As part of the portfolio review of its Regional Media business unit, DuMont today announced its decision to acquire the media company in Hamburg.
After extensive market research, DuMont is selling Hamburger Morgenpost Medien to Arist von Harpe. The industrial engineer and digital manager wants to reposition the traditional medium Hamburger Morgenpost and give it a long-term perspective. As part of the realignment of the Regional Media business unit, DuMont will thus concentrate in future on the core market of Rhineland and Cologne. Following the sale of the Berliner Verlag and the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung media group, this step completes the review process of DuMont's Regional Media business unit. The company will in future focus its publishing activities in this business segment primarily on the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger and EXPRESS brands.
DuMont acquired a stake in the Hamburger Morgenpost, Germany's oldest tabloid newspaper, in 2009. In the years that followed, the company invested heavily in the development of new business areas and offerings around the Hamburg tabloid title and in the systematic expansion of the mopo.de news platform. With a total reach of around 25 million visits, mopo.de has become the market leader among regional news sites in northern Germany.
The sale to Arist von Harpe includes in detail the Hamburger Morgenpost, mopo.de, the media marketer Hamburg First Medien & Marketing GmbH, the corporate publishing agency DuMont Media including the mixed-reality experience world Discovery Dock in the Port of Hamburg as well as the investment in Radio Hamburg. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.
Arist von Harpe comments on his decision: "MOPO has always been one of the central media brands of this city - with a clear identity and attitude. MOPO is as much a part of Hamburg as the neighborhood, the fish market or the beginners. I firmly believe in the brand's potential and would like to further sharpen the focus on genuine local journalism and thus inspire the people of Hamburg even more. The goal: a MOPO that is deeply rooted in the city and sustainably successful - on all channels.
"We have always stressed that we will also work out the best possible future option for Hamburg, and it was important to us to give the Hamburger Morgenpost Medien with all its offerings a perspective. To this end, Arist von Harpe has presented what we believe is the most promising concept," says Isabella Neven DuMont, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of DuMont.
DuMont to focus publishing activities on Cologne in future
The sale of Hamburger Morgenpost Medien is the final step in DuMont's portfolio review of the Regional Media business unit. CEO Christoph Bauer explains: "DuMont will systematically continue its diversification with the three business units Regional Media, Business Information and Marketing Technology. In the Business Information and Marketing Technology business units, we will continue to expand the existing businesses. We will continue to develop the Regional Media business unit around our activities in Cologne. We will present the future orientation of DuMont and its business units in April after the conclusion of the current transactions".
"Our portfolio review was an important step towards initiating the next phase of the company's development and realigning the Regional Media business segment," says Isabella Neven DuMont. "We made a very conscious decision to further develop our publishing activities in the Rhineland with our strong brands Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger and EXPRESS. In doing so, we will continue to expand the journalistic role of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger in the Rhineland and the position of EXPRESS as the regional news portal with the widest reach in Germany, and we will push the digitization of both offerings in a targeted manner.
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