Digital business drives strong growth in Burda Media sales
Thanks to online portals such as Xing, the media group Hubert Burda Media significantly increased its revenue in 2017: Revenue rose by 18 percent to 2.67 billion euros, the family-owned company announced Thursday in Munich.
The takeover of the British Immediate Media Group also helped. Regarding profits, CEO Paul-Bernhard Kallen only said: "Overall, we are very comfortably profitable." Burda now generates significantly more than half of its revenues in the digital division. Growth drivers were the career network Xing, the travel portal Holiday Check and the internet stores Cyberport and Computeruniverse.
In the German magazine business, which includes titles such as Focus, Colorful or SuperIllu Burda generates a quarter of the Group's revenue. As with other publishers, sales and advertising revenues are falling. But with more than 120 new additional businesses - from the sale of wine to license fees for the "Focus Test Winner" label and "Fit for Fun" drinks - the division nevertheless grew slightly.
For the current year, Kallen is aiming for a slight increase in turnover to 2.8 billion euros. The publishing business in Germany and abroad and each individual digital business segment should grow.
Burda Media employs 12,000 people, around 5,000 of them in Munich, Offenburg and Hamburg. (SDA/DPA)
