Mecom close to selling German newspaper business

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on January 7, 2009 at 7:34 PM

Britian-based Mecom Group, which publishes titles across Europe, will likely close a deal on Friday to sell its Cologne-based newspaper publishing business M. DuMont Schauberg, a source told Reuters Wednesday.

MDS is the fourth-largest newspaper publisher in Germany, and owns Express and Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger. In Germany, Mecom also owns Hamburger Morgenpost and Berliner Verlag, which MDS tried to buy in 2005.

Mecom has been having difficulty under trading conditions recently, and in December became the first newspaper publisher in Europe "to persuade lenders to relax its debt covenants," Reuters reported in an article posted by the Guardian.