Axel Springer SE

Axel Springer SE (German: [ˈaksl̩ ˈʃpʁɪŋɐ ɛsˈeː]) is a European multinational mass and online media company, based in Berlin, Germany. The company offers printing and publishing of advertisements, digital classifieds portfolio, marketing models and related services. Axel Springer's operations are segmented into News Media, Classifieds Media, and Marketing Media. The company is organized as a societas Europaea (SE) publishing house and is one of the largest mass media publishers in the European Union, with numerous multimedia news brands, such as Bild, Die Welt, Fakt, and the US political news site Politico, which Axel Springer acquired in 2021. The company generated total revenues of about €3.93 billion and an EBITDA increase of 12.8% in the first half of 2023. Following US private-equity firm KKR's majority-stake acquisition in 2020, Axel Springer's revenues have increased by a total of approximately €1 billion. The company, including its subsidiaries, joint ventures, and licenses, operates in more than 40 countries. The company was started in 1946 by journalist Axel Springer. Mathias Döpfner became its CEO in 2002. In 2004, Axel Springer company, the largest publishing house in Europe at that time, controlled the largest German market share for daily newspapers; 23.6%, largely because its flagship tabloid Bild is the highest-circulation newspaper in Europe with a daily readership exceeding 12 million. By 2022, the company had a market share of 10.6% in Germany. October 2022 data indicates that Axel Springer's BILD brands attract approximately six million unique users daily, totaling up to 40 million unique users per month. IVW's data from June 2023 shows BILD receiving 504 million monthly visits and WELT achieving 127 million. In the United States, Axel Springer is ranked among the top four digital publishers, alongside USA Today, News Corp, and The New York Times.