It happened very quickly: after turbulent days, the Axel Springer Group has completed the largest purchase in its company’s history, the US media group Politico now belongs to the Berlin group. Politico is a company that has been known since 2007 for the news portal of the same name and that distributes its political reporting in and about Washington as a newspaper in a rather small print run of 40,000 copies. According to industry reports, Springer is said to have paid up to a billion dollars for the media group. What makes the company so valuable?
First, earned Politico a large part of its success with 2500 newsletters, which are sent from the editorial offices mainly to lobby organizations and political institutions. Second, the 3,000 stories that it claims to be written there each month are not only entertaining (the “West Wing Playbook” newsletter, for example, mixes political reporting and White House gossip with great success), but often exclusive. When asked how the editorial offices managed to do this, Shéhérazade Semsar-de Boisséson, who was Europe boss for many years until June Politico, once formulated a captivatingly simple explanation: “We have the scoops because we have a lot of people on site.”
In the German publishing landscape it is assumed that Springer’s increase in power in the USA is also viewed critically
700 people work for the media company in the USA. Another 200 for the European offshoot, den Politico-Founder Robert Allbritton together with the Springer Group in 2014. In Brussels alone, Semsar-de Boisséson claims to have 60 journalists on site. That such an acquisition is interesting for Springer, too world and image belong is obvious. Board member Mathias Döpfner has repeatedly emphasized that he sees the company as an example of digital journalism.
Now, very shortly beforehand, it had looked as if the deal might still break. The day before the end of the year, the New York Times a detailed article about the grievances with the Springer-Blatt image and the allegations against the editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt, who has since been released, about the abuse of power, affairs, forged divorce papers and dubious payments as well as the “sneaky” approach of CEO Mathias Döpfner. Everything is difficult to reconcile with the compliance standards in the USA.
“We have the scoops because we have a lot of people on the ground”: Shéhérazade Semsar-de Boisséson, long-time European director of “Politico” in Brussels.
(Photo: Axel Springer)
With the purchase of Politico the influence of the Springer Group in the media landscape in the USA is growing. The news portal Business insider and the newsletter company Morning Brew are already part of the American Springer range. The German publishers suspect that the US is not very enthusiastic about the increase in media power of Springer and that shortly before the Politico-Conclusion of articles published in the New York Times may not be a coincidence. However, he did not have any consequences for the conclusion of the purchase.
Springer announced on Tuesday in Berlin: “The transaction was successfully completed after receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals and in accordance with the terms of the agreement announced on August 26, 2021.” As if nothing happened.