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The three Macedonian daily newspapers, owned by Germany's WAZ Media Group, have been sold as part of its strategy to withdraw from the media market in South Eastern Europe.
WAZ's three dailies, Dnevnik, Utrinski Vesnik and Vest, which hold a considerable share of the newspaper market, passed into the hands of Orka Holding on Wednesday after lengthy negotiations, local media reported.
The price of the deal was not disclosed.
WAZ's daughter company, Media Print Macedonia, MPM, and the print shop Graficki Centar Skopje will be from now on part of the Orka Holding.
The news has fuelled growing concerns over the quality and objectivity of the media market in Macedonia, since WAZ was the only big international media player and has been widely viewed as a guarantee for professionalism.
The WAZ Media Group stepped on the Macedonian newspaper market in May 2003 after acquiring majority shares in publishers Krug, Most and Ogledalo. The three companies merged in April 2004 into the newly founded service provider Media Print Macedonia (MPM), based in Skopje.
The daily newspaper Dnevnik from Krug was founded in 1996 as the first independent newspaper of the Republic of Macedonia and rose to market leader in Macedonia in 2003. The daily newspaper Utrinski Vesnik from Most appeared for the first time on 23 June 1999, the daily newspaper Vest (Ogledalo) issued its first run on 5 July 2000.
In total, the three nationwide daily newspapers in the greatly fragmented media landscape reach a total number of 65.000 copies at one weekend.
A year ago Bulgaria's competition watchdog gave the green light to the acquisition of WAZ Mediengruppe assets in Bulgaria by Ognyan Donev and Lyubomir Pavlov, who were accused of an attempted corporate mini-coup.
The ruling cemented the decision of Bulgaria's Business Registry Agency to register 83% of the wide-circulation dailies "Trud" (Labor) and 24 Chasa (24 Hours) as property of Ognyan Donev and Lyubomir Pavlov, former chairman of the Sofia-based Municipal Bank.
The ownership of WAZ Mediengruppe assets in Bulgaria, which include the two wide-circulation Trud and 24 Hours newspapers, changed hands just four months after Vienna-registered BG Privatinvest Ltd acquired a majority stake in the publisher, while the remainder was held by local businessmen Lyubomir Pavlov.
The conflict between the former partners flared up after Hristo Grozev, who represents the Vienna-registered BG Privatinvest Ltd, controlled by him, Austrian Karl Habsburg, and German Daniel Rutz, accused their Bulgarian partners of an attempted illegal corporate take-over of the newspapers.
Bulgaria's trade registry initially blocked the allegedly illegal transfer of a 83% stake in the holding at the insistence of Grozev, but later, following the intervention of the Justice Ministry, gave it the green light.
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