The most important question is not which Hungarian newspaper is closing, which newsroom is changing leadership, or how much state advertising any given outlet receives. A deeper transformation is under way in Hungary’s media market. The real question is who can reach readers directly.
In the summer of 2026, several parts of Hungary’s media market began shifting at once. The allocation of government communications spending is changing, public-service media are being reorganised, print continues to shrink, and news consumption is moving increasingly towards digital platforms. At first, these may appear to be separate developments. In fact, they are all part of a broader transformation that will determine who can reach an audience, build a relationship with it, sustain that relationship over the long term, and turn it into commercial value.
Events of recent months suggest that the way Hungary’s media market is funded is being reshaped. Since the election, access to government communications budgets has changed, while the public procurement system for government communications is also being overhauled. The termination of the National Communications Office’s two framework agreements with Lounge, each worth HUF 75 billion, and Szerencsejáték Zrt.’s move to a multi-agency model are just two examples of the changes seen in recent weeks. These are not simply matters for the advertising market or the agency sector. State advertising played an important role in financing the Hungarian media market for many years, so changes to how it is allocated will inevitably affect the business models of media companies as well.
Europe’s media regulatory landscape is also creating new expectations. Article 25 of the European Media Freedom Act (EMFA) requires state advertising to be allocated according to objective, proportionate and non-discriminatory criteria. If these principles are applied in practice, they could bring meaningful change to the market. One of the key questions for the period ahead is what criteria will govern the allocation of these funds, and how media companies that adapted to a different funding environment will respond. It is hardly news that print is dying; the change of government has merely accelerated the process.
The end of Bors’ print edition, changes to the digital presence of Ripost and Metropol, and adjustments to the publication frequency of Magyar Nemzet and several regional newspapers are all significant in their own right. Together, however, they point to a longer-term trend. Print has been taken off life support. Its business model has been under pressure for years. Circulation is falling, printing and distribution costs remain high, and readers’ media habits have fundamentally changed. This is no longer just about readers moving online. Their expectations around the speed, format and availability of information have changed as well.
A digital newsroom can respond to an event within minutes. A daily or weekly print publication inevitably operates according to a different logic.
The challenge facing print is therefore no longer simply one of circulation. The question is what value it can offer in a world where access to information is instant, continuous and personalised.
DIGITAL NEWSROOMS ARE GAINING GROUND IN THE MEDIA MARKET
The company that publishes Telex saw its revenue rise significantly in 2025, while digital product development and subscription models gained importance at 444 and 24.hu as well. The structure of the advertising market reflects the same shift. According to the Hungarian Advertising Association, Hungary’s advertising market grew to HUF 415.9 billion in 2025, with digital accounting for more than half of total spending. Yet a substantial share of digital advertising expenditure flows to global platforms. This is one of the central paradoxes of Hungarian media: we consume more and more content digitally, and companies are spending more and more online, but a large share of this expanding market is monetised by global technology platforms rather than domestic content producers.
Google, Meta, YouTube and TikTok are more than advertising channels. They increasingly determine when content appears, who sees it and in what form. The competition is therefore not just for advertising revenue, but for attention. This is why owned channels are becoming more valuable: newsletters, apps, podcasts, video channels and subscription platforms. They allow publishers to build more direct relationships with their audiences, reduce their dependence on changing algorithms, and establish more direct commercial relationships with readers. If a publisher reaches its audience only through a platform, then part of that audience relationship effectively belongs to the platform.
THE SHIFT IS ALSO RESHAPING THE COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSION
For many years, media planning in PR followed a relatively simple logic: how large was a newspaper’s circulation, how much traffic did a website attract, and how many people watched a television channel?
These metrics still matter, but they no longer tell the whole story. Today, we also need to ask who actually sees the content, what kind of audience it reaches, how engaged that audience is, how much trust people place in the outlet and, above all, how direct the relationship is between the newsroom and the reader. Content now rarely remains confined to a single media channel. It may first appear on a news site, then continue in a newsletter, on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. A quote from a podcast may find its way into an article, while a topic gaining traction on social media can enter the traditional press within hours.
Media are therefore becoming less a collection of separate channels and more an interconnected network of attention. This requires a different way of thinking about PR. It is no longer enough to know where a message appears. We also need to understand how it travels, which channels amplify it, where it sparks conversation, and whom it ultimately reaches. This calls for genuinely strategic thinking. Successful communication will require a clear strategy, and agencies will need to offer solutions that are firmly rooted in it.
WHO WILL OWN THE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE READER?
This may become one of the defining questions for the media market in the years ahead. The state seeks to reach and retain audiences through communications spending, public-service media through their own reach and editorial system, publishers through their brands, owned channels and subscriptions, and global platforms through algorithms. Producing content alone is no longer enough.
Anyone who produces content but fails to build a direct relationship with their audience will remain dependent, in the long term, on whoever controls the route between them and the reader.
The real transformation of the Hungarian media market is therefore not simply a contest between print and digital, or between pro-government and independent outlets.
The stakes are higher. The winners will be those that build their own direct, sustainable relationship with their audience. And this is no longer only a media-market issue. It resembles politics in one important respect: power does not necessarily belong to whoever speaks the loudest, but to whoever can establish a direct relationship with their audience and sustain it over time.