücker Zeitungsgruppe, which publishes the titles Saarbrücker Zeitung, Trierischer Volksfreund and Pfälzischer Merkur. The media group’s online portals are among the German daily newspapers with the widest reach, while its stake in markt.gruppe Holding secures a strong position in the digital classifieds business. The company also holds stakes in 16 radio stations and eight German advertising publishers with a weekly circulation of around 1.9 million copies. High-performance printing plants in Düsseldorf and Saarbrücken as well as highly specialised trade media in the transport and logistics sector complete the media group’s portfolio. It currently employs around 3,000 people in Germany and abroad (excluding delivery staff).
Since its foundation in 2013, Mediahuis has built a diversified portfolio of news media and digital brands. In recent years, the group has made significant progress in the digital transformation of its news brands. Mediahuis successfully implements paywalls and digital subscription services on its news sites, driven by an optimal customer experience combined with strong and independent journalism. More than 30 national and regional news titles provide news to more than 10 million readers every day, both online and in print. The group employs around 4,600 people and has an annual turnover of more than 1 billion euros.
