Reworld Media published half-yearly results on Wednesday which show good resistance to the crisis.
The parent company of
Grazia
,
Sciences & Vie
,
Biba, Top Santé
or
Pleine vie
recorded over the first six months of 2020 a turnover of just over 200 million euros, down 13%, for a gross operating surplus of 15.1 million and a profit of 600,000 euros.
Sales have more than doubled since last year due to the takeover completed a year ago of Mondadori France magazines.
Profitability also increased thanks to the synergies put in place after this operation.
"We are a media and also a technology group,"
recalls Pascal Chevalier, president of Reworld Media, of which 28% of turnover is generated by its performance marketing activities (Tradedoubler).
This situation, as well as the strong digitization of our media activities, has enabled us to emerge stronger from this crisis and now gives us the opportunity to move forward faster.
During the lockdown, our subscriber base didn't budge. ”
Reworld has reorganized into two poles, B to C (general public) and B to B (professionals).
The first, which generated sales of 122.2 million euros in the first half of the year, includes the activities of the sale of content by subscription (2.3 million in total, in particular all subscribers to magazines) or to the act (single online purchase of content or service) from 45 media brands.
The second (79 million euros) brings together the different levers for monetizing audiences (marketing performance, creation of brand content, programmatic advertising).
"Reworld is an audience monetizer and a publisher of performance marketing software",
summarizes Pascal Chevalier.
Audiences on the rise
This binary positioning, halfway between content and technology, has made it possible to limit the effects of the health crisis.
Over one year, audiences for verticals developed in six themes (women, auto-sport, health-cooking-well-being, entertainment, home-garden-nature and science-culture) have all grown to bring together a total of last July 21.5 million unique visitors (VU).
The brands of the entertainment division (
Télé Star
,
Télé Poche
,
Closer
) generate 8.3 million monthly VUs on average, up 27% over one year.
Those of the Maison-jardin-nature cluster (
L'ami des jardins
,
Maison & Travaux
,
My garden and my house
...) tripled to reach 4.6 million VU.
The audience of the
Biba
site
has literally exploded (+ 456%) thanks to a new strategy favoring light subjects ...
Reworld continues to supply the “pipeline” with content on all media.
Over the past six months, around ten websites have been renewed or created, three new paper formulas have been launched (
Dr Good! Véto
,
Bien à la campagne
and
TV 14
) as well as live programs on social networks or Thematic TV channels (Wars & History TV, Nous Deux TV and Télé Star Play) available via ISPs or SVOD.
At the same time, the group continued to reduce its exposure to the print advertising market.
The women's magazine
Grazia
notably announced in June that it was stopping its weekly paper edition to limit itself to seasonal publications at the time of the most popular Parisian "fashion weeks" (the next issue should appear on October 16).
Advertising revenues from paper only represent 5% of turnover.
Acquisition opportunities
Optimistic for the end of the year, Pascal Chevalier explains that
“advertisers are looking for performance in their sales, that's what they want.
"Reworld Media highlights that its" ecosystem "has enabled advertisers to generate 1.4 billion euros in annual turnover.
Reasonably indebted, with 92 million euros of cash in its coffers, the group says it is ready to take out the checkbook to make acquisitions, with the ambition of reaching one billion euros in turnover over time.
“The selling prices are currently attractive.
There are opportunities to be seized, ”
emphasizes Pascal Chevalier.