Roularta intends to acquire Landleven

Roularta Media Group (RMG) intends to acquire the Dutch monthly magazine Landleven from Reed Business Information, part of the RELX Group. The management will be conducted by Senior Publications Nederland BV (SPN), a part of RMG.

Landleven, “Country Life” in Dutch, is a multimedia brand that targets the large audience of people residing and living in rural areas. It reaches this community among others through the monthly magazine Landleven. The magazine has been in existence for 20 years and enjoys a sold circulation of 112,000 copies, 96,000 of which are subscriptions. It has 681,000 readers.

Landleven radiates the authenticity, cosiness, calm, nostalgia and comfort of country living. Each issue contains 164 pages of inspiring reports about the countryside: garden tips, recipes, animals, nature, trips, do-it-yourself projects and more. In addition to the regular editions, special numbers (cooking, creativity ...) are also published.

The community of rural readers is also reached with the daily newsletter (120,000 readers), social media (30,000 likers/followers on Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter), the website (84,000 unique visitors per month) and two major events a year, “Beleef Landleven” [Experience Landleven] and “Landleven Winter”, which together attract 47,000 visitors. Many products are sold to Landleven members via “Landleven Winkel” [The Landleven Shop]: crocheting kits, needlework projects, calendars ....

Landleven’s annual revenue is 7.5 million euros. 85% of this is generated by subscriptions and the events. Landleven is home to 22 employees.

Landleven perfectly fits the 360​° brand strategy that Roularta has developed in recent years for its magazines such as Trends, Knack, Sport/Voetbal Magazine, Nest, Plus Magazine, Datanews, and others. Like Landleven, Roularta created for these strong magazine brands websites, events, trade fairs, training programmes, newsletters, a social media presence, special editions and numerous line extensions.

Dirk Oeyen, CEO of SPN: Roularta has a great affinity with the Landleven community because it serves a similar audience in Belgium with its magazine Nest. Great synergy is also possible between Landleven and the Dutch Plus Magazine (also a part of Roularta’s portfolio) for advertisements and subscriptions. Both magazines are dedicated to readers 50 years and older, a highly targeted audience for advertisers. Moreover, Plus Magazine in the Netherlands has also developed a successful 360° strategy with plusonline.nl, the 50+ trade fair, content marketing, special issues, and so on.

Sander de Groot, Managing Director Reed Business Information, adds: “Reed Business Information’s strategy is based on delivering solutions for the workflow of professionals by combining content and data with analysis and technology on global platforms. The Dutch activities of the Landleven portfolio do not fit the focus of Reed Business Information. As a result, Reed Business Information intends to sell this portfolio to RMG.”

The integration of Landleven within SPN will take place in the last quarter of 2017.

About Roularta Media Group

Roularta Media Group is a Belgian multimedia group. It is Belgium’s leading provider of radio and television, news websites, magazines (general, business, sports and news weekly magazines, lifestyle and b2b magazines in Dutch and French) and local media in Flanders (free newspapers throughout Flanders with Deze Week on Wednesday and De Zondag on Sunday, the free lifestyle magazine Steps, online classifieds, web marketing and e-commerce solutions). With Plus Magazine (a joint venture with the French group Bayard), RMG is a market leader in media for seniors in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. RMG employs 1,800 and enjoys combined revenue of 470 million euros.
 

About SPN

Senior Publications Nederland BV (SPN) is a multi-media publishing company based in Baarn, Netherlands. SPN was founded in 1990 as a joint venture between the French publisher Bayard and the Belgian Roularta Media Group NV. Its core activity is the publishing of Plus Magazine, the largest monthly magazine in the Netherlands, with a paid core circulation of 250,000 copies and readership of 850,000. A range of secondary activities and products have been developed around the magazine (practical guides, digital publications, (health) insurance, cruises, etc). In addition, SPN operates a number of successful websites including plusonline.nl, gezondheidsnet.nl and fietsen123.nl. SPN is also active in the event sector with the 50+ trade fair (the world’s largest event for the elderly), the national health fair and the four-day walking event Plus Wandel4daagse. SPN is home to 65 employees. More information available at www.spn.nl.