Posts Tagged ‘schibsted’

Johnston Press plc, one of the U.K.’s leading regional media groups announced on July 20 the appointment of Kjell Aamot as non-executive director of the company with effect from Aug. 1. Read the rest of this entry »

Austria’s No.  1  classified platform, Willhaben.at, has acquired 100 percent of the shares in the used-cars site, Car4you.at. The price is not yet known. Together Willhaben and Car4you count more than 63,000 vehicle ads. Read the rest of this entry »

Free-classifieds company OLX seems to want to focus more on the development of business in the small southwestern European markets. The company, founded in 2006 by the Internet entrepreneurs Fabrice Grinda and Alec Oxenford, has named its Brazilian country manager Rodrigo Ribeirão as new country manager for Portugal. Read the rest of this entry »

European publishing powerhouse Schibsted has restructured, the result of which puts all of its online classified companies under one umbrella.
Read the rest of this entry »

Rolv Erik Ryssdal will lead Schibsted ASA as its new CEO on June 1. He succeeds Kjell Aamot, who in March announced his intention to step down after 20 years at the helm.

Ryssdal has been with the Schibsted Group since 1991, most recently as CEO of Schibsted Classified Media, the holding company for Schibsted’s expanding international classifieds operations. SCM operates in 15 countries with 2008 revenues of about NOK 2 billion (about $307 million U.S.) and approximately 1,500 people in his employ.

He also held stints as CEO of the two largest newspapers in the Schibsted Group: Aftonbladet in Sweden and Norway’s VG.

Ryssdal has a Master of Business and Economics degree from Bedriftsøkonomisk Institutt (BI) in Oslo, and an MBA from INSEAD in France. He is married and has three children.

The number of jobs on Swedish Schibsted-owned job site Jobb24.se has grown 25 percent in the last two months for what the company is calling “an increase in market share of 67 percent in terms of open jobs among the dominating commercial actors.” The site now has 60,000 unique weekly visitors.

Jobb24.se was launched 2006 by the newspapers Svenska Dagbladet and Aftonbladet together with Finn.no. It competes with Swedish powerhouses Monster, CareerBuilder and the government’s official job site AMS.se.  

After the move in Denmark two months ago with the acquisitions of the two classified sites Dba.dk and Bilbasen.dk, EBay is now targeting Norway. The company recently launched EBay.no as part of EBay’s “Global Buying Hub.” The reason mentioned by Justin Marcucci from EBay is that Norwegian users are especially active on EBay and the company therefore wants to offer them a better and customized service. The goal is to offer more than 100 million products for the Norwegian market in near future.

This step increases EBay’s presence in Schibsted-dominated Scandinavia. The company already runs the EBay site Tradera.com in Sweden and dba.dk and Bilbasen.dk in Denmark. The market in Norway is today dominated by Schibsted-owned Finn.no, followed by the auction site Qxl.no. At the time of the strategic acquisitions in Denmark EBay’s Pat Kolek told us that the Scandinavia is considered to be a very important market for the company and the plan is to explore the market either strategically (if the right partner isn’t found) or organically. Sverre Munck, executive vice president international at Schibsted at that time said, “The acquisition of Den Blaa Avis confirms, in our view, the attractiveness and robustness of the classifieds business model compared to the auction model.”

In Denmark the first changes in the Dba concept have been made. Buying and selling is now free for private users which the company hopes will attract more advertisers. According to a press release, Dba expects an increase of 42 percent in the private buying and selling segment in 2009.

We have more details about Anuntis Segundamano transformation into an online pure-play online company by closing down the traditional Spanish classified ads paper Segundamano, in operation for more than 30 years. See our previous headline here.

Beginning in December, the monthly classified paper owned by the Norwegian Schibsted Group will be no longer available at the kiosks all over the country. The decision made by the administration of Anuntis Segundamano follows Schibsted’s new strategy to concentrate on online business. With Fotocasa.es, InfoJobs and Coches.net, Anuntis owns leading classified-ads portals for real estate, jobs and car ads respectively.

It’s not a big surprise. CEO David González is on record saying that the company “will only pursuit its print business if it stays lucrative,” which is not the case anymore. For the first nine months of the year, Schibsted’s operating revenues from Spain’s print publications fell by about 50 percent, leaving only a sales volume of €6.3 million ($7.9 million U.S.) and a net loss of €700,000. 54 percent. In the first nine months of the year. Meanwhile, operating revenues from Spanish online properties were up by 21 percent in the third quarter.

Segundamano will continue on the Web; smaller classified papers Primeramà (Barcelona), Trueque (Baleares) and Trajín (Valencia) will cease operations completely, with no relocation of its employees.

The business of Schibsted’s free daily newspaper in Spain, 20 Minutos, is also declining. 20 Minutos ad revenues dropped 21 percent in Q3,  corresponding to a loss of sales of €3.1 million.

Online operations saw revenues of €73 million through September, though in general, Anuntis revenues were down 19 percent for Q3. 

With the closing down of its classified print business Segundamano hopes to economize €10 million –  €7 million alone will come from the dismissal of 217 employees.

After 30 years in operation, Spanish classifieds newspaper Segundamano is shutting down its print versions to go online-only.

Segundamano is owned by Schibsted Classifed Media. Segundamano operates the online real estate portal Fotocasa.es.

Schibsted, like most media companies, has reported a decline in revenues – for Q3, the company is down 19 percent which the company said is due primarily to a negative trend for its print publications in Spain.

Operating revenues from Schibsted’s print publications in Spain fell by 54 percent. The closure of titles accounted for 5-10 percentage points of this reduction.

Closing down print in Spain will cost Schibsted EUR 10 million due to restructuring. All told, 217 jobs will be cut.

Why stay online? “The operating revenues of the Spanish online activities increased by 21 percent in Q3,” Schibsted reported.

According to ComScore, fotocasa.es leads the Spanish online market with over 1 million visitors per month.

Schibsted reported a decline in Q3 profit. Operating profit (EBITA) went down from NOK 257 million in Q3 2007 to 213 million ($31 million USD) in 2008. Just like many other media companies Schibsted is now reacting to the international economic crisis. All major units have identified significant revenues and cost measures. A saving plan has therefore been adapted to effect EBITA with 500 million NOK ($72.8 million USD) in 2009. At the same time, Schibsted has profited from the structural migration from print to online media. In Q3 online classifieds revenues grew 20 percent. Swedish Blocket/Bytbil increased its operating revenues by 20 percent to SEK 118 million ($15 million USD) in Q3 with an operating margin of 62 percent. There will be a complete close down of print classifieds operations in Spain with a head count reduction of 217 employees in Q4 2008.  

The free Portuguese daily newspaper Metro, owned by the Scandinavian Schibsted Group, has started a real estate supplement Metro Casa for northern region of the country. Just like the edition for the metropolitan area of Lisbon, Metro Casa will be integrated in the central classified ads section of the daily.

Tiago Bugarin, editor of Metro Portugal, justified the start in the Porto area with “the dynamics of real estate market in the Porto region, with large new housing constructions on the way for young people with buying power.”

The start of the classified ads supplement will be accompanied by a special promotion in the newspaper and a “radio advertisement campaign in Porto”. In its Oct. 23 edition, Metro Casa showed 120,000 listings for this week’s real estate fair “Salão Imobiliário de Lisboa.”