“We’re not listed on the stock market, so we don’t have to divulge that sort of information,” said Woestijnvis managing director Wouter Vandenhaute. “But we acquired Humo for a reasonable price. It would have been stupid, after all the fine things we’ve built up here in recent years, to take on financial risks.”
Humo will move from its current home in Diegem to Vilvoorde, where De Vijver, the holding company that owns Woestijnvis, is located. But the two media entities will not be merging. “They will be two companies that work independently of each other,” assures Vandenhaute. “Of course Humo journalists will be able to be critical of Woestijnvis programmes. They have to. That’ll keep us on our toes.” Sam de Graeve, editor at überpopular quiz show De slimste mens, will join Jörgen Oosterwaalas joint editor-inchief of Humo when the show’s season ends in two weeks.
The deal, according to Vandenhaute, has received the blessing of Guy Mortier, the magazine’s editor emeritus and creative director. “That was very important for us,” Vandenhaute said. “Humo was his child for many years. We’re going to try to bring Humo back to the unique position it had in the 1980s.”
One benefit of the acquisition has already become clear: the short films featuring cartoon character Kabouter Wesley, which Woestijnvis has been battling to remove from YouTube, can now be viewed, entirely legally, at the Humo website.
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