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AS Ekspress Grupp merges two companies and creates a new book publishing company

Teade

Tallinn, Estonia, 2011-04-27 13:00 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --


AS Ekspress Grupp has decided to merge the companies Eesti Päevalehe AS and AS
Eesti Ajalehed. The merger will create a company that publishes three
newspapers: Eesti Päevaleht, Eesti Ekspress and Maaleht. Simultaneously with
the merger of the two companies, a new book publishing company will be created
as a subsidiary of AS Eesti Ajalehed. This new company will unite all the
current book publishing activities undertaken under the Eesti Ekspress, Maaleht
and Eesti Päevaleht brands. The creation of the new book publishing business
will begin immediately, whereas the merger of Eesti Päevalehe AS and AS Eesti
Ajalehed will be finalised by autumn this year. 

As part of the merger, Ekspress Grupp will develop a shared multimedia
newsroom. This newsroom will comprise the editorial teams of all the companies
wholly owned by Ekspress Grupp. This means that the newsroom will accommodate
the editorial teams of Delfi, Eesti Ekspress, Eesti Päevaleht and Maaleht, as
well as the monthlies published by these newspapers. By the beginning of
summer, the editorial teams of all products will relocate to shared premises -
the former Eesti Päevaleht offices at Narva mnt 13. All the editorial teams
will continue to function as independent units run by the respective
editor-in-chief. Structurally, the newspaper editorial teams will work under
the company AS Eesti Ajalehed, and the Delfi editorial team will remain under
the company AS Delfi. The support functions of all press products will be moved
to the former premises of the newspapers Eesti Ekspress and Maaleht (at Narva
mnt 11e). AS Delfi will vacate its current office premises in Rävala Street. 

Also, a separate financial unit will be established on the basis of the
aforementioned companies. This unit will be a part of the group's parent
company, and will provide financial services to the group's subsidiaries. The
current financial directors and/or chief accountants in the companies will
remain in position as members of the company's management team. 

The goal of the planned changes is to optimise the operation of the support
functions in newspaper publishing; to concentrate the full content creation
competence of Ekspress Grupp in a single place; and, based on the resulting
improved information flow and increased capacity, to create new opportunities
for the production of high-quality content for various new media channels,
including the internet and digital television. The shared newsroom will offer
the necessary conditions for providing the editorial teams with better
technical facilities (both in terms of software and hardware), which in turn
will improve the journalists' time management and will boost the development of
the content quality of Ekspress Grupp's products. As for the support functions,
the circulation, customer service, marketing, advertising and technical support
units will be joined into one. As the units have so far been parts of different
structures, this restructuring will allow them to offer a better service to
shared customers, both in the fields of newspaper distribution and ad sales. 

With the creation of the book publishing company, Ekspress Grupp will
concentrate all of its book publishing know-how into a single organisation,
which will help to increase competitiveness without losing the support of the
group's various media brands. Based on the number of books published in 2010,
this new company would be the third largest book publisher on the Estonian
market. 


         Additional information:
         Gunnar Kobin
         Chairman of the Management Board
         GSM: +372 5188111
         e-mail: [email protected]