The Association of Online Publishers is expanding with four new members. In March, the Prima Group, Investigace.cz, ABC Media and Inregion.cz joined the industry organisation. The number of members of the association has thus risen to twenty-five.
"We are pleased to welcome more members to our organisation. When we look at the diversity of our members' portfolios, it is clear that our association manages to reach out to media across the media spectrum and different thematic focus. We are all united by a single goal, and that is to make the media better off than it has ever been. A strong private media is a guarantee of a strong democratic society," says Libor Matoušek, chairman of the AOV.
One of the new members is the Prima Group, which currently operates eleven full-screen stations and launched a new VOD service, prima+, in February 2023. In addition, it publishes six print magazines. The average monthly media reach of the Prima group is almost 100 percent of the economically active population in the Czech Republic, making the Prima group one of the strongest media companies in the Czech Republic.
"Prima Group is one of the leading Czech media houses and the online segment is one of our strategic pillars that we want to develop in the future. This is evidenced by the recent launch of the new streaming service prima+ and the current acquisition of Impression Media. Due to the turbulent online environment, we perceive that it is important to have set standards to maintain quality journalism and for the future development of the advertising market in this area. At the same time, we believe that membership in the Association of Online Publishers will give us a stronger voice in negotiations with administrative bodies and public institutions," explains Tomáš Večeřa, Director of Online News for the Prima Group.
The second new member of the association is the investigative portal Investigace.cz, which presents original investigative cases on cross-border organised crime and its impact on the Czech and Slovak Republics. The website is run by the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism, a non-profit organisation founded in 2013 by a group of journalists. It is the only portal in the Czech Republic and Slovakia that is part of the international networks of investigative journalists Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
ABC Media is one of the publishing houses with one of the most diverse portfolios on the market. Its leading websites include Autozive.cz and Udalosti247.cz.
"We consider membership in AOV to be prestigious and socially beneficial. This is primarily because we consider AOV to be an organization that, through its active actions, helps to prevent the spread of fake news, which we consider, especially today, to be a threat that directly threatens democracy," adds Šárka Konečná, the owner of the portal.
Source: mam.cz
