New blow for the Romanian media: Forbes magazine closes down, job cuts at Adevarul Holding

Newsroom 28/09/2012 | 07:56

Business magazine Forbes Romania, launched by Adevarul Holding in March 2009, will close down, according to paginademedia.ro.

On October 17, Forbes magazine was supposed to launch the Forbes Top 500 Millionaires.

The magazine is being closed down while businessman Cristian Burci is about to take over the Adevarul daily from Dinu Patriciu, after signing an agreement in this sense on September 5. According to an interview in Adevarul.md, Burci is going to focus more on the digital. He will take over a part of the debts of the holding, while the other part will be covered by Patriciu.

The businessman estimated Adevarul Holding will reach break-even in three months, after some “painful but decisive measures.”

Forbes started in Romania at the initiative of Adriana Halpert and Stefan Onica, who were working at the time at Capital, where they were coordinating Capital Top 300 Richest Romanians.

The two left Capital and started working at Adevarul, which was taken over by Dinu Patriciu in 2006. The management of Adevarul Holding led the negotiations with the American side and signed the contract for the Forbes license.

According to paginademedia.ro, Adevarul Holding has made redundant a part of the employees in the IT and marketing departments, but will also axe some positions in the editorial offices of Adevarul daily and Click tabloid. Job positions will also be cut in the Adevarul printing houses and book stores.