Mediahuis Ltd.

Mediahuis NV are the parent company of Mediahuis Ireland (formerly Independent News and Media or INM) who own the Irish Independent and the Sunday Independent, as well as The Herald, The Sunday World and 13 regional papers. They have been a major player in the Irish print media market since they acquired INM from the then leading shareholders Denis O’Brien (29.99%) and Dermot Desmond (15%) for €145.6 million in April 2019.

The origins of Mediahuis Ireland can be traced back to 1904, when William Martin Murphy, a controversial Irish nationalist businessman, founded a media company called Independent Newspapers Limited. Murphy launched the company’s flagship publication, The Irish Independent in 1905, followed shortly after by The Sunday Independent in 1906.

In 1973 control of INM left the Murphy family for the first time, when Kerrygold founder Tony O’Reilly bought a 28% stake in the company, and became CEO and Chairperson. O’Reilly, a former international Rugby Union player often considered to be Ireland’s first billionaire, who would later become chairman of the H.J Heinz Company. Under his leadership, the paper’s politics became more market liberal and economically right of centre.

Ownership transferred again in May 2012 when Communicorp founder and billionaire Denis O’Brien became the majority shareholder of Independent News and Media (INM), and once more in 2019 when INM was acquired by current owners Mediahuis NV, and became Mediahuis Ireland.

As Mediahuis Ireland, the group remains the largest player in the market with over two million weekly readers (2020). Post-takeover there has been a marked shift towards a digital first approach, targeting an increase in online subscriptions. Mediahuis Ireland announced the closure of its only printing press (based in Newry in Northern Ireland) in September 2022 and in April 2023, Mediahuis Ireland Chief Executive Peter Vandermeersch stated that he expected printed newspapers to disappear entirely within a decade. This pivot towards digital can also be seen in their expansion into the online classified advertising sector, which includes a number of car, property and recruitment platforms.

Mediahuis NV, the parent company of Mediahuis Ireland, is a media conglomerate founded in 2014, after a merger by two Flemish media organizations, Corelio (who became Mediahuis Partners NV in 2019) and Concentra. VP Exploitatie, a Dutch investment firm, joined as the third shareholder in 2015. In 2022, the company reported a turnover of 1.2 billion Euros.

Mediahuis NV has established itself as a significant player in the media landscape of Belgium, the Netherlands and beyond. Their newspapers have substantial readership, and they contribute to public discourse and news dissemination in these countries. Some of their more notable properties include De Standaard, Het Nieuwsblad, Gazet van Antwerpen and Het Belang van Limburg in Belgium, as well as NRC Handelsblad, nrc.next, and De Telegraaf in The Netherlands. Their portfolio also includes several media titles in Luxembourg, Germany, Ireland, and Northern Ireland.

In May 2023 Mediahuis acquired Euractiv, their first pan-european media network, which covers EU policy in eight broad categories: agrifood, economy, energy and environment, global Europe, health, politics, technology and transport. Euractiv’s media network spans Belgium, France, the UK, Spain, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Greece Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, and Serbia

Mediahuis NV’s largest shareholders include the Belgian Baert Family (29.5%) via their 90% ownership Concentra, The van Puijenbroek family (16.7%) via their 100% ownership of VP Exploitatie and Thomas Leysen (13.25%) via their 26.5.% ownership of Mediahuis Partners NV.