History of the Bauer Media Group

History of the Bauer Media Group

1. What is the Bauer Media Group ? Bauer Media Group is Europe’s largest magazine publisher and one of the leading players in Australia, the UK, New Zealand, Poland and the USA. We publish more than 600 magazines in 20 countries with around 11,500 employees contributing to our success on a daily basis. As a member of the fifth generation, Yvonne Bauer has headed the family business since 2010.

2. The History of the Bauer Media Group

3. In 1875, Ludolph Bauer has just turned 23 when he sets up a printing plant in Hamburg to produce business cards. As well as taking on various printing jobs, he launches the local advertising newspaper Rothenburgersorter Zeitung. This is later followed by Extrablatt am Montag and eventually in 1926 by Rundfunk-Kritik – a radio magazine which quickly reaches sales of over a half a million copies weekly.

4. The publishing house works its way to the top after the Second World War with listing guides and youth magazines. Rasselbande sells 300,000 every fortnight, tv Hören und Sehen reaches one million readers. The magazines Quick, Revue and Bravo become firm fixtures in every German household. In the 1970s, the first weekly women’s magazines are created with tina and bella. A few years later, Bauer buys a stake in the TV broadcaster RTL II and the radio station Radio Hamburg. After German reunification, the Magdeburg daily Volksstimme is added to the portfolio.

5. With his leap across the “big pond”, great-grandson Heinz Heinrich Bauer drives the internationalisation of the company: in 1981, the Hamburg-based publisher launches Woman’s World as the first weekly women’s magazine in the USA – a million-selling success! The British and Polish markets follow in 1987 and 1991, respectively. The publisher adapts successful German magazines for its readers abroad and launches numerous new brands. Bauer Media’s international activities also extend to the radio business: Polish radio station chain BROKER FM was added in 2007 and Emap’s UK radio stations in 2008. Yvonne Bauer successfully builds on her father’s international strategy: in 2012, Bauer Media Group acquires the publisher ACP in Australia and New Zealand. In 2015, the media company’s expansion continues: with the purchase of the Scandinavian SBS Group, Bauer Media Group becomes Europe’s number 1 radio station operator.