Axel Springer SE

This article is about the European digital publishing and media company with news publications, magazines, and digital platforms, headquartered in Berlin, Germany. 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
RevenueDecrease €3.11 billion (2019)[1]
Decrease €414.5 million (2019)[1]
Decrease €134.6 million (2019)[1]
Total assetsIncrease €7.08 billion (2019)[1]
Total equityDecrease €2.45 billion (2019)[1]
Owners
Number of employees
c. 18,000 (2023)[4]
Websiteaxelspringer.com/en/

Axel Springer SE (German pronunciation: [ˈaksl̩ ˈʃpʁɪŋɐ ɛsˈeː]) is a German 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.[5]

The company generated total revenues of about €3.93 billion and an EBITDA increase of 12.8% in the first half of 2023.[6][7] 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.[8][9][10] The company, including its subsidiaries, joint ventures, and licenses, 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 by journalist Axel Springer.[11] Mathias Döpfner became its CEO in 2002.[12] 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.[13] By 2022, the company got 10.6% of the market share in Germany.[14]

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.[15] 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.[6]

  1. ^ a b c d e "Axel Springer SE Annual Report 2019" (PDF). Axel Springer SE. Archived (PDF) from the original on 18 January 2024. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  2. ^ a b c Pitel, Laura; Louch, Will (11 January 2024). "Media group Axel Springer dividends top €775mn over past 4 years". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 18 January 2024. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  3. ^ Nicola, Stefan (19 October 2021). "Business Insider and Bild Publisher on Edge After Tabloid King Fired". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on 10 April 2022. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  4. ^ "Axel Springer to cut jobs, warns AI could replace journalism". Deutsche Welle. Agence France-Presse. 28 February 2023. Archived from the original on 18 January 2024. Retrieved 18 January 2024.
  5. ^ Lee, Edmund (26 August 2021). "Politico Is Sold to Axel Springer for More Than $1 Billion". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 5 March 2024.
  6. ^ a b "Axel Springer grows further in the first half of the year despite difficult market environment". www.axelspringer.com. 18 July 2023. Archived from the original on 26 December 2023.
  7. ^ "German media group Axel Springer reports growth in first half of year". Reuters. 18 July 2023.
  8. ^ Eisenring, Christoph (31 May 2019). "Finanzinvestor KKR bei Springer: Was wollen die Amerikaner?". Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Archived from the original on 8 June 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  9. ^ Nünning, Volker (30 August 2019). "US-Finanzinvestor KKR nun größter Aktionär des Axel‑Springer‑Konzerns". Medienkorrespondenz. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  10. ^ "US-Investor KKR hält vorübergehend 99,1 Prozent an Axel Springer". Reuters. 15 October 2020. Archived from the original on 16 April 2022. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
  11. ^ "Brief Biography of Axel Springer". axelspringer.de. Archived from the original on 18 July 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2010.
  12. ^ "Mathias Doepfner". Forbes. Archived from the original on 5 April 2024.
  13. ^ Hans J. Kleinsteuber in Kelly. M, Mazzoleni. G and McQuail. D. eds. 2004 "The Media in Europe. The Euromedia Handbook."
  14. ^ "Publishers: daily newspaper market share Germany 2020-2022". Statista. Archived from the original on 4 February 2024.
  15. ^ Gavin, Jamie (17 October 2022). "Insights from Axel Springer's BILD on how it managed – and is managing – digital transformation". FIPP. Archived from the original on 7 April 2024.