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Axel Springer SE

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This article is about the German publisher of digital and popular periodicals. For the German academic publisher, see Springer Science+Business Media. For the American academic publisher, see Springer Publishing.

Axel Springer SE
Company typeSocietas Europaea
ISINDE0005501357 Edit this on Wikidata
IndustryPublishing
Founded1946; 78 years ago (1946)
FounderAxel Springer
Headquarters
Berlin
,
Germany
Key people
ProductsMagazines, newspapers, online portals, affiliate marketing
Revenue€3.3 billion (2015)[1]
€559.0 million (2015)[1]
€304.6 million (2015)[1]
OwnerKKR (43.54%)[2]
Number of employees
15,023 (average, 2015)[1]
Websitewww.axelspringer.com/en/

Axel Springer SE (German pronunciation: [ˈaksl̩ ˈʃpʁɪŋɐ ɛsˈeː]) is a German multinational mass media company that specializes in both electronic publishing and print media. The company is organized as a societas Europaea (SE) publishing house and is one of the largest mass media publishers in the European Union, with numerous multimedia news brands, such as Bild, Die Welt, and Fakt.

The company generated total revenues of about €3.3 billion and an EBITDA of €559 million in the financial year 2015. Digital-media activities contribute more than 60% to its revenues and nearly 70% to its EBITDA. Axel Springer SE's activities are divided[citation needed] into three segments: paid models, marketing models, and classified ad models. Since 2020, it has been majority-owned by the US private-equity firm KKR.[3][4][5] Headquartered in Berlin, Germany, the company (including subsidiaries, joint ventures, and licensing) operates in more than 40 countries.

Front entrance to the Axel Springer headquarters building in West Berlin, 1977, with the Fritz Klimsch owl sculpture

The company was started in 1946/1947 by journalist Axel Springer.[6] Mathias Döpfner became its CEO in 2002. The Axel Springer company, the largest publishing house in Europe, controls the largest share of the German market for daily newspapers; 23.6%, largely because its flagship tabloid Bild is the highest-circulation newspaper in Europe with a daily readership exceeding 12 million.[7] Upon its acquisition of Politico in 2021 and of Business Insider in 2015, Axel Springer SE extended a policy that all employees must support a free-market economy, a united Europe, and supporting Israel is a "duty".[8]

Newspapers, magazines, online offerings

The media offerings of Axel Springer SE are clustered in: current news, autos, sports, computers and consumer electronics, as well as lifestyle.

Side view of the Axel Springer corporate headquarters in Berlin
Axel Springer building in Hamburg

Selection of publications

  • Die Welt, the intellectual flagship of the company
  • Bild, tabloid with the largest circulation in Europe
  • Auto Bild, automobile magazine with the largest circulation in Europe
  • Audio Video Foto Bild, magazine for consumer electronics
  • Computer Bild, published in nine countries, is Europe's best-selling computer magazine
  • Sport Bild, published in many countries, is Europe's largest sport magazine
  • Auto.cz, the largest Czech internet car portal including RoadLook.tv, starting in Slovakia and Poland as well
  • Fakt, the largest daily tabloid in Poland
  • B.Z., local newspaper
  • Watchmi, a personalized TV content discovery system[9]
  • Musikexpress, a monthly music magazine
  • the German edition of the magazine Rolling Stone
  • Transfermarkt, a football statistics website
  • Business Insider, a business, celebrity and technology news website
  • Insider, a social media-based lifestyle publication
  • upday, a news aggregator app
  • Politico, political newspaper, acquired by Axel Springer in October 2021.[10]
  • Politico Europe, European version of Politico
  • Protocol, tech journalism publication acquired alongside Politico

In addition, the company is active in the online editorial and marketing business with its shares in aufeminin.com, Awin, and buy.at, and owns several online classified advertising platforms such as the career site StepStone [de], real estate marketing portals like immonet, immowelt, SeLoger, various coupon portals, including Sparheld.de Germany and Reduc.fr in France and price comparison platform idealo. It is also a significant investor in the American digital media company Group Nine Media.[11]

History

1940s

In 1946, publisher Hinrich Springer (age 66) and his son Axel Springer (age 34) established the limited company Axel Springer Verlag GmbH. That year saw the launch of the Nordwestdeutsche Hefte and the radio and TV magazine Hörzu.

In 1948, the evening newspaper Hamburger Abendblatt was launched, the first daily newspaper created by Axel Springer.

1950s

The year 1952 saw the launch of the popular daily newspaper Bild. The paper was based on the British tabloid Daily Mirror,[12] and peaked at circulation of 5 million in the 1980s.[13]

In 1953, Axel Springer Verlag bought the publishing house Die Welt, including the daily paper Die Welt and the Sunday paper Welt am Sonntag.

In 1956, the company headquarters in Hamburg was built.

Then in 1959, the company acquired the a holding in Ullstein AG, which owned Berlin newspapers Berliner Morgenpost and B.Z. and the Ullstein book-publishing business.

1960s

The official opening of the Berlin headquarters took place in 1966. Hamburg remained an important site.

After the attack on the student leader Rudi Dutschke on 11 April 1968, the APO (Extra-Parliamentary Opposition) began acts of violence against the company. The APO had a history of animosity with the Springer Group's allegedly biased coverage of the student movement. For instance, in the wake of the shooting of Benno Ohnesorg by the police at a student demonstration against the Shah, one Springer paper reported that "what happened yesterday in Berlin had nothing to do with politics …. It was criminal in the most sickening way."[14] In fact, Ohnesorg, who had never attended a demonstration before, had been shot in the back while trying to leave the demonstration.[15]

1970s

The years 1972 and 1973 saw the building of the offset-printing plant in Essen-Kettwig.

1980s

1984 witnessed the official opening of the offset printing facility in Ahrensburg near Hamburg.

In 1985, 49% of the company was offered for public subscription.[16] Later that year Axel Springer died. Control was passed to his widow Friede Springer.[17]

In 1986, the first licensed edition of Auto Bild came out, in Italy. Other licensed editions and joint venture publications later appeared in twenty European countries, Indonesia and Thailand.

1990s

In 1993, there was the official opening of the offset printing works in Berlin-Spandau.

In May 1999, Axel Springer bought a 51% majority stake in the American television production company GRB Entertainment, but was later divested in 2002.[18][19]

2000–present

In 2001, Axel Springer and T-Online established a joint subsidiary Bild.de/T-Online AG. A year later in 2002, the launch of immonet.de took place, and Mathias Doepfner, former editor-in-chief of Die Welt, became CEO of Axel Springer AG.[20] Then in 2003, the name was changed to Axel Springer AG.

In 2009, Axel Springer AG acquired affiliate marketers Zanox and Digital Window as well as StepStone ASA.[21] In 2010 a $635.7 million offer by Axel for leading French real estate website operator seloger.com caused seloger shares to rise as much as 32%, the most since it went public. Within 3 days Axel increased its offer 15.6% to $735 million after shareholders rejected the deal.[22][23]

In 2012, Axel Springer formed a joint venture (Axel Springer Digital Classified) with global growth equity firm General Atlantic.[24] The company also bought TotalJobs in the UK from Reed Elsevier that year.[25]

In 2013, Springer sold its regional newspapers, women's magazines, and television magazines to Funke Mediengruppe for €920 million[26] That same year, Publications Grand Public, a French magazine publisher owned by Springer, was sold to Reworld Media.[27]

In 2015, Axel Springer AG purchased Business Insider, a business, celebrity and technology news website, in a deal that valued Business Insider at $442 million.[28] On 8 December of the same year, Axel Springer increased its share in Axel Springer Digital Classifieds GmbH from 70 per cent to 85 per cent and was granted a purchase option to acquire the remaining 15 per cent from General Atlantic. On 9 December, Axel Springer exercised the option, acquiring the additional 15% from General Atlantic in exchange for shares of Axel Springer, leaving the growth equity firm with 8.3% holding in the company.[29][30]

In 2020, Friede Springer transferred $1.5 billion of Axel Springer shares to CEO Mathias Doepfner, effectively making him heir of the media group. Doepfner now has control of 44% of the voting rights.[31]

In October 2021, the firm announced that it had completed the acquisition of Politico for over $1 billion, after announcing its intention to do so in late August 2021.[10][32][33] Axel Springer's Chief Executive Mathias Döpfner said that Politico staff would need to adhere to Axel Springer's principles, including support for a united Europe, "reconciliation between Germans and Jews,"[34] Israel's right to exist and a free-market economy, and that staff who disagree with the principles "should not work for Axel Springer, very clearly".[35]

In October 2021, an article in The New York Times reported accusations of sexual misconduct, sexual discrimination and questionable business practices at Axel Springer SE.[36] A day later, the publisher fired the editor-in-chief of Bild.[37]

Criticism

Pro-American editorial bias and alleged ties to US intelligence agencies

According to German scholar Gudrun Kruip of the Stiftung Bundespräsident-Theodor-Heuss-Haus, Axel Springer SE and its subsidiaries spread a strongly pro-American view in which criticism of US foreign policy is largely absent.[38] In an interview with The Nation, two former CIA officers alleged that Axel Springer received $7 million from the CIA to support American geopolitical interests with his publishing house.[39] Springer reportedly agreed and began guiding the editorial bias towards supporting US foreign policy.[39] Although no conclusive evidence has come to light, Kruip considers the CIA officers' allegations credible since Springer, according to his own autobiography, had no money to actually fund the publishing house when it was founded, and it was thus unlikely that he could finance its rapid ascent without "money from the outside".[38] As of 2021, the Axel Springer SE names "solidarity with the libertarian values of the United States of America" as one of its core principles on its own website.[40] Many scholars and independent observers allege a "subservience to American geopolitical interests" of the publishing house and its subsidiaries to this day.[38][41][42][43][44] According to Foreign Policy, Axel Springer SE "has a decades-long record of bending journalistic ethics for right-wing causes."[45]

Accusations of editorial interference in Poland

In 2017, Ringier Axel Springer Polska [pl] was accused of editorial interference, when the head of the joint venture Mark Dekan wrote a letter to the company's Polish employees in which he disparaged the head of the conservative Law and Justice political party, calling the Polish politician Jaroslaw Kaczynski a "loser" for opposing the candidacy of Donald Tusk as President of the European Council, stating that "...we should never forget about the basic values that we represent... Here is the moment where free media, such as ours must be active. We speak for the ideas of... a United Europe." In the letter, Dekan also raised his concerns that European integration was least supported by the youngest generation of Poles and vowed to take appropriate action, suggesting "Let's tell them what to do to stay in the fast lane and not end in the parking lot."[46][47]

Abuse of power and sexual harassment

In March 2021, Der Spiegel reported accusations that the editor of Bild, Julian Reichelt, had promoted several young female employees in exchange for sex and sought to buy their silence before dismissing them.[48] This was followed up by a similar report in the New York Times in October 2021.[36] Both reported that Axel Springer had investigated and dismissed the complaints against Reichelt, and had proceeded to suppress reporting of the controversy by other outlets.[36] CEO Mathias Doepfner was reportedly also keen to support Reichelt on account of the latter's strong right wing political leanings.[37] Later the same month, Axel Springer reversed course and dismissed Reichelt.[37]

Competitors

Major competitors in the German publishing market include Bauer Media Group, Bertelsmann, Hubert Burda Media, and Holtzbrinck. On a global scale, some of the key competitors of Axel Springer include other large multinational media companies such as News Corporation, Time Warner, and The New York Times Company.[49] These companies operate in a variety of different media sectors, including print, television, and digital, and are all major players in the global media industry.[50] In addition to traditional media companies, Axel Springer also competes with a number of digital media platforms and companies, such as Google, Facebook, and Apple, which have become increasingly influential in the media industry in recent years.[51][52] These companies have disrupted the traditional media business model by offering new ways for people to access news and information, and have posed a significant challenge to traditional media companies like Axel Springer.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Axel Springer SE Annual Report 2015". Retrieved 16 March 2016.[permanent dead link‍]
  2. ^ "KKR becomes Axel Springer's biggest shareholder". Reuters. 26 August 2019.
  3. ^ Eisenring, Christoph (31 May 2019). "Finanzinvestor KKR bei Springer: Was wollen die Amerikaner?". Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  4. ^ Nünning, Volker (30 August 2019). "US-Finanzinvestor KKR nun größter Aktionär des Axel‑Springer‑Konzerns". Medienkorrespondenz.
  5. ^ "US-Investor KKR hält vorübergehend 99,1 Prozent an Axel Springer". Reuters. 15 October 2020. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  6. ^ "Brief Biography of Axel Springer". axelspringer.de. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
  7. ^ Hans J. Kleinsteuber in Kelly. M, Mazzoleni. G and McQuail. D. eds. 2004 "The Media in Europe. The Euromedia Handbook."
  8. ^ "New Politico Owner Says Will Enforce pro-Israel Policy". Haaretz. 17 October 2021. The chief executive of the Berlin-based company, Mathias Döpfner, has long said that support for Israel is 'a German duty.' ... He told The Journal on Friday that this sentiment – and others such as support for a united Europe and a free-market economy – 'are like a constitution, they apply to every employee of our company.' Employees who disagreed 'should not work for Axel Springer, very clearly. ... Politico staffers, however, will not be required to sign a written commitment to these principles, as employees in Germany must, Döpfner said.
  9. ^ "watchmi - Persönliches Fernsehen von TV DIGITAL". www.watchmi.tv. Archived from the original on 13 March 2011. Retrieved 1 April 2010.
  10. ^ a b Axel Springer, "Axel Springer Completes Acquisition of POLITICO", October 19, 2021
  11. ^ "Digital Publishers Come Together as Group Nine Media, Backed by $100 Million From Discovery". adage.com. 13 October 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
  12. ^ "Sex, Smut and Shock: Bild Zeitung Rules Germany". Spiegel Online. 25 April 2006. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  13. ^ Kirschbaum, Erik (23 June 2012). "German daily sent to all 41 million households". Reuters. Retrieved 14 June 2014..
  14. ^ Jeremy Varon, Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004), p.39
  15. ^ Jillian Becker, Hitler's Children: The Story of the Baader-Meinhof Terrorist Gang (New York: JB Lippincott, 1977), p.39
  16. ^ Noam, Eli (1991). Television in Europe. Oxford University Press. p. 90. ISBN 0195069420.
  17. ^ "Springer May Shake Up Ad Market With ProSieben1 Bid (Update1)". Bloomberg. 1 August 2005. Archived from the original on 15 July 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  18. ^ Barrie, Chris (14 May 1999). "Springer gains control of GRB and plans global TV empire". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  19. ^ Littleton, Cynthia (14 May 1999). "Springer grabs GRB". Variety. Retrieved 27 December 2021.
  20. ^ Boston, William (10 February 2014). "In Axel Springer's Bid for Forbes, a German Player Steps Out". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  21. ^ "Chronicle on www.axelspringer.com". Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 13 September 2010.
  22. ^ "Seloger.Com Shares Rise Most Ever as Shareholder Questions Springer Offer". bloomberg. 13 September 2010. Archived from the original on 3 November 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  23. ^ "Axel Springer plans no higher offer for seloger.com". 16 September 2010.[permanent dead link‍]
  24. ^ "General Atlantic in €237m JV with German publisher Axel Springer". AltAssets. 6 March 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  25. ^ "Axel Springer buys Reed Elsevier's Totaljobs site". MarketWatch. 4 April 2012. Retrieved 14 July 2014.
  26. ^ Schultz, Stefan; Steinmetz, Vanessa; Teevs, Christian (26 July 2013). "Sell-Off: Newspaper Giant Turns Back on Journalism". Der Spiegel – via Spiegel Online.
  27. ^ "Axel Springer sheds some French magazines -report". Reuters. 27 July 2013.
  28. ^ "German publishing powerhouse Axel Springer buys Business Insider at a whopping $442 million valuation". Business Insider.
  29. ^ "Axel Springer gives General Atlantic shares for classified ads stake". Reuters. 9 December 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  30. ^ "Axel Springer acquires the remaining 15 percent in online classified ad company Axel Springer Digital Classifieds". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
  31. ^ "Media Mogul Gives $1.2 Billion to Ex-Journalist at Axel Springer". www.msn.com. Retrieved 25 September 2020.
  32. ^ "Politico sells to German publishing giant Axel Springer in deal worth about $1 billion". CNBC. 26 August 2021.
  33. ^ Stelter, Brian (26 August 2021). "Politico will be sold to Axel Springer for over $1 billion". CNN. Archived from the original on 26 August 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  34. ^ Peter Kerr (23 September 1985). "Axel Springer, German Publisher, Is Dead at 73". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 September 2022.
  35. ^ Pancevski, Bojan (15 October 2021). "WSJ News Exclusive | Politico's New Owner Plans to Grow Staff, Launch Paywall". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 15 October 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  36. ^ a b c Smith, Ben (17 October 2021). "At Axel Springer, Politico's New Owner, Allegations of Sex, Lies and a Secret Payment". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  37. ^ a b c "Germany's Axel Springer fires top Bild editor after media report". Reuters. 18 October 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2021.
  38. ^ a b c Kruip, Gudrun (31 January 1999). Das "Welt"-"Bild" des Axel Springer Verlags: Journalismus zwischen westlichen Werten und deutschen Denktraditionen. Berlin: De Gruyter. doi:10.1515/9783486595918. ISBN 978-3-486-59591-8.
  39. ^ a b "CIA und die Presse". Die Tageszeitung: Taz. 28 July 2003. p. 4. Archived from the original on 7 February 2022. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  40. ^ "Grundsätze und Werte". Springer SE. Archived from the original on 25 August 2018. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
  41. ^ Gülzau, Jan (2015). Amerikanische Außenpolitik und transatlantisches Verhältnis nach "9/11" im Kommentar. Leipzig, Germany: University of Leipzig.
  42. ^ von Bülow, Andreas (1998). Im Namen des Staates: CIA, BND und die kriminellen Machenschaften der Geheimdienste. Munich, Germany: Piper. ISBN 9783492040501.
  43. ^ Weiner, Tim (2011). CIA: Die ganze Geschichte. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: S. Fischer. ISBN 9783104010274.
  44. ^ Aanderud, Kai-Axel (2019). Axel Springer und die Deutsche Einheit. Hamburg, Germany: E. S. Mittler & Sohn. ISBN 9783813210316.
  45. ^ Hockenos, Paul (6 January 2022). "The Scandalous History of America's Newest Media Baron". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  46. ^ "Tak delikatny segment jak prasa nie może być w rękach obcego kapitału" (in Polish). Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  47. ^ "Szef Ringier Axel Springer Media pisze pracownikom o wygranej Tuska z Kaczyńskim i radzi: podpowiedzmy czytelnikom, jak zostać w UE". Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  48. ^ Hülsen, Isabell; Kühn, Alexander; Müller, Martin U.; Rainer, Anton (12 March 2021). "Interne Ermittlungen gegen »Bild«-Chefredakteur Julian Reichelt: »Vögeln, fördern, feuern«". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 10 November 2021.
  49. ^ "The Global Media Giants". www.lehigh.edu. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  50. ^ Turvill, William (3 December 2020). "The News 50: Tech giants dwarf Rupert Murdoch to become the biggest news media companies in the English-speaking world". Press Gazette. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
  51. ^ Cozzolino, Alessio; Corbo, Leonardo; Aversa, Paolo (1 March 2021). "Digital platform-based ecosystems: The evolution of collaboration and competition between incumbent producers and entrant platforms". Journal of Business Research. 126: 385–400. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.12.058. hdl:11585/800199. ISSN 0148-2963.
  52. ^ "Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2022". Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Retrieved 5 January 2023.
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