The list, however, reveals that Hungary remains one of the so-called "problematic" countries, and only two of the EU member states have a worse press situation: Bulgaria and Greece.Continue reading
Mediaworks will reduce its unused printing capacities and close two of its printing plants, Mediaworks Hungary Zrt. told MTI. In addition, there are staff redundancies at Alfahír and N1TV, and Telex will be employee-owned.
In the unfavorable economic environment, Mediaworks is further optimizing its operations, leading the company to reduce its unused printing capacities and close the two least modern of its five printing plants in Veszprém and Debrecen, Mediaworks Hungary Zrt. told MTI.
Mediaworks noted that inflation, runaway paper and energy prices, and growing supply chain problems have also put the group in a difficult financial situation.
However, in their statement, they said that they will continue to fully meet their contractual obligations to their business partners via their three printing plants, which will remain in operation. Mediaworks owns several publications among them some pro-government papers, for example Magyar Nemzet, Nemzeti Sport, Világgazdaság, Ripost, Bors, Mandiner, as well as county newspapers.
According to Magyar Nemzet, the Jobbik party-affiliated, nationalist news portal Alfahír and the online television channel N1TV have started a major wave of redundancies, only retaining a few staff members.
Van Másik Kft., which publishes the government-critical Telex, will be transformed into a limited liability company. The main goal of the transformation – as we have always wanted since the creation of Telex – is to make Telex the property of Telex employees and to keep it that way forever,” the portal reports.
“75% of the shares will be employee shares, divided equally among the employees as requested by the editorial board. Of these shares, only founding editor-in-chief Veronika Munk will receive a larger share than the others,” Telex adds. The remaining 25 percent of the shares will be divided as ordinary shares between Szabolcs Dull, the other editor-in-chief, Márton Kárpáti, Director of Business Development and Strategy, András Kárpáti, Director of IT and András Pusztay, Director of Sales and Marketing.
Telex was founded in 2020, with the help of Czech billionaire Zdeněk Bakala by a group of journalists who quit Index, as well as with reader support, and has been largely run by it ever since.
Featured image: illustration via Pixabay
