French investor Gregoire Vigroux (pictured above, left) has become a shareholder in media company City Compass Media, the publisher of Romania-Insider.com, the most read English-language online publication dedicated to Romania.

Gregoire (37) will thus join Romania-Insider.com founder Corina Chirileasa (35) and City Compass Group co-founder Volker Moser (39), each with an equal participation in the media company after this deal. Corina and Volker had equal stakes in the company prior to the transaction.

“I was impressed by the quality of their media and their growth, I am also an avid reader of Romania-Insider.com, their daily newsletter, the Romania Press Review service and the City Compass travel and expat guide. Being also passionate about media in general, I have decided to be part of this growing project, which is the market leader in its niche,” said Gregoire Vigroux.

Gregoire has been living and working in Romania for the last 10 years. He co-founded the outsourcing company CallPoint, which he sold to Canadian company TELUS International. Earlier this year, Gregoire has also invested in the Romanian edition of the French – language online publication Le Petit Journal.

Launched in 2010 as an independent media project, Romania-Insider.com has over 200,000 unique premium readers a month from all over the world, 10,000 daily newsletter readers, and over 200 subscribers to its premium Romania Press Review service. Since 2015, it has been part of City Compass Media, which also publishes the yearly printed City Compass travel and expat guide in English, now in its 10th-anniversary edition.

“Our work as independent media, always abiding by ethical journalism and business rules while many publications on the local market either closed down or published lower quality articles, has not always been easy. But it brought us an organic, steady increase in our premium readership, and I believe it also brought us the kind of trust that Gregoire now shows by investing with us,” said Corina Chirileasa (pictured above), the founder of Romania-Insider.com and currently Managing Partner of City Compass Media.

The company will continue to invest in developing products to cater the needs of its increasing local and international readership. “The need for quality, reliable information from Romania is increasing. Big foreign publications, foreign and local investors, top managers in Romania and abroad, ratings agencies read us, so my team and I know we have to continue to keep high standards of quality,” said Andrei Chirileasa, editor-in-chief of Romania-Insider.com and Partner with City Compass Media. Andrei joined the project in 2015, after 10 years with the leading Romanian business newspaper Ziarul Financiar.

City Compass Media is part of City Compass Group, which has been offering feel-at-home services for foreigners and Romanians since 2007, including tours & tailored events, and intercultural consulting and training. “When I co-founded City Compass in 2007, we were addressing a need that I, as an expat in Romania, had: I needed reliable information & guidance for a good life here. This is what we’re also offering today when I am happy to continue the success story and grow it even more together with my partners and our amazing teams!” said Volker Moser (pictured above, right), co-founder of City Compass Group. Volker started City Compass together with Cristian Bizau, who is no longer part of the project, and Christian Pauls, now a silent investor in the intercultural consulting business.

The group will celebrate ten years of activity on November 16 at the Feel at Home in Romania Fair, where it will also launch the 10th-anniversary edition of the City Compass travel & expat guide. More info on www.feelathome.ro.

More information about City Compass Media on www.romania-insider.com/about-us, as well as on www.romaniapressreview.com and www.romaniabucharestbeyond.com.

We published a story on Gregoire Vigroux in 2010, when he was with CallPoint. 

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo by Kathrin Weident for City Compass Media)