Leading a media group in the 6th generation that will celebrate its 175-year anniversary in 2018 is both an honour and a commitment. Our company, which at its core has been a publishing and printing company as well as operating insurance agencies in its long-standing existence has undergone considerable change over the last 20 years, like many other media companies.
After the sale of the printing presses in 1995 and certainly by the beginning of the new millennium, we were faced with a groundbreaking issue, and the "nightmare" of digitisation as the allegedly inevitable death of all print products entered the picture.
The decision to continue investing in our magazine portfolio with great entrepreneurial courage and risk, which we have been able to expand over the course of this period significantly, has now proven to be a real and consistent step more than ever before: in the market segments of women and TV, people, and puzzle magazines, the media group is a major player in the German public newspaper market and achieves sustainable corporate profits in these divisions. In addition, we have begun to expand our own digital brands in the last few years, as well as significantly expand our radio investments and investments in digital start-up companies.