2024-01-10 15:41:14
The media group Bertelsmann no longer wants to have anything to do with print journalism. After the breakup of the magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr last year, which was presented as a “merger” with RTL Deutschland, Bertelsmann is now separating from its last newspaper holding: the DDV Mediengruppe from Dresden, which includes, among other things, the “Sächsische Zeitung”, “sächsische .de” and the “Morgenpost Sachsen” appear, should go to the Madsack Group. Madsack will take over the 60 percent of the shares that Bertelsmann previously held in DDV, as well as the 40 percent that were held by the SPD’s media holding company, the German Printing and Publishing Company (DDVG). The sale is still subject to approval by the Federal Cartel Office.
Michael Hanfeld
responsible editor for features online and “media”.
With the takeover, the Madsack Group, in which DDVG holds a 23 percent stake, is expanding its position as a nationwide regional newspaper group. The publisher already owns 19 regional newspapers. From the words of Madsack CEO Thomas Düffert it is clear that he believes in their future. We are continuing “the clear path of recent years at an unchanged high pace: digitization of regional quality journalism based on our publishing platform RND One Platform and an active role as a partner in the further consolidation of the German regional newspaper market.” The DDV media group is “with “a great team and a lot of creativity” has already been successful so far. “The DNA of Madsack,” says Düffert, is “journalism. We have no doubt that privately financed journalism will be a successful business model even in a purely digital world, thereby ensuring its independence for the future.”
At Bertelsmann, which introduces itself in the sales announcement as an international “media, services and education company” with “85,000 employees” worldwide, it sounds as if they are happy to finally be rid of the newspapers. Madsack is an “ideal publishing home for DDV,” writes Carsten Coesfeld, Board Member for Investments and Financial Solutions at Bertelsmann. He would like to thank “all our colleagues in Dresden for their many years of successful entrepreneurial work together, which was characterized by a constant willingness to change.”
This “willingness to change” includes the fact that DDV generated profits for Gruner + Jahr for years and from 2022 directly for RTL/Bertelsmann and at the same time the cost screw was tightened. It is unclear what lies ahead for the more than 1,000 DDV employees. Bertelsmann and Madsack are keeping quiet about the publisher’s purchase price.
The takeover does not help the diversity of the press. Madsack’s 19 newspaper titles to date include the “Dresdner Neuesten Nachrichten” and the “Leipziger Volkszeitung”, the newspaper landscape in Saxony is becoming Madsack Land. DDV managing director Carsten Dietmann takes it with confidence: “I am extremely positive about this merger,” he said. “Here in Dresden and throughout Saxony, we will benefit from both the experiences and synergies of the Madsack Group. Madsack is one of the largest German newspaper associations with many established titles, especially in the new federal states.”
Benjamin Fischer Published/Updated: Recommendations: 3 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Susanne Preuß, Hamburg Published/Updated: Recommendations: 3
The German Journalists Association (DJV) is critical of the deal between Bertelsmann and Madsack, as well as the takeover of the “Schweriner Volkszeitung” by Schwäbischer Verlag. “In the new federal states” there is a lack of “a medium-sized newspaper landscape,” writes the DJV. “With every merger” there is a growing “danger that the big companies will become even bigger and thus dominate the market. The cartel watchdogs have to take that into account.”
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