Zeit Verlagsgruppe

Logo of Zeit Verlagsgruppe

Zeitverlag is the publisher of the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit". The company also publishes specialist journals, sells training programmes and communication services, operates a job market and is responsible for the online edition "Zeit Online". Since 1996, the ZEIT publishing group has been part of the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group, which acquired the shares from the then recently deceased founder Gerd Bucerius. As of June 2009, both the Holtzbrinck Publishing Group and Dieter von Holtzbrinck Medien GmbH each hold 50 per cent of the shares in the ZEIT publishing group. Both owners belong to the Holtzbrinck publishing family.

Key Facts

Business FormCommercial / For-profit
Legal FormLimited partnership with a GmbH as the personally liable general partner (Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft, in short: GmbH & Co. KG)
Business SectorsFurther education; e-commerce; branded content; communication services; events; job exchange; book publishing; scholarship platform;

Ownership

Individual Owner
Group / Individual Owner
  • Michael Grabner

    Michael Grabner, the Austrian media manager, has been working for the Holtzbrinck Group in various capacities since the early 1990s. He was managing director and later became an operational partner. When the shares were split, he moved to DvH Medien and is currently chairman of the supervisory board. Grabner is also a member of the advisory board of the Mediengruppe Pressedruck (Augsburger Allgemeine) and a shareholder in the postal company PIN AG.
    3
  • Christiane Schoeller

    Christiane Schoeller inherited the shares (25%) in Zeitverlag from her mother Monika Schoeller in 2019. Christiane Schoeller is a member of the Supervisory Board of the Holtzbrinck Group and does not otherwise appear in public.
    25

Media Outlets

Other Media Outlets

Other Online Outlets
  • Zeit Online
other_print_titles
  • Zeit Campus
  • Zeit Studienführer
  • Zeit für Unternehmer
  • Zeit Wissen
  • Zeit Verbrechen
  • Deutsch perfekt
  • Écoute
  • Ecos
  • Adesso
  • Spotlight
  • Business Spotlight
  • Kunst und Auktionen
  • Weltkunst
  • Zeit Germany
  • Zeit Geschichte
  • Zeit Leo

Facts

Other Media BusinessesEvents
  • Good Conversations GmbH (100% der Zeit Online GmbH)
Language courses
  • Zeit Sprachen GmbH (100%)
Publishing
  • Zeit Credo GmbH (100%)
Online Media
  • Zeit Online GmbH (100%)
Art Publishing
  • Zeit Weltkunst Verlag GmbH (100%)
Other Domestic BusinessesCommunication services
  • Studio ZX GmbH (100%)
Further education services
  • Zeit Akademie GmbH (100%)
Marketing services
  • Zeit Vermarktung GmbH (100%)
Scholarship and career platform
  • e-fellows.net GmbH & Co. KG (66%)
Job platform
  • Academics GmbH (85%)
  • GoodJobs GmbH (68%)
Founding Year1961
Founder
  • Gerd Bucerius
    was an important German publisher, lawyer and politician. He was born on 19 May 1906 in Hamm, Westphalia, and died on 29 September 1995 in Hamburg. Bucerius was considered an opponent of the Nazi regime and became a member of the Bundestag for the CDU after the war. Almost at the same time, he founded Die Zeit. In 1951, he acquired a majority stake in the illustrated magazine ‘Stern’ and a few years later became co-founder of the publishing house ‘Gruner + Jahr’. In 1973, he sold his shares to the Bertelsmann Group, of which he was a member of the Supervisory Board until 1991. Upon his death, the rights to Die Zeit were transferred to a foundation.
Employees1,200
ContactZeitverlag Gerd Bucerius GmbH & Co. KG
Buceriusstraße, Eingang Speersort 1
20095 Hamburg
Germany
kontakt@zeit.de
https://www.zeit-verlagsgruppe.de/
Tax / ID NumberDE189342458
Revenue€ 291 Million (2022) / USD 306 Million
Operating ProfitMissing Data
Advertising (in % of total funding)21%: € 61 Million / USD 64 Million (2022)
Executive Board
  • Dr Rainer Esser
    Chairman of the Management Board since 2023, has been with Die Zeit since 1999. Esser is a lawyer and has already held various roles as Managing Director (Spotlight Verlag, Main-Post media group) in his career. He was also editor-in-chief of the legal journals Business Law Europe, Tax Letter Europe and European Business and Tax Law at the Bertelsmann International publishing group.
  • Iris Ostermaier
    Chief Financial Officer since 2023, was previously Global CFO of RTL AdAlliance / RTL Group. Prior to that, she was CFO of Bavaria Film GmbH and CEO / CFO of 1-2-3.tv GmbH for several years.
  • Nils von der Kall
    Chief Commercial Officer, has been with the publisher since 2004 and was previously Managing Director of Zeit Akademie GmbH, which sells learning and training programmes. Von der Kall is committed to the exchange with foreign media companies, especially from Turkey. He held a fellowship in the ‘Future Forum Turkey Europe’ at the Mercator Foundation and is a member of the marketing working group at the Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ).
  • Christian Röpke
    Chief Digital Officer, has been with Die Zeit since 2009 and was previously Managing Director of Zeit Online. At the beginning of his career, Röpke held a management position at the Financial Times Deutschland for several years. Röpke is also on the advisory board of the incubator nextMedia.Hamburg.
Non-Executive Board
  • Prof. Jutta Allmendinger
    President of the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB) and Professor of Sociology of Education and Labour Market Research at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Allmendinger is a member of the editorial board of Die Zeit.
  • Dr Nicola Leibinger-Kammüller
    CEO of mechanical engineering company Trumpf and also a member of the Advisory Board of Landesbank Baden-Württemberg and BW-Bank. Leibinger-Kammüller is a member of the editorial board of Die Zeit.
  • Zanny Minton Beddoes
    Editor-in-chief of the ‘Economist’ and previously worked at the IMF and the Polish Ministry of Finance. Minton Beddoes is a member of the editorial board of Die Zeit.
  • Florian Illies
    Co-editor of Die Zeit and previously head of the features section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung and managing director of Rowohlt Verlag. Together with Zeit editor-in-chief Di Lorenzo, Illies runs an art podcast and is the author of numerous books.
Headlines
Active Transparency
company/channel informs proactively and comprehensively about its ownership, data is constantly updated and easily verifiable
Meta DataThe average exchange rate from the year of publication of the source was used for the conversions from euros to US dollars (2022: 1.05 USD).
Sources