Sale or closure of local daily Helsingør Dagblad

North Media Aviser A/S has decided to sell the Helsingør Dagblad. Unless a buyer can be found, publication is expected to cease at the end of April 2020. Local weekly Lokalavisen Nordsjælland will continue as part of subsidiary Hovedstadens Mediehus.

The background to the decision to sell or close the Helsingør Dagblad is the coronavirus crisis, which has hit advertising sales hard and further undermined the finances of an already loss-making newspaper.

“This has been a difficult decision for us, as we are painfully aware of the paper’s importance for the local area over the past 152 years,” says Lasse Wulff Hansen, CEO of North Media Aviser A/S. “We’ve stepped up investment in digital development and media consulting over the past six months to help build a sustainable future for the paper, but unfortunately the coronavirus crisis has undermined the case for further investment. We cannot justify continuing to cover the paper’s losses at the expense of our other publications.”

North Media Aviser hopes to be able to find a new home for the Helsingør Dagblad, which currently has almost 5,000 print and digital subscribers. If not, it will close with effect from 30 April 2020. Subscribers who have prepaid for the paper will then receive a refund for the copies they do not receive, around 25 staff will be given their notice from the same date, and negotiations will begin with employees under the rules on mass redundancies.

The changes will not affect the weekly Lokalavisen Nordsjælland, which is published in north-eastern Zealand with a circulation of 32,500 and will continue as part of North Media Aviser’s subsidiary Hovedstadens Mediehus. Four employees at Lokalavisen Nordsjælland are expected to remain in their jobs.

Along with this expected reconstruction of activities in northern Zealand, there will be minor adjustments to the workforce at Hovedstadens Mediehus, with the loss of six positions: two in sales, two editorial and two in prepress.

Hovedstadens Mediehus publishes eight local newspapers in the Greater Copenhagen area with a weekly print run of 285,400, the website minby.dk with more than 135,000 monthly users, and Copenhagen’s free business monthly Erhverv København with a print run of 19,000.

“We’re sticking to the course we set at the end of 2019 to strengthen the local newspapers’ digital platforms and increase their relevance to readers and advertisers,” says Lasse Wulff Hansen. “Things were going to plan before the coronavirus crisis, and we’re now ready to get back on the track we had to abandon in mid-March and build a stronger Hovedstadens Mediehus.”

North Media Aviser is a business area of the listed North Media A/S group, which delivers platforms and channels for communication between businesses and consumers: https://www.northmedia.dk/

The Helsingør Dagblad was founded in 1867 by a group of local inhabitants and was first published on 21 October that year.

Further information:
CEO Lasse Wulff Hansen, North Media Aviser A/S, tel. +45 30 20 20 40, lwh@northmedia.dk