The man who openly called Hungary’s Prime Minister a “f..cker" is to shut down 80-year old daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet and Lánchíd Radio with immediate effect. The paper will be last published on 11 April and the radio will go silent at midnight today.
Due to financing problems of Magyar Nemzet the owners have decided that the publisher will cease its media content service activity, hence daily newspaper Magyar Nemzet and its online version, mno.hu, will be terminated. The last issue of the paper founded 80 years ago will be published on 11 April 2018, announced the publisher, Nemzet Lap- és Könyvkiadó Kft.
Lánchíd Radio Ltd. also announced that due to financing problems and on a decision by the owners the radio will go off the air at midnight on 10 April.
Local weekly hvg.hu has learned that changes are afoot at broadcaster HírTV, as well. There will be rationalisation at the TV and programmes that run their course will not be renewed.
According to official data, Magyar Nemzet was published in 13,608 copies in the fourth quarter of 2017, which is one third of the copies published before February 2015. The broadcasting licence of Lánchíd Radio would have expired at the end of October this year.
2015 was the turning point
Revenues of the publisher of Magyar Nemzet had been constantly growing up until 2015. In 2014, the Nemzeti Lap- és Könyvkiadó Ltd. posted sales of over HUF 3.1 billion. Its after-tax profit was HUF 750 million in 2012, HUF 712 mn in 2013 and HUF 929 mn in 2014. The turning point came in 2015 when Lajos Simicska a high school and college friend of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán fell out with the PM and called him a "f..cker". (What he literally said was that Orbán is “semen", or “geci", which is one of the harshest insults in the Hungarian language. The former treasurer of Orbán’s Fidesz party accused the PM of wanting to shut down independent media with planned changes to tax rates they pay on advertising.)
In 2015, the publisher’s sales dropped to HUF 2.225 bn from HUF 3.1 bn in 2015, and it incurred operating losses of HUF 168 mn with after-tax profit of only HUF 60 mn. In 2016 (the latest available data), revenues halved and came in slightly over HUF 1 bn, while operating losses reached HUF 984 mn.
2015 was the turning point in the life of Lánchíd Radio, as well. By then the HUF 477 mn revenue posted in 2014 ebbed to HUF 282 mn and it incurred HUF 151 mn operating losses. By 2016, the radio’s revenues decreased to HUF 166 mn and its operating losses reached HUF 265 mn.
What about the other assets in Simicska’s media empire?
Local weekly hvg.hu has learned that changes are afoot at broadcaster HírTV, as well. There will be rationalisation at the TV and programmes will not be renewed once their run their planned course.
According to 24.hu, Magyar Nemzet already has a suitor, but talks have not started yet. According to the portal, the owner treats Index as a separate package.
Index.hu has learned that the fate of weekly Heti Válasz is also hanging in the balance, as Simicska relayed a message to the paper that it can start to look for a new investor. If it does, he will sell the paper and it can remain in existence.
Index has learned that the owner’s decision was announced an editorial meeting called for 10 A.M. today. This was where they announced the termination of the daily newspaper, its online version and the radio station, and also that every holiday will be granted and staff members will be paid according to the labour code. The employees were expecting the paper and the radio to be finished, but had the impression that the paper’s online version will go on, and that the radio will remain on air at least until the end of October, when its licence expires. So, the immediate closure of the media units was definitely a shock for a lot of people.
Photo and front page photo by: MTI Fotó/ Tibor Illyés
Simicska reacts fast
In view of the above, we can state that Lajos Simicska’s reaction to the victory of the Fidesz-KDNP coalition was lightning-fast, as he starts sending out the flagships of his media empire to the sea.
