Bundeskartellamt clears plans by Lensing Media and Funke Mediengruppe to end their joint advertising newspaper activities

The Bundeskartellamt has cleared plans to split the advertising newspaper activities of Ostruhr Anzeigenblattgesellschaft (ORA). So far ORA has been jointly controlled by Lensing Media and Funke Mediengruppe and publishes advertising newspapers in the eastern Ruhr area. Lensing Media and Funke Mediengruppe now wish to end their cooperation in ORA.

In future Lensing Media is to be the sole publisher of ORA’s advertising newspapers in Dortmund, Lünen, Schwerte, Castrop-Rauxel, Dorsten and Haltern, and Funke Mediengruppe is to publish ORA’s advertising newspapers in Bochum/Wattenscheid, Witten, Gladbeck and Bottrop.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “We were able to clear the project as the takeover of ORA’s various advertising newspapers will not further worsen the competitive situation on the local advertising and reader markets in this specific case. Apart from ORA, only the jointly controlling parent companies Lensing Media and Funke Mediengruppe are active on the markets with their regional daily newspapers ‘Ruhr Nachrichten’, 'Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung’ and ‘Westfälische Rundschau’.”