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Government critic Döpfner, here at a meeting of the industry association BDZV
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / DPA
After the dismissal of "Bild" editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt, his boss and long-time sponsor, Springer boss Mathias Döpfner, is on fire. Now the Axel-Springer-Verlag has commented on the controversial GDR comparison by Döpfner, which had become known in the course of the Reichelt affair. According to reports, Döpfner had declared that Reichelt was “the last and only journalist in Germany who still bravely rebelled against the new GDR government. Almost everyone else has become propaganda assistants. "
After massive criticism, the Springer-Verlag announced that CEO Döpfner did not consider the Federal Republic to be comparable to the GDR.
"That would be completely absurd and should be obvious to anyone who follows Döpfner's journalistic statements." In addition, there are means of irony and deliberate exaggeration in private dialogues.
The CEO and major shareholder have intentionally made very exaggerated statements.
Döpfner's statement comes from an SMS to the author Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre.
She had recently become known in the course of the Reichelt case and had not only caused a stir in the media world.
Döpfner referred to a comment in which Reichelt had sharply criticized the federal government's corona restrictions in the spring.
Döpfner is President of the Newspaper Publishers
The criticism is also strong because Döpfner is not only in charge of Springer-Verlag. Since 2016 he has also been President of the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) and thus chief lobbyist for the media in political Berlin. The association said that Döpfner made the statements as Springer boss in a private exchange. Therefore the BDZV will not comment on this.
Springer-Verlag released Reichelt from his duties on Monday with immediate effect.
Even after an internal investigation into allegations of abuse of power in the spring of 2021, Reichelt is said not to have clearly separated private and professional matters and to have had a relationship with a »Bild« journalist and lied to the board of directors.
The new chairman of the three-person »Bild« editor-in-chief is the previous editor-in-chief of »Welt am Sonntag«, Johannes Boie.
He presented himself to the editorial team on Tuesday in the presence of Döpfner.
According to one participant, Boie said it was about making more headlines than being headlines again.
Trouble in the lucrative US market
The development is particularly spicy for Springer because the "New York Times" has published a comprehensive report on it, in which Springer, Döpfner and Reichelt, as the group's most important journalist to date, have not done well. Because Springer sees itself as Europe's largest digital publisher and would also like to become number one worldwide. To this end, the Berliners are increasingly focusing on the US media market. Springer recently announced the largest investment in the company's history with the purchase of the US news company Politico. According to insiders, the company pays more than a billion dollars.
With the tailwind of the largest shareholder, the US financial investor KKR, Springer wants to expand further.
The investment company had invested in Berlin in 2019 and, according to "manager magazin", is considering separate IPOs for the individual segments in order to exit again in a few years.
beb / Reuters
