Vocento/Qué! deal completed
For 132 million Euros Basque publisher Vocento has acquired the free daily Qué! The free paper was part of the Recoletos group (Marca, Expansion) but was not sold to Italian media group RCS Media group (Corriere della Sera) in the beginning of this year. (Terra)
Qué! was launched in the beginning of 2005. Launching costs alone were over 10 million Euro’s while the paper is still losing money now. In circulation the paper is just over 20 Minutos, both papers distribute almost a million copies. In readership Qué! is second. In June the paper hired new journalists for an expansion in either more editions or more editorial quality (see previous post).
Vocento publishes national daily ABC, regional dailies and free dailies in Bilbao (El Nervion, since 2001) and Malaga (Que Pasa, 2003). The company also has a 30% stake in the Valencia free daily El Micalet. It is not yet clear what the takeover will mean for these publications as Qué! has also editions in Bilbao, Malaga and Valencia.