Friday, August 6th, 2021
Stronger together
RTL Deutschland is growing together with Gruner + Jahr
RTL Deutschland and Verlag Gruner + Jahr are merging to form a new national, cross-media media champion – in the areas of television, streaming, magazines, radio and digital media. The new company brings together some of the strongest German media brands and will start with 1,500 journalists at the beginning of the coming year.
The RTL media group and the Hamburg magazine publisher Gruner + Jahr are merged. The transaction is expected to close on January 1, 2022, as announced by RTL Group. The RTL Group and the Bertelsmann Group, to which Gruner + Jahr belongs, agreed on the move.
According to RTL, the price is 230 million euros excluding cash and debts. RTL does not cooperate with all of the business of the Hamburg publishing house, so Bertelsmann retains about 25 percent stake in the Spiegel group and the stake in the DDV media group, to which the “Sächsische Zeitung” belongs.
Gruner + Jahr is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bertelsmann Group. The publishing house includes titles such as “Stern”, “Geo”, “Brigitte”, “Essen & Trinken”, “Schöner Wohnen” and “Gala”. It also includes younger brands such as “Chefkoch”. In 2020, the Hamburg magazine publisher’s turnover was around 1.14 billion euros.
Bertelsmann holds the majority in the listed RTL Group, which operates in several countries. The broadcasting group contributes the largest proportion of sales in the Bertelsmann group portfolio. Ntv is also part of the group.
In February it became known that the Mediengruppe RTL Deutschland and the Hamburger Zeitschriftenverlag are exploring a stronger cooperation with an open mind. Various options should be considered. In addition to closer cooperation in various fields, the aim was also to develop a joint growth strategy.
Bertelsmann has been relying on the content-related interlinking of corporate divisions for a long time. This can be clearly seen in the media sector: magazine brands, TV and the audio sector exchange content and enter into collaborations for projects. This is how, for example, joint documentaries or podcasts are created. This is also based on the strategy of the “champion” – that is, size in a market environment. Bertelsmann boss Thomas Rabe has repeatedly emphasized in recent months that he wants to create national “champions” in European markets.
In the past few years the publishing house Gruner + Jahr has withdrawn from foreign markets, such as the Netherlands, Spain and Austria. They wanted to concentrate more on the domestic market, it said. Some time ago it became known that Gruner + Jahr is also separating from its French magazine division with the subsidiary Prisma Media, which is considered to be the leading consumer magazine publisher in France.
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