German Media Landscape: Keep the Conservatives Down

(By Ray D.)

Recently one of Germany's larger media firms announced that it planned to purchase a majority stake in ProSiebenSat1, Germany's second largest broadcasting corporation. So what? No big deal, just another corporate merger, right...?

Wrong. This isn't just any media firm: It's Axel Springer. And Axel Springer is the sort of company that touches a very raw nerve with certain groups of Germans. For starters, it is a firm that values a strong transatlantic partnership, supports the Israeli peoples' right to existence and is dedicated to fighting totalitarianism. But that is just the half of it. The firm, which owns newspapers like "Die Welt" and the best-selling tabloid "Bild," is also perceived as conservative. And to top it all off, the Chairman of Axel Springer is one Mathias Doepfner, a man who has mercilessly criticized the resurgent anti-American, anti-capitalist, pro-appeasement tendencies in German society. 

So when Springer announced it wanted to expand its reach, a shrill cry went up from the ranks of the German left that democracy itself was being threatened by over-concentration of media. Particularly loud, fearful objections were registered at Stern and Der SPIEGEL. The SPD's Vice-Chairman for its parliamentary fraction, Ludwig Stiegler commented openly that, "This is a very alarming concentration of media power in a conservative publishing house." Stiegler added, "Springer shouldn't celebrate too soon. I am certain that the anti-trust authorities will take a very close look at the merger."

Germany's Real Media Hegemon: Bertelsmann

As is so often the case, the outcry was a highly selective one motivated in part by personal interests and political fears. Remember that Stern is Germany's most widely read weekly with 8 million readers and Der SPIEGEL is more or less tied for second-place with FOCUS with around 5 million. And it just so happens that Bertelsmann, far and away Germany's largest and most powerful media corporation (and Axel Springer's major competitor), owns a majority share in Stern and a 25.5% stake in Der SPIEGEL through its subsidiary Gruner & Jahr.

And let's just compare Germany's two largest media firms for a moment: Bertelsmann has a turnover of 17 billion Euros, a presence in 63 nations and a workforce of over 76,000 employees. Axel Springer has a turnover of 2.5 billion Euros, a presence in 27 countries and a workforce of 10,700. Should its merger succeed, Springer would still be much smaller than Bertelsmann. Yet we are supposed to be worried about the over-concentration of media power at Axel Springer? Is there something wrong with this picture?

The Wall Street Journal: "Axel Springer's Enemies"

No one has given a better account of the ongoing hypocrisy in German media and politics vis-a-vis Springer than the Wall Street Journal. Here are excerpts from an outstanding August 11 editorial that hit the nail right on the head:

"German democracy is under attack. At least that is what a flock of the media elite has been claiming since Axel Springer, Germany's largest newspaper publisher, said Friday it would buy ProSiebenSat.1, the country's second-largest broadcasting group. This "cannot be in the interest of democracy," said Michael Konken, the chairman of Germany's journalist association. Frank Werneke, a trade union leader, called for "the containment of media power across sectors."

These concerns would sound more sincere if they also had been voiced four years ago when Bertelsmann, the world's fourth-largest media company, took control of RTL Group, Germany's largest broadcaster. But back then, there were no such warnings about democracy's imminent decline. Bertelsmann's outlets are more to the liking of the German left.

Let's look at some of the facts. Although the acquisition will nearly double Springer's sales to about €4.2 billion, Bertelsmann still dwarfs its competitor, with global sales more than four times higher. Bertelsmann's German business alone still outpaces its rival with about €5 billion in sales. RTL is slightly more popular than ProSiebenSat.1 but neither broadcaster reaches 25% of the German audience -- the ceiling regulators have set for combined print and television companies. (...)

The principles Springer journalists are expected to support are freedom and democracy in Germany and efforts to bring the peoples of Europe closer together; reconciliation between Jews and Germans, which includes support for Israel's right to exist; the trans-Atlantic alliance and the liberal value community with the U.S.; the rejection of totalitarianism and the defense of Germany's free, social-market economy.

What sounds like a manifesto that any reasonable democrat in Germany should be able to sign is now being called a threat to the country's democracy. Without doubt, the company's commitment to the trans-Atlantic relationship is what irks its opponents the most. Springer publications often criticize U.S. policies but its readers will not find the kind of hysterical anti-Americanism now so prevalent in much of Germany's media.

Consider the two weeklies Stern and Der Spiegel, both with circulations of over a million and links to Bertelsmann. Der Spiegel in particular is considered Germany's most high-brow and influential political magazine. To give a flavor of the kind of image these two publications spread of the U.S. and the Bush administration, one only has to look at some of their covers.

Last fall, when General Motors was considering layoffs at its German Opel unit (which in the end did not happen), Stern's front page showed a giant cowboy boot with the American flag on it about to step on a group of people grouped together to form the Opel logo. The headline was "The Wild-West Method." Another front page in March 2004 showed President George W. Bush in front of an American flag above what looks like a Middle Eastern city from which smoke is rising up. Headline: "How America lied to the world." The story was about the Iraq war, of course.

Before the U.S. election last November, Der Spiegel showed a caricature of President Bush dressed as a cowboy ready to shoot his opponent. The headline here was "Will America become democratic again?" Another front page in 2003 showed the American flag with little assault rifles and gas nozzles superimposed on the stars, headlined "Blood for oil. What Iraq is really about."

Television, particularly public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, whose news shows are still the most trusted, often echoes such themes. According to Media-Tenor, a media analysis center headquartered in Bonn, their Iraq coverage was at times even more negative than that of al-Jazeera.

Rather than stifling the political debate, Springer's expansion to the TV world is likely to introduce the kind of "plurality of opinions" its opponents claim he threatens. What Springer threatens is not the diversity of view but the uniformity of view and group think -- and that can only be healthy for Germany's democracy."

We at Medienkritik would like to think that the above was inspired to some degree by our work. Apparently the Journal's article caught the attention of Springer Chairman Mathias Doepfner, who made reference to it in a recent interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE. We wanted to link to that interview, but for some reason SPIEGEL ONLINE has taken the unusual step of restricting access to the piece with a fee after only two days. So we will work on an English translation for you. Stay tuned for that...

(Emphasis ours throughout)

Comments

[Hartmut]

Thats what it is all about. Actually, the reaction of the left shows exactly why we need conservative mass media here in Germany.

And don't tell me it will not fly here in Germany. Think about the US media 20 years ago.

[Daniel]

Hello!

Did anyone consider that the portfolio of Bertelsmann and Springer might not be the same? As far as I know, Springer does not have a CD-label, for example. But here's some numbers from http://unternehmen.monster.de/bertelsde/ how and with what Bertelsmann makes money.

Percentage of those afore-mentioned 17 billion euros gross net (or whatever you economics guys call that):

RTL Group 27.7% (TV/Radio)
Random House 10.2% (books, but maybe also magazines?)
Gruner + Jahr 13.9% (magazines)
BMG 14.5% (music)
Arvato 21.3% ("media services", customer stuff, IT, printing etc)
Direct Group 12.4% (the Bertelsmann Club, etc)

So, this tells us, Bertelsmann grosses about 45%, 8 billion euros, in what I would call the politically relevant areas, TV and magazines. (Random House is too general, I believe, so I included only half of it in this number.)

ProSiebenSat1 grosses about 1.8 billion euros, according to Die Zeit (http://www.zeit.de/2005/33/Springer1). So that is significantly less than RTL Group.

I couldn't find a comparable listing of the different parts of Springer online. (I gave up due to tiredness). I believe that Springer sells a lot of academic books, but if those carry a significant amount of the 1.8 billion euros it grosses, I do not know. Anyway, Bertelmann wins.

And finally, here's some recent numbers (second quarter 2005) I just found on ivw.de (one needs to register to get in, but it's free). Bild has a daily circulation of about 3.7 million copies (except on Sundays, then it's 2 million copies of Sunday Bild). That might explain why people think of Bild as *the* Springer publication. And the tabloid Bild is mostly good at making money and creating opinions, but not when it comes to deep, insightful journalism. (You may disagree. I think there's a link to "Bild Blog" somewhere in the blogroll.)

As a comparison: Spiegel sells about 1 million copies weekly, so does Stern, according to ivw.de, again.

I just wanted to add some details.

Regards, Daniel

Note from David: Good job, Daniel!

[Daniel]

Thanks, David.
There seems to be something wrong with "the 1.8 billion Springer grosses" I mentioned. The number is not completely off, but I probably mixed it up with what ProSiebenSat1 grosses. Ray's post says something about 2.5 billion and that sounds more right.

Regards, Daniel

[Zyme]

There might be another striking difference between german and american conservatives as well.
I know this is somewhat off-topic, but it came into my mind when reading this article

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,370072,00.html

Arent the american conservatives very christian and religious?
If thats correct, the last passage of that article about christianity in germany might be interesting to read:

"And below, there will probably be some 800,000 young people, cheering and impressed by the pope, by the Lord and by themselves. [At the world youth day in cologne]

Then he'll be off. Back to Rome. The last World Youth Day visitor will hardly have left the grounds before the signs in Cologne will be swapped. The election campaign, dealing with pension reform, health insurance reform and tax rebates will then kick off. The name Benedict XVI is unlikely to crop up much.

The Germans have irrevocably moved into a post-religious world. They would like to believe. They suspect that it might help and therefore they respect anyone who is able to believe. But they themselves, for the most part, can't do it anymore. They read Peter Hahne, because Ratzinger is too hard for them. They still say "the pope is right, that's how it should be." But if a politician starts seriously talking about God, they roll their eyes and change the channel.

The pilgrimage paths on Our Lady's field will be deconstructed in an environmentally sound fashion. The components are biodegradable. Only the 3,000 chalices made by ThyssenKrupp pose a slight problem. They have been built to last an eternity and cannot be recycled. And very soon there will no use for them in this country. Only the papal hill will remain. It will be a reminder of an unreal event. Something which is almost impossible to believe."

And i can fully agree to that - believing into something might help you in living your life a lot, but one isnt able to believe anymore.

Its a long article, which also includes statistical numbers for christians in germany:

"Every 75 seconds, a Christian leaves the church. In 2003, 180,000 Protestants left the church. Only 60,000 joined.

The Catholic Church, is hardly in better shape: in March the German bishops' conference published a sobering set of figures under the title "the Catholic Church in Germany -- Statistical Data 2003." According to the report, the number of Catholics has decreased every year since 1974. The latest figures for 2003 show that around 65,000 more Catholics were buried as were baptized. Far more people leave the church than enter it.

This meant in 2003 there was a "decision to join negative," as they put it in the report, of 117,000. Fewer Catholics were baptized in 2003 than at any time since 1960. There were exactly 205,904 Catholic baptisms in 2003. That's 3.5 percent lower than the previous years and 31 percent lower than in 1990. In other words, Catholics are dying out."

[Sock Puppet of Doom]

Thats all nice but most conservatives I know are agnostic or atheist. There are certainly some religious conservatives but there are just as many religious liberals. I stay away from religious nut cases thank goodness there are so few.

[Joe N.]

The German press is even doing it in the non-german output on DW. It makes no sense. It's as though they do it because it will come out of their pores anyway. They're talking to non-voters who are worth less than headlice to the left right now.

[WhatWhoMe]

@Zyme "Arent the american conservatives very christian and religious?"
Aren't all Germans beer drinking people in short leather pants wanting to take over Poland?

Such a stereotype.

[playertwo]

Americans still feelan obligation to Christ as a moral leader. German don't HAVE to believe in anything except fighting for their welfare benefits orthe right to chastise entrepeneurs. Its sad and its hype mostly,they are jsut selling the same drivel to the same people. Give it a couple of years and you'll seesjust as many German "conservatives" as there are anywhere else.

And don't forget the CBC does DWelle and they fought Foxnews tooth and nail but its thriving up there now.

I predict that Linus or Schroeder or whatshisname will lose his ass in a shrill whining campaign ala Carter v.Reagan and the new Angie gubmint will start the painful march back to civilization.The German people owe you a great honor David and you will never be forgiven for your success!!!

[Don]

Ray and David - the Typekey signin is not working as it should. I click the sign in link and it doesn't allow me to sign in. I finally got in by using the 'open the link in another page' option.

[moonfarer]

@Zyme

You wrote correctly: "The Germans have irrevocably moved into a post-religious world."

It probably would be more appropriate to name the move of Germany into the "pre-christian era" because it is already accompanied by a regression in culture and by progression of lewd, selfish and loud behavior offending friends and neighbors alike. It will be folllowed by a yet reduced respect for life itself and human dignity in general. One used to say jokingly in the preceding century: "Conditions like in ancient Rome" to describe particularly wild, anarchistic and unrestrained, barbaric human behavior.

Most Germans do not seem to know it yet but that is exactly the end station for all human behavior which is not restrained by a powerful and morally divine supreme authority. One would have thought that people in the center of a former "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation" would have learned by now such unforgettable lessons of history.

[Imbecilia]

For all of you who might not know Springer and its "Bild" very well, you should have a climse look over to this website:

http://www.bildblog.de

A Grimme-Award-winning watchblog about Germany`s biggest newspaper.

Then you know why people in Germany don`t want Springer to be even stronger.