Uncategorized – Central Médiacsoport hivatalos weboldala

Angela Merkel’s memoir, “Freedom”, was presented in Budapest on Wednesday evening. The former chancellor, who led Germany for 16 years, also spoke about how she was able to succeed as a woman in national and international politics, and revealed that she likes to test people.

Angela Merkel’s memoir, Freedom, was presented by Animus Books, and the discussion was led by Rebeka Bánszegi, a journalist for 24.hu. The former German chancellor was responsible for governing Germany for sixteen years, shaping German, European, and international politics with her actions and opinions. In her memoirs, she looks back on her life, which she spent in two German states: in the GDR until 1990 and in reunified Germany since 1990.

“When you are federal chancellor for 16 years, you provide plenty of material. Many people wrote about me, saying ‘I don’t understand why she acted that way’, ‘why did she do that’, ‘what was her motivation’. Obviously, I couldn’t deal with that during my time in office. But when I left office, I also thought about what my intentions were, what drove me, and how I see things from my own perspective. I didn’t want others to interpret me. Not out of fear. I simply felt the need for people to understand why I did what I did,” Angela Merkel said at the book launch event in Budapest.

In Freedom, Angela Merkel writes about her daily life as chancellor, as well as the dramatic days and nights when she had to make important decisions in Berlin, Brussels, and elsewhere. She describes the long process of change in international cooperation and reveals the pressure politicians are under as they seek solutions to complex problems in today’s globalized world. She takes us behind the scenes of international politics and shows us the importance of personal conversation and where the boundaries lie.

In her memoir, Angela Merkel sheds light on the circumstances of political action in an era of increasing confrontation. Her recollections offer a unique insight into the inner workings of the government and are also an important statement in favor of freedom.

The full transcript of the book launch discussion can be found at the following link: https://24.hu/kulfold/2025/10/02/angela-merkel-interju-szabadsag/

Further information about the book: https://www.hellokonyvek.hu/szabadsag-visszaemlekezesek-1954-2021-angela-merkel

Photographer: Animus Könyvek/ Fóthi Levente

Akciós-Újság.hu has been a stable player in the local digital leaflet platform market for nearly 10 years, and with its market-leading traffic and time spent on the site, it has become one of the most important starting points for shoppers looking to discover promotions and offers.

Thanks to the update of Akciós-Újság.hu, both users and partners will find a much cleaner and more straightforward page structure. The new font, color scheme, and logo create a modern, unified look, while the prominent search bar at the top of the page ensures faster and easier access to content. In addition to a wide range of promotional newspapers, readers can enjoy daily updated articles on educational and entertaining topics, making the platform even more attractive.

New opportunities are also opening up for advertisers: in addition to expanding advertising zones, they now offer menu button sponsorship, store highlights on the home page, and even product testing. In addition, users can receive a weekly newsletter twice a week with the latest offers and content.

"The revamp of our Akciós Újság is a major milestone for us – we are welcoming users with a fresher, cleaner, and more user-friendly interface. We are proud that our magazine content has achieved unprecedented visitor numbers, and we are confident that the new design will give even more users a reason to return to us regularly. The revamp also opens up new advertising and collaboration opportunities tailored to the retail market, enabling us to offer our partners an even more valuable platform.

Kovács Ádám - Head of digital brand

With the renewal of Akciós-Újság.hu, Central Media Group aims to further strengthen its position in the Hungarian retail market: with user-friendly solutions for customers and innovative and targeted advertising formats for commercial partners.

Akciós-Újság.hu, the online leaflets’ platform, has published a survey of nearly 5,000 people, revealing that price sensitivity remains the most dominant attitude in household spending, and online versions of leaflets advertising discounts are gaining ground. Ádám Kovács, Head of Digital Brand, will be responsible for managing Akciós-Újság.hu.

In the summer of 2023, Central Médiacsoport announced the acquisition of the Akciós-Újság.hu platform. The publication provides information about price changes in stores, current promotions and collects flyers of the largest department stores on its online platform, which has increased the number of unique users by more than 67% in the past year.

In order to meet user needs and map consumer trends, Akciós-Újság.hu launched a research on shopping habits. The non-representative survey was based on an online sample of more than 3,700 respondents and a face-to-face sample of nearly 1,000 respondents. “The aim of our research was to get to know the users of Akciós-Újság.hu, the largest Hungarian catalogue of discount newspapers, better. We conducted our research on two samples, both with a large number of items: we interviewed nearly 5,000 people at ten different department stores in seven cities and in the online space,” said Sándor Fábián, Head of the Analysis Group at Central Médiacsoport, summarising the research objective.

According to the results, consumers are most likely to visit Penny, Lidl, Spar and Interspar, as well as Aldi, to follow their promotions and to visit their stores most often. Just over half of respondents said that they choose a particular grocery store because of its proximity: 61% shop there because of the prices, 69% because of the current promotions.

Based on the responses received, it can be said that although Hungarian consumers remain highly price-sensitive, it is primarily personal experience that influences their purchasing decisions. 78% of respondents trust a product if they have had a positive experience with it before, but the discount price is also a major factor: 69% of respondents put discounted products in their shopping basket. Slightly more than half of respondents, 53%, like a product because it is the cheapest in its category. Only 13% of respondents said they live without financial worries, while 43% said they get by if they manage their salary and 23% just manage to balance their income and expenditure.

In the face-to-face sample, only 50% of those interviewed in shops said that promotions influence their choice of shop. For them, the proximity of the location is the deciding factor and they visit fewer places for a shopping trip, while online respondents are much more aware. On average, they explore 3.5 shops, motivated primarily by the search for the best deals. For both groups, it is the special offers on fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy products that are the most important.

Although the use of in-store mobile apps is on the rise, the discount newspaper is still the main source of information for shoppers, with 47% of respondents still purchasing a printed copy. However, a digitalisation process is underway and more and more people are keeping up: 23% of those surveyed in person know of an online special offers newspaper aggregator, and 48% use such a platform on a weekly basis.

From 1 June, Ádám Kovács will take over the product management of Akciós-Újság.hu, the market leader in its segment.

"The results of the survey clearly show that the majority of Hungarian shoppers are highly price-sensitive and make informed choices when shopping. Discount magazines continue to play a key role in informing consumers, especially now that two thirds of households are having to tighten their belts. Akciós-Újság.hu, which will be relaunched in the near future, aims to keep pace with digital developments to help shoppers compare prices and find the best deals even more effectively."

Ádám Kovács

Head of Digital Brand, Nosalty & Akciós-Újság.hu

In 2025, the National President of the Hungarian Medical Chamber awarded the MOK Media Award in the category of health education to the news portal HáziPatika.com.

“For many years, the news portal HáziPatika has played a decisive role in the dissemination of health information in Hungary. It provides regularly updated, authoritative content, explaining the characteristics of various diseases, modern therapeutic options and information on the use of medicines in a broadly understandable way. It places great emphasis on the promotion of healthy lifestyles, prevention and informed disease management.”

– said the award ceremony.

"Authenticity, precision and depth - these are not necessarily the easiest things for a journalist to live up to at the moment. That said, the staff at HousePatika is committed to the classic values of journalism and, with around a quarter of a million clicks a day, it is an important confirmation to us that the health profession appreciates this. Our aim is to be an easy bridge between the lay public and the medical profession - we thank both groups for their trust over twenty-five years."

Zita Kempf

Editor-in-Chief, HáziPatika.com

"In addition to readership, it is particularly important for a health portal to be accepted as credible by those in the sector, so that the profession can have confidence in its articles. I am very proud of the HousePatika team. I can see that they have an incredible dedication to producing content and that credibility is more important than anything else."

Ági Fehér

Portfolio Content Lead

For the first time in Hungary, readers of 24 Extra’s two subscription packages will have access to articles from one of the most famous independent international newspapers, The New York Times, as well as to gaming, gastronomy and other content.

The New York Times is a major player in the international public sphere. As one of America’s largest newspapers, it has set the public discourse since 1851 and has won more Pulitzer Prizes than any other organisation over the decades, with 145 Pulitzer Prizes. It covers US domestic and international news, opinion pieces, investigative reporting and criticism. With more than 11 million total subscribers, it is at the forefront of online publications in the United States.

24.hu’s premium content subscription product, 24 Extra, launched on 14 October 2024, aims to offer the highest quality content available in Hungary. As part of 24.hu’s partnership with The New York Times, readers of 24 Extra’s two different annual subscription packages can now enjoy the full range of The New York Times, including international reporting, gaming, food, podcast, tech/technical and sports content.

"Offering the highest quality content, 24 Extra is a step towards the traditional model of journalism: a balance between advertiser and reader revenue helps to achieve commercial success, which is a guarantee of independence. The trust of subscribers ensures the long term production of articles, images and videos that require the most effort and investment. And now we can make our offer more attractive, interesting and useful to these subscribers by offering them access to The New York Times."

Péter Pető

Editor-in-Chief, 24.hu

József Nagy, Miklós Gergely Nagy, and Péter Pető also answered questions from viewers, and then, as part of an audience meeting, they talked for several hours with those who remained on site after the show.

282 photographers, and 7,438 images entered the 43rd Hungarian Press Photo Competition, and the 24.hu photo section dominated this huge field: our photojournalists were recognized with 9 awards in 8 categories, and Márton Mohos was also awarded the MÚOSZ Grand Prize, while Bálint Szajki received the Márton Munkácsi Award for the best collection and the Zoltán Szalay Award for the best photojournalist under 30.

The 24.hu photo section thus received more than 20 percent of all prizes awarded at the country’s largest press photo competition, far ahead of all award-winning Hungarian editorial offices.

It is difficult to list in how many categories our colleagues won:

News and event photography – Márton Mohos
Photo report – Márton Mohos
Everyday life (series) – Bálint Szajki, Jennifer Varga
Art (series) – Bálint Szajki
Sports (series) – Márton Mohos
Nature and science (series) – Bálint Szajki
Society depiction, documentary photography (single) – Bálint Szajki
Street photography (series) – Norbert Farkas
MÚOSZ Grand Prize – Márton Mohos
Márton Munkácsi Award for the best collection – Bálint Szajki
Zoltán Szalay Award for the best performing photojournalist under 30 – Bálint Szajki

The awarded entries can be viewed in the 24.hu article .

We heartily congratulate our colleagues – Norbert Farkas, Márton Mohos, Bálint Szajki and Jennifer Varga – on their prestigious awards!

Our colleagues ran around Lake Balaton under the name Central Hírvivők. They reached the finish line earlier than planned, thus achieving 273rd place out of 761 company teams starting in their own category.

At the end of the community-building event, the team captain donated the deposit fee for the timing chip to a charity. BioTechUSA supplemented the collected donation with 15 million forints. You can read more about the details of the BioTechUSA NN Ultrabalaton Charity initiative by clicking here.

The members of the film crew, Dávid Katz and Kata Stekovics, who accompanied the adventures of Central’s colleagues for nearly 30 hours, were present at every important moment. Special thanks go to them for their perseverance and work, and to all our colleagues who participated in the organisation! We will continue next year.

The Tatar Invasion—Hungary’s Life-and-Death Struggle was officially launched at an event held at the packed Magvető Café. It was published on April 11, the anniversary of the fateful Battle of Muhi, and within days, it had conquered the bestseller lists of all domestic book distributors. Readers’ trust soon made a second edition necessary, and a third edition is already in preparation.

At the opening, Péter Pető, editor-in-chief of 24.hu, led the podium talk with Dániel Bihari, author of the publication and journalist of 24.hu, and the editors of the volume, Dr. József Laszlovszky, a medieval researcher, historian, archaeologist, professor of the Central European University, and historian Dr. Balázs Nagy, head of the Department of Medieval History at ELTE BTK.

The volume can be ordered on Animuskonyvek.hu by clicking here.

Nosalty was the most popular online gastronomy magazine in April by all relevant traffic data, as confirmed by the Easter results. During the baking and cooking peak, Fanta bars, muddled cottage cheese and other desserts topped the Easter recipe rankings.

Following the Christmas and New Year holiday period, Easter was also a bumper month for Nosalty, with the magazine dominating the online readership race both in April and over the holiday weekend – according to DKT Gemius’ monthly aggregate, the publication’s recipes and article content generated nearly 22 million page views, with 4.4 million during Easter alone. The site reached its April traffic peak on Good Friday with over 734,000 visitors. Nosalty also saw a 44% increase in clicks over the four-day weekend compared to the most read period in March.

"We are very proud that Nosalty has become the most-read gastronomy magazine during the Easter period. This success is a joint achievement of our fantastic editorial team, our enthusiastic community and our readers. Thank you for choosing us to help you prepare for the holidays! The result shows that there is a huge demand for authentic, inspiring and practical gastronomic content - and that Nosalty is the number one digital kitchen where readers turn to for recipes, ideas and experiences, even during the festive season."

András Hering

Editor-in-Chief, Nosalty

With this month’s most-read recipes, we also get a clearer picture of what’s on Hungarians’ Easter tables this year. Homemade braided scones proved unbeatable, an excellent sweet addition to the predominantly salty, traditional Easter menu. This year, the Fanta bar, known as a light cottage cheese dessert, came out on top, while a more traditional dish from the Nyírség and Hajdúság regions, sárgatúró, finished in the lead. Among the delicious snacks, the inevitable ham rolls and casino eggs were among the favourites. Still, desserts such as coconut cubes, carrot cake and Lajcsi slices were also in demand.