The Bertelsmann and RTL boss has laid off hundreds of employees at the Gruner + Jahr publishing house.
(Photo: Imago (2), dpa, Getty Images)
Hamburg, Munich To this day, Thomas Rabe is not lacking in promising words. He announced a “content powerhouse” in the summer of 2021, a “national media champion”. With managerial poetry like this, the head of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA praised the intra-group merger he had devised between the Hamburg magazine house Gruner+ Jahr (G+J) and the television group RTL.
Even then, many were wondering what Hanseatic quality journalism was doing under the umbrella of Cologne reality TV. The answer today: little to nothing. Instead of the “Powerhouse” a kind of rubble landscape can be seen.
The once profitable publishing house G+J, which brought billions of euros to the Mohn family empire over 50 years, has been dismantled. 700 of 1900 jobs are cut, hundreds of freelancers lose an important client. 45 out of 58 brands and magazines are sold or discontinued.
Bertelsmann asserts that the remaining brands account for 70 percent of the magazine’s sales. Nevertheless, the public outcry is great.
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