Uber Files: How Uber Wooed German Media

In order to be better accepted in Germany, Uber also hoped for support from media companies. The Springer Group offered help and invested in the start-up. Uber was particularly interested in the then “Bild” boss Diekmann.

Uber had a difficult time in Germany at first: the taxi industry had declared war on the American transport service provider, there were a number of court decisions banning Uber services, so the press and public opinion about Uber was not the best. To change that, Uber specifically tried to win large media houses over to its side.

Uber had a particular eye on the “Bild” newspaper and its editor-in-chief at the time, Kai Diekmann. They wanted to team up with the largest German tabloid to facilitate access to the German market. “We need someone like Kai Diekmann to open doors for us,” wrote the Uber managers at the time. And in another email: “Kai Diekmann is the best way to get to Merkel.” Diekmann was considered one of the most powerful media makers at Uber.

Influence on politics, media and science

All this is now shown for the first time in documents that have been leaked to the “Guardian” and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and more than 40 media worldwide. worked in Germany WDR, NDR and the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (SZ) with the data.

The emails, chat messages and documents offer a behind-the-scenes look at Uber. They show how the managers of the transport service provider thought about German politics or the established taxi industry, how they tried to get influential politicians and business representatives on their side in order to generate a positive image for the brand. Because Uber wanted nothing less than to have the German passenger transport law changed in order to be able to legally operate its business, which many courts in Germany had banned.

Axel Springer invested in Uber

Because direct inquiries to politicians were often answered negatively, Uber hoped for help from German media companies. According to the Uber files, Axel Springer was open to support services. The group made a small investment in the US company at the beginning of 2016. “For us, the value is the support and influence of the publisher in Berlin and Brussels,” said Uber managers internally.

And: Springer pointed out that this had also been done for other start-ups – Springer would send examples of how the lobbying support would look like. “I think having Springer on our side is very valuable if we want to move forward in Germany. Anything we can do to work with you would be great. I think they will be really proactive in tackling things to help. “

Springer managers should mediate contacts with politicians

Emails also show how helpful Springer managers have been to Uber. For example, they wanted to help bring Uber boss Travis Kalanick together with high-ranking politicians. “Please let us know which politicians Travis would like to meet in this context (…)”. Reference was made to the NOAH start-up conference and the “World Summit” – and left no doubt that this could help, after all Angela Merkel was a guest.

Uber was happy to accept the offer – there is still a video online today of the 2016 NOAH conference, where the then “Bild” publisher Diekmann drives a yellow Trabbi in front of the stage, with Travis Kalanick and the former Daimler sitting in the back seat – Boss Dieter Zetsche. A conversation between Diekmann and Kalanick at the conference was reported extensively in the Springer media, and Uber at least was very satisfied with the advertising effect of the campaign. However, there is no indication in the reports in the German Springer media that Axel Springer was already involved in Uber at that time.

Criticism from the Press Council

Sascha Borowski from the German Press Council finds such information imperative: “The specifications in the press code are pretty clear. It says very clearly: In the case of publications that concern the publisher’s own interests, this must be recognizable. It’s about credibility: even the appearance that a participation of the publishing house in a company could be concealed should be prevented.”

Axel Springer said: “The organization of the NOAH conference, especially the program, is in the hands of the NOAH founders.” In addition, the investment in Uber of around 0.01 percent, at five million US dollars, was less than 0.1 percent of Axel Springer’s investments in shareholdings over the past ten years. This was an economically insignificant financial investment for Axel Springer.

The risk of a conflict of interest or an actual conflict of interest is therefore not recognizable. As in other comparable cases, the investment was not actively communicated for this reason, and this also explains the lack of transparency information. Incidentally, “Bild” has also reported critically about Uber several times.

Diekmann sees no conflict of interest

In any case, the German public did not learn anything about Springer’s participation in Uber for a long time, it only became known in April 2017 when Diekmann left “Bild” and switched to an advisory board of Uber – the “Policy Advisory Board”, as Uber calls it.

Diekmann said he had helped open doors for Axel Springer at the relevant technology companies and made important contacts. “It was about understanding the ‘spirit'”. There was never a conflict of interest between his talks and meetings with tech companies like Uber and his duties at “Bild”. He only began official consulting work for Uber as a member of the “Policy Advisory Board” after he had left Axel Springer.

Group also showed interest in ProSiebenSat.1

Not only publishers like Springer were interesting for Uber – the company entered into negotiations with ProSiebenSat.1 in 2015 to persuade the broadcasting group to invest in Uber. In the end, ProSiebenSat.1 did not invest – however, the Uber Files show what Uber would have expected from an investor from the media industry. They wanted “intelligent content” and “news placements”.

The former board members of ProSiebenSat.1 were also supposed to help with active lobbying – consultants from Uber created PowerPoint slides in which they rated the individual ProSiebenSat.1 board members according to their “usefulness” and their influence in Germany and in politics. Four former board members of the broadcasting group were “useful”, the Uber consultants came to the conclusion at the time. Specifically, they should arrange high-level meetings with politicians and make Uber better known in German politics.

ProSiebenSat.1 announced that the start-up market is continuously being screened and discussions are being held with entrepreneurs on an ongoing basis. At that time, Uber was also looked at, but decided against an investment. All editorial departments worked completely independently in terms of content and journalism.

Uber rejects allegations – partially

Uber informed its media investors that with regard to media work, it follows the approach of professional, fair cooperation and respects the editorial independence of the media. With the best will in the world, one cannot detect an uncritical journalistic discussion of Uber by the media. The Axel Springer media were no exception.

Like many startups, Uber was looking for investors to help understand specific markets and grow the business. In some cases, this would have included media houses. One never expected that one would receive positive coverage as a result – instead one can publicly understand that the media mentioned had reported critically about Uber many times. However, Uber is also remorseful: “The behavior of our former CEO and some executives regarding our market entry in Germany remains inexcusable.”