Axel Springer boss Mathias Döpfner wants to give his office as President of the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) to new hands early from autumn. This was announced by the association in Berlin. The 59-year-old was re-elected in autumn 2020 for a second four-year term.
In a letter to the state associations, Döpfner wrote as a reason: Axel Springer was with the growth in the USA and the purchase of the political-media group as the largest in the company’s history in a decisive phase that requires more time and presence in America. “That’s why I will no longer be able to get involved with the association in the form and intensity that I believe is necessary for a president.”
Döpfner went on to write: “In order to better represent the interests of small and medium-sized, regional and local publishers, you need a person or constellation at the top who does not represent a large, international and very digital publishing house.” This has repeatedly led to misunderstandings in the past.
It’s rumbling in the BDZV
In the past few months, there had been criticism of Springer boss Döpfner within the publishers’ association, some of which had also been voiced publicly by media companies. There was resentment and even calls for his resignation.
The impetus for the whole thing was an article in the New York Times been last fall. The report dealt with allegations of abuse of power against the then picture– Editor-in-Chief Julian Reichelt, who eventually had to leave the Springer Group. the New York Times had also quoted from a private short message from Döpfner to the writer Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre. In it, the Springer boss described Reichelt as the last and only journalist in Germany who was still bravely rebelling against the “new GDR authoritarian state”. Almost everyone else had become “propaganda assistants”. Springer classified the short message as ironic.
After that, newspaper publishers accepted an apology from Döpfner for the controversial message at a BDZV presidium meeting. Since then, rumblings have continued in the association, which is currently working on reforming its association structure.