| Type | Aktiengesellschaft |
|---|---|
| Traded as | FWB: SPR |
| Industry | Publishing |
| Founded | 1946 |
| Founder(s) | Axel Springer |
| Headquarters | Berlin, Germany |
| Key people | Mathias Döpfner (CEO and Chairman of the management board), Giuseppe Vita (Chairman of the supervisory board) |
| Products | Magazines, newspapers, online portals, affiliate marketing |
| Revenue | €2.894 billion (2010)[1] |
| Operating income | €428.6 million (2010)[1] |
| Profit | €252.7 million (2010)[1] |
| Total assets | €3.603 billion (end 2010)[1] |
| Total equity | €1.773 billion (end 2010)[1] |
| Employees | 11,560 (average, 2010)[1] |
| Website | axelspringer.com |
Axel Springer AG is one of the largest multimedia companies in Europe, with more than 11,500 employees and with annual revenues of about €2.9 billion.[1] The Company is active in a total of 36 countries, including Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Russia and Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland. It has more than 230 newspapers and magazines, more than 80 online offerings as well as holdings in television and radio stations.
It was started in 1946/1947 by journalist Axel Springer.[2] Its current CEO is Mathias Döpfner. The Axel Springer company is the largest publishing house in Europe and controls the largest share of the German market for daily newspapers; 23.6%,[3] largely because its flagship tabloid Bild is the highest-circulation newspaper in Europe with a daily readership in excess of 12 million.
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The media offerings of Axel Springer AG are clustered in: current news, TV program information, autos, sports, computers and consumer electronics, as well as women and lifestyle.
In addition, the company is active in the online marketing business with its shares in zanox, Digital Window and buy.at and owns several classified advertising online platforms such as the online career site StepStone, the real estate marketing portal immonet and price comparising platform idealo.
The Axel Springer AG is criticized by many, including German leftists and Muslims[8] because it is openly biased in its support of Israel. The Axel Springer AG refused to publish advertising campaigns of the Left Party in 2005 as well as of the socialist PDS in earlier elections.[9]
Major competitors in the German publishing market include Bauer Media Group, Bertelsmann, Hubert Burda Media and Holtzbrinck.
In the 1960s and 1970s the company was targeted by a number of left-wing groups. It was denounced by German-American writer Reinhard Lettau in an incendiary speech at the Freie Universität Berlin; in 1968 their Berlin headquarters was blockaded by students; in 1972 the Red Army Faction claimed responsibility for six bombs placed in the Hamburg building (only three exploded and 17 people were injured);[10] and in 1975 a bomb exploded in their Paris office, the "6th of March Group" (connected to the Red Army Faction) claimed responsibility.