MASS-MEDIA The great migrations of the Romanian media industry

The domestic media industry has entered the age of major employee migrations. This phenomenon is especially felt when it comes to television. After the setback of the 2008- 2009 period, when several newspapers disappeared, and the income of people working in the industry dropped significantly, the end of 2010 has become frantic, after the rumors indicating the appearance of new mass-media institutions were confirmed. In nature, nothing is lost, nothing is gained, everything transforms, and the media industry is no different. Some empires decline and others are born.

• The Realitatea - Caţavencu trust has the biggest losses.

Every day, the list of people that decide to leave the group grows longer. Sergiu Toader, managing editor at Realitatea-Caţavencu, is getting ready to leave the trust, his contract expires at the end of December and its extension is out of the question. Liviu Mihaiu admitted on paginademedia.ro that: "I no longer want to be at the whim of media corporations or have to put up with the tantrums of some mogul", and said he plans to launch a personal website. The well known anchor of Realitatea TV, Cosmin Prelipceanu, is getting ready to leave as well, and he will trade the spotlight for a job in the banking sector. Melania Medeleanu is another addition to the list of people leaving Realitatea. And these are just the moves of the high profile players, the tip of the iceberg: below the water, similar moves are happening, on a larger scale.

• Major moves are taking place inside the Intact group, with transfers happening both ways

Aura Ţiţirigă, former editor-in-chief of the News of Antena 3, will move to B1TV on a similar position. Sorin Oancea has resigned from the management position he held at the group owned by the Voiculescu family, and will switch sides, by joining B1TV, owned by Bobby Păunescu. As for the new hires, it is already well known that Dan Voiculescu has a habit of poaching the employees of Adrian Sârbu.

• B1TV loses its marquee team which carried the station on its shoulders for the past few years

Radu Moraru and the entire of crew of the "Naşul" (ed. note: The Godfather) talk-show, will go to work for the new general audience TV station which RCS & RDS is planning. Conversely, several reporters of the three "Antena" stations owned by the Intact group will cross over to B1TV.

• TV station to be launched by cable company RCS & RDS will pull in employees from all the other major media groups, in particular from Realitatea.

Their offers are tempting on all counts. The management of RCS & RDS doesn"t to skimp on money, as its channel Digi Sport bought the rights for an impressive number of high interest athletic events in a short period of time.

• Adevărul Holding wasn"t spared its own share of shakeups

Managing editor Adrian Halpert resigned six months after another major player of the group, Răzvan Corneţeanu, decided to end his collaboration with Dinu Patriciu. To top it all off, the management of Adevărul Holding decided to sue the Adrian and Adriana Halpert for making slanderous statements about the company. The Adevărul Group is also considering planning wage cuts and layoffs, but the management has yet to make any official announcements.

• The Romanian state owned television managed to bring two of its "prodigal sons" home

Mircea Radu (previously at Antena 1) and Cosmin Cernat (previously employed by Kanal D) have returned to the TVR, with the former set to host an entertainment show, whereas the latter hosts the "Studio UEFA Champions League" which has already gone live.