Russmedia invests 100 million in digital growth

Russmedia will focus even more on its international digital strategy and will allocate 100 million Euro for digital investments in Europe in the upcoming five years. Eugen A. Russ, Russmedia’s CEO: “Our team has a remarkable digital focus. With the new initiatives, we will be able to capture even more digital DNA.”

New digital holding with offices in Vienna and Berlin

Russmedia’s international digital business will be bundled in a new digital holding company with offices in Vienna and Berlin. In addition to Eugen A. Russ and Josef Kogler, Russmedia has appointed media manager Dr. Michael Tillian as Managing Director. Tillian (43) who worked as an attorney and a top manager for the Styria Media Group, will be the spokesman of the digital holding. Tillian will continue developing the run-startup Maxfun, one of the new initiatives in which Russmedia will invest.

Russmedia’s portfolio of companies includes: Europe’s largest independent ski rental company Alpinresorts (Bratislava and Vienna), Europe’s largest rental portal Erento (Berlin), the German classifieds portal Quoka.de, the Hungarian job portal CVOnline.hu and the Romanian classifieds portal Publi24.ro. All of these will be assigned to Russmedia’s new digital holding company. The newly established central M&A team will focus on digital growth. The commitment to international digital marketplaces is significantly strengthened.

Together with Speedinvest, Europe’s successful early-stage venture fund, Russmedia will launch a special fund focused on international marketplaces. This move will deepen the existing collaboration between Russmedia and Speedinvest.

Vorarlberg is growing with solutions for partner publishers

Russmedia will also continue its digital publishing strategy in Austria – in parallel with international marketplaces. In addition to investments in Russmedia’s journalistic media portfolio in Austria, the latest partnership with the media accelerator program NMA in Hamburg and the acquisitions in the TV and online marketing segment in Western Austria, Russmedia will continue to invest in Vorarlberg, where its headquarters are based.

With Russmedia Solutions, the success models from Vorarlberg are increasingly offered to other publishers. The Citizen Forum Application of newspaper VN is already in use at the Funke Media Group in Germany and the Swiss NZZ group also relies on the technology of VOL.AT. “Vorarlberger Nachrichten and VOL.AT are international role models for powerful journalism and successful media in the region. With Russmedia Solutions, we are opening a new perspective, that will be shared with regional media across Europe” says Gerold Riedmann, Managing Director of Russmedia Austria. With the highest share of digital subscribers, VN is already the most digital daily newspaper in Austria, VOL.AT is the most successful regional portal in Europe. “These and the other digital and printed media in Austria remain independent of the international digital business in the long-term core of Russmedia – and each side benefits from the other”, says Riedmann.

Focusing leads to international divestment

Intensified international and regional initiatives in the digital sector need a strategic focus. As a result, the regional newspaper businesses in Hungary and Romania (newspapers Észak-Magyarország, Hajdú-bihari Napló, Kelet-Magyarország, Jurnal Aradean, Jurnal Bihorean) was sold to Media Development Management Kft, a subsidiary of the Austrian CPS Investment Services AG which was set up as investment platform through which the employees and partners of the VCP-group may invest.

Eugen A. Russ: “I would like to thank Josef Kogler for the extremely successful development of the company in Hungary and Romania, and I do wish Managing Director Istvan Fodor and his whole team every success for the future. The new owner and the management will focus on continuity and our proven team. I am convinced that the company will continue to develop successfully in the new constellation and am therefore very satisfied with the transaction.”

István Fodor: “I am looking forward to the new challenge and further development of our newspapers, which I will provide in detail during a press conference in September.” Russmedia is still active in the markets of Hungary and Romania with its digital brands such as the job portal CVOnline.hu, the classifieds portal Publi24.ro and the software development house Russmedia Tech.

For further information please contact: Claudia Probst, Assistant to Eugen A. Russ, Tel. +43 5572 501 236, claudia.probst@russmedia.com