Axel Springer SE

Overview

Axel Springer SE (German: [ˈaksl̩ ˈʃpʁɪŋɐ ɛsˈeː]) is a European multinational mass and online media company, based in Berlin, Germany. The company offers printing and publishing of advertisements, digital classifieds portfolio, marketing models and related services. Axel Springer's operations are segmented into News Media, Classifieds Media, and Marketing 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, Fakt, and the US political news site Politico, which Axel Springer acquired in 2021. The company generated total revenues of about €3.93 billion and an EBITDA increase of 12.8% in the first half of 2023. Following US private-equity firm KKR's majority-stake acquisition in 2020, Axel Springer's revenues have increased by a total of approximately €1 billion. The company, including its subsidiaries, joint ventures, and licenses, operates in more than 40 countries.

The company was started in 1946 by journalist Axel Springer. Mathias Döpfner became its CEO in 2002. In 2004, Axel Springer company, the largest publishing house in Europe at that time, controlled the largest German market share 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. By 2022, the company had a market share of 10.6% in Germany. October 2022 data indicates that Axel Springer's BILD brands attract approximately six million unique users daily, totaling up to 40 million unique users per month. IVW's data from June 2023 shows BILD receiving 504 million monthly visits and WELT achieving 127 million. In the United States, Axel Springer is ranked among the top four digital publishers, alongside USA Today, News Corp, and The New York Times.

BILD

Audio Video Foto Bild, magazine for consumer electronics Bild, tabloid with the largest circulation in Europe B.Z., local newspaper Computer Bild, published in nine countries, Europe's best-selling computer magazine Sport Bild, Europe's largest sport magazine Transfermarkt, a football transfer information website Fame Fighting a German celebrity boxing promotion

WELT

Die Welt, the company's intellectual flagship, including the Welt TV news channel

The Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph & The Sunday Telegraph, British broadsheet newspapers.

Multinational media

Business Insider, a business, celebrity and technology news website Politico, a digital media company acquired by Axel Springer in October 2021 that operates in North America and Europe. Politico Europe, European version of Politico Upday, a news aggregator app

Other

BONIAL, a marketing solutions company, which includes coupon portals, Sparheld.de Germany and Reduc.fr in France Dyn Media, a live broadcast sports platform Idealo, a price comparison service Morning Brew, a media company that focuses on business newsletters and podcasts

Classifieds

Aviv, which includes real estate marketing portals immonet, immowelt, and SeLoger Stepstone

Ringier Axel Springer Poland

The following properties are operated by Ringier Axel Springer Media AG, a joint venture with Ringier.

AUTO SWIAT Fakt, the largest daily tabloid in Poland Forbes Women, a spinoff of magazine and web portal Forbes that focuses on gender equality in business Newsweek Polska, a Polish weekly news magazine Onet, a Polish online news publication

Marketing media

AWIN, a company that provides solutions for product marketing and services

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 Hörzu, which was originally launched as a radio broadcast but later became a TV magazine as well. In 1948, the afternoon and 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 and peaked at a circulation of 5 million in the 1980s. The Sunday paper Bild am Sonntag was launched in 1956. In 1953, Axel Springer Verlag bought the publishing house Die Welt, including the daily paper Die Welt and the Sunday paper Welt am Sonntag. Construction on the company headquarters in Hamburg began in 1950 and was completed in 1956. In 1956, Axel Springer secured a blocking minority in Ullstein Verlag, and three years later he took over the company completely.

ullstein bild is a brand for the photo collection (since 1877), now under Axel Springer Syndication GmbH. This was followed in 1959 by the purchase of the newspaper Berliner Morgenpost. When Springer took over the Ullstein publishing house in December 1959, the B.Z. also became its property. Two days before the end of the Soviet ultimatum in Berlin, Axel Springer laid the foundation stone for the new publishing headquarters on 25 May 1959.

1960s

The official opening of the Berlin headquarters took place in 1966. 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 killing 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." In fact, Ohnesorg, who had never attended a demonstration before, had been shot in the back while trying to leave the demonstration.