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.