Brigitte, Geo, Art: Apparently there will be a decision on the Gruner + Jahr magazines in the coming week.
What’s next for Gruner+ Jahr’s magazines? For weeks, the workforce has been worried Geo, Bridget, star, Eat Drink and many other issues about the future. A year ago, the traditional publisher was merged with RTL by the owner company Bertelsmann. Since then, it has become apparent that a sale is approaching. Officially, a “portfolio analysis” is currently underway, which is intended to decide on the future of individual titles and editorial offices. Behind the scenes, however, numerous competing publishers have positioned themselves and have already submitted bids for the magazine brands. Exploratory talks are currently underway.
RTL and Bertelsmann had previously denied sales talks – but remained silent on all questions from the workforce. Despite a small demonstration by employees in front of the Am Baumwall publishing house last week, there has not yet been an official statement from Bertelsmann and the RTL Group on the future.
Several media had recently speculated that an announcement could be made on February 15th. Now, according to SZ information, things could go faster: on Thursday afternoon, the RTL leadership sent an invitation to a total of 71 executives. Apparently, CEO Thomas Rabe, who was rarely seen in Hamburg recently, is also present at the “presence appointment” on February 7th. According to SZ information, Rabe, who is both the CEO of Bertelsmann and also the managing director of RTL, personally conducted the exploratory talks with the competing publishers.
On Tuesday, only 15 minutes are to be spoken in the auditorium of the Hamburg publishing house. “In this respect, you know what that is,” says one of the invited executives: “Deadline Day”. The fact that only a quarter of an hour should be spoken is “unusual” for face-to-face appointments of this type: “There is not even time for questions.”
Later in the day, apparently, there should also be a larger group: at an appointment called “All Hands RTL Germany”, as announced in an internal email. There, it is said, there is information “on the planned further procedure for Project ONE”. How many hands will actually stay with RTL Germany in the future – you can’t find out anything about that in the announcement.