The federal government has reached an agreement on newspaper distribution. Until 2026, Belgian publishers and civil society organizations will receive fifty million euros in fiscal support per year. Bpost may still distribute newspapers for six months. This has been confirmed to our editors.
From next year, the federal government will allocate 50 million euros per year to support the distribution of newspapers and magazines. Both commercial publishers and civil society organizations receive this amount in the form of fiscal support. For the publishers, this only applies as support for the distribution in the so-called white zones, which are the rural regions with fewer than 225 inhabitants per square kilometer. For civil society organisations, this applies to the distribution of their publications throughout the country. This concerns, among other things, health insurance funds and trade unions.
The scheme applies until 2026. After that, it is up to the next government to make further decisions.
Savings of 175 million
In this way, the federal government has an agreement on a file that has been haunting it for several months. She had originally issued a concession of 125 million euros for the distribution of all publications, a saving compared to the current concession of 175 million euros per year for Bpost. PPP and Proximy were preferred for the new contract, but the government ultimately canceled that concession.
The new scheme provides for a transition period of six months. Bpost will continue distribution in the first half of 2024. For this she will receive an amount of around 75 million euros.
History
The file has quite a history. After politicians and some digital news media had long criticized the enormous subsidies that the government hands out for the busing of newspapers, the concession ended up in a scandal at the end of 2022 when Bpost dismissed its CEO Dirk Tirez. According to an audit carried out by the postal company, Bpost, the publishers DPG Media and Mediahuis, and the distributor PPP had made illegal market agreements to ensure that the order would largely remain in the hands of Bpost.