Romanian journalists and expat executive launch new business news website

A team of Romanian business journalists recently launched a new website, Profit.ro, which specializes in business news and analysis in Romanian. This online-based editorial project is one of the biggest launched in Romania in recent years, as the media market has been going through a difficult period, marked by insolvencies and scandals. In fact, many of the journalists who work on this new project come from Mediafax group, one of the biggest media outlets in Romania, which is now under insolvency. Cristian Popa, the former editor in chief of the Mediafax Business newswire, coordinates the new project together with Oana Osman, former editor in chief of the Capital business weekly, Ovidiu Tempea and Thomas Dinca, both former Mediafax veterans, are also founding members of the project. Main investors are Andreas Fuhrman, who is managing partner of executive search and HR consultancy firm Transearch, and Romanian entrepreneur Paula Dobrescu, who owns one of the biggest local travel agencies specialized in corporate clients, Business Travel. Fuhrmann has been living in Romania since the early 90s, when he came here first as general manager of German group Henkel’s local subsidiary. Orlando Nicoara, the former CEO of Mediafax group, coordinates the technical part of the project. He also owns the profit.ro domain, which was registered in 2006, according to public data. The investment in this new editorial project was not disclosed, but according to Nicoara, all the expenses for the first year of functioning are covered, writes paginademedia.ro. The team behind profit.ro includes 19 experienced business journalists who have worked for famous local business publications such as Mediafax, Capital, and Ziarul Financiar. The project relies on its shareholders and publicity, as the content will be free of charge at first. Later on, profit.ro may start to charge its readers for an annual subscription to diversify its revenues, according to the project’s official presentation. The top financial publication in Romania has been for many years Ziarul Financiar, which is part of the insolvent Mediafax group. Ziarul Financiar is among the few daily print newspapers that have managed to survive the crisis in the Romanian media in the past seven years. Other important business media are Wall-Street.ro, Capital, Economica.net, DailyBusiness.ro, and Bursa. Bucharest Court approves media group’s insolvency, appoints judicial administrator editor@romania-insider.com