150 Years of Now
150 Years of Then - 150 Years of Next
The History of Bauer Media Group
What started as a small printing house in Hamburg, Germany, in 1875, has grown to become one of the largest magazine publishers and commercial broadcasters in Europe, enriching the lives of millions of readers, users, listeners, and customers: Now in 2025, we at Bauer Media Group celebrate our 150th company anniversary with a special campaign 150 Years of Now and various events to honour our biggest milestones and thank our over 12.000 employees.
Five Generations of one Family-owned company
150 Years of Now stands for the company’s ability to understand and anticipate the challenges and seize the opportunities of the day as well as consistently and efficiently produce media that appeals to broad-ranging audiences throughout our 150 years of existence. This was true for humble first steps into the fast-growing print industry in the early 1900s to venturing into the world of Audio almost 100 years later and finding our most recent milestone with the acquisition of Clear Channel Europe (Bauer Media Outdoor) in 2025.
Dive deeper into our history:
Johann Andreas Ludolph Bauer (1875)
In 1875, 23-year-old Johann Andreas Ludolph Bauer (1852-1941) lays the foundation for a trail-blazing new business: A trained lithographer, he opens a print shop offering printed business cards in his flat near Hamburg's Elbe Bridges. Johann’s entrepreneurial move capitalises on the transformation of the printing industry at the time and becomes the first stepping stone towards the Bauer Media we know today.
Heinrich Friedrich Matthias Bauer (1903)
In 1903, his son, Heinrich Friedrich Matthias Bauer (1874-1949), also a trained printer, joins his father as a partner in the company, which is rebranded to “J.A.L. Bauer & Söhne”. The company, which now has 20 employees, adds a paper business to the print shop, complete with a high-speed press and a typesetting machine.
With the dawn of a new century and printing press technology advancing, the pair takes advantage of the new opportunities and technologies on offer and begins to publish print magazines in Germany, starting with the publication of Bauer Media’s first paper, “Rothenburgsorter Zeitung”. This willingness to diversify will become a hallmark of Bauer Media’s innovative spirit and desire to serve wide-ranging audiences and leverage synergies between media industries.
Alfred Bauer (1918)
In 1918, Heinrich Friedrich Matthias Bauer's 20-year-old son, Alfred Bauer (1898-1984) – a trained printer and typesetter – joins his father's business. Driven like his father and grandfather to push beyond the status quo, he founds the “Extrablatt” just two years later. The eight-page publication costs 20 German pfennig and will later develop into a successful sports newspaper. Targeting a niche market, like sports, challenges the norms of the time and highlights Alfred’s foresight in recognising the market potential for specialised content.
The company continues its growth trajectory, and, in 1923, Heinrich Bauer makes a significant long-term investment into a plot of land in Burchardstraße, opposite the Chilehaus in the Hamburg city centre – the site that hosts today’s headquarters of Bauer Media Group.
With radio’s popularity and influence on the rise, the family business sees cross-media potential and innovates again, this time launching the weekly radio magazine, “Rundfunkkritik”, in 1926, with a circulation of 15,000 copies. It eventually achieves a circulation of over half a million copies, which is considerable for the time.
The family business manages to remain in operation during the era of National Socialism. (Note: The company has commissioned a comprehensive investigation to critically examine and acknowledge its historical role during this time. Read more here).
With the birth of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, Bauer Media receives its new press license. This allows the company to resume its press activities after the end of World War II.
It is under Alfred Bauer’s leadership, in the 1960s, that the first of many acquisitions is made, including “Neue Post” in 1961, a woman's magazine aimed at an older demographic. It becomes one of Germany's best-selling women's magazines and demonstrates Alfred’s strategic vision to diversify the company’s portfolio to ensure relevance across different audiences.
A year later, Bauer Media once again capitalises on cross-media opportunities – this time with the rise of TV in people’s everyday lives – and launches “TV Hören und Sehen”, a popular TV magazine.
In venturing into these relatively untested markets, the Bauer family shows remarkable foresight and confidence in its ability to innovate and grow within these new media landscapes.
Heinz Heinrich Bauer (1963)
In 1963, 23-year-old Heinz Heinrich Bauer (born 1939), becomes the fourth generation to take the helm of the family business.
With globalisation taking hold across multiple industries, Heinz Bauer understands the opportunities of the time and begins a steady expansion course of launches and acquisitions that starts with Austria and goes on to include various markets over the next 30 years. His bold efforts generate an era of unprecedented growth for the company.
Among his many acquisitions are the magazines “Quick” and “Revue”, which push Bauer Media into first place among German magazine publishers. In 1968, the company expands its portfolio with the acquisition of “BRAVO”, a magazine that will become one of the most successful European youth media brands. Heinz’s focus on acquisitions of key titles begins to transform Bauer Media into a dominant force in the publishing industry. This expansion strategy is not only aimed at growth but also at establishing clear market dominance and securing leading positions within national media landscapes.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 1975, the company shows no signs of slowing down. Determined to strengthen its existing core business, it establishes publishing businesses in North America, France, Spain, UK, and Poland in the 1980s and early 1990s, and launches popular titles, like “Maxi France”, “Take a Break”, “Woman’s World”, and “Tele Tydzień”. With the acquisition of “Volksstimme” in 1991, Bauer Media also expands its business activities in the newspaper sector. Many of these strategic moves bring with them significant market share, reinforcing Bauer Media’s position as the predominant player in several of these territories.
Heinz Bauer achieves a real coup at the beginning of 2008, with the takeover of the British media company, EMAP. This purchase secures the company’s position as the market leader in the United Kingdom’s (UK’s) magazine business, with iconic brands like “Empire”, “heat”, and “Closer”. It also makes it the second largest commercial radio operator in the UK, with brands including “KISS”, “Kerrang!”, “The Hits Radio”, and “Magic”. From this point on, the company begins to operate under the umbrella brand, Bauer Media Group (BMG).
EMAP’s acquisition marks a turning point for the company as it allows Bauer Media in later years, under Yvonne Bauer’s leadership, to become a fully integrated media powerhouse that spans multiple platforms and sectors, including print, radio, and digital media.
By consolidating the company’s operations and expanding into new markets, Heinz Bauer secures Bauer Media’s position as a relevant, adaptable leader in the ever-evolving media industry.
Yvonne Bauer (2010)
In 2010, Heinz Bauer’s daughter, Yvonne Bauer (born 1977), takes over the management and becomes the company’s first female leader.
Under her leadership, BMG capitalises on the favourable economic conditions following the 2008 financial market crisis and embarks on an ambitious growth trajectory. Yvonne Bauer’s strategy – anchored in significant investments, targeted acquisitions, and BMG’s entry into new markets and businesses – builds seamlessly on the visionary foundations laid by her father.
However, growing momentum in digitisation puts increasing strain on the publishing business: new content formats and the rapid rise of social media fundamentally reshape consumer behaviour and erode the foundations of traditional publishing models. This pressure intensifies and is further accelerated by a series of global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. While Publishing faces headwinds, Audio emerges as a strong growth engine.
Recognising the need for long-term development, Yvonne Bauer takes decisive action: she establishes a fundamental portfolio shift towards audio, strategically and consistently repositioning BMG from a traditional publishing house into a broadly diversified media company. Yvonne not only drives expansion into new territories – such as the Nordics, Slovakia, and Portugal – through investments in standout brands like “NOVA”, “SuomiRock”, “Mix Megapol”, “Rádio Comercial”, “Rádio Melody”, and “Radio Norge”, she also strengthens performance in existing markets, like the UK and Poland. She implements a set of targeted entrepreneurial initiatives that significantly boost profitability and operational efficiency, demonstrating that growth does not rely solely on geographical expansion or acquisitions, but also on sharpening and scaling existing assets. Under Yvonne’s leadership, BMG evolves into Europe’s largest radio provider, further expanding its reach in the early 2020s with the acquisition of Communicorp Group, bringing leading national stations like Today FM and Newstalk into its portfolio.
To further future-proof the business, she explores adjacent digital opportunities in the late 2010s, broadening BMG’s portfolio through ventures into new business models. Among these are online comparison platforms (OCP) and marketing solutions for small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Initially approached with a spirit of experimentation, these initiatives are piloted in selected countries to assess potential fit with BMG’s capabilities and strategic direction. However, despite initial promise, it becomes clear that successfully scaling early-stage digital ventures requires capabilities that lie outside BMG’s core strengths. Rather than pursuing these paths further, Yvonne Bauer makes the deliberate decision to step back. In 2022 and 2023, she divests SME and, in areas such as the OCP business, brings in strong strategic partners to provide additional expertise and executional strength.
The move is a measured response grounded in strategic clarity – an acknowledgment that the company’s expertise lies in scaling proven models within the media sector rather than incubating nascent technologies. In 2024, Yvonne Bauer guides BMG into a new phase in which it recommits to its DNA: leveraging commercial reach and the strength of mass media platforms to drive sustainable growth.
At the heart of the strategy is a clear ambition: to future-proof existing business models through digital innovation while unlocking new, particularly digital, growth potential through strategic acquisitions and expansion. Her first significant move follows shortly thereafter: she announces her ambition to acquire Clear Channel Europe-North, a significant player in the Out-of-Home media sector.
Bauer Media Group kicks off 2025 – its 150th anniversary year – with the completion of this acquisition. Now called Bauer Media Outdoor, the business represents a new line of strategic diversification, once again broadening the company’s reach and boldly moving it forward into new areas while unlocking promising digital growth potential. The Out of Home business effectively complements both Publishing and Audio, while offering advertising clients a range of innovative and unprecedented opportunities.
Yvonne Bauer’s long-term commitment to BMG’s success continues her family’s legacy of strategic, forward-thinking decisions that have made Bauer Media the powerhouse it is today, enriching everyday life for millions of people.
150 Years of Next
Bauer Media Group kicks off 2025 — its 150th anniversary year — with the completion of its acquisition of Clear Channel Europe-North, a significant player in the Out of Home media sector. Now called Bauer Media Outdoor, the business represents a new line of strategic diversification, once again broadening the company’s reach and boldly moving it forward into new areas. Yvonne’s long-term commitment to Bauer Media’s success continues her family’s legacy of strategic, forward-thinking decisions that have made Bauer Media the powerhouse it is today, enriching everyday life for millions people.
150 Years of NEXT
With 150 years of history to look back on, Bauer Media Group is getting ready for the future. Become a part of this journey and find our current vacancies here.
150th Company Anniversary:
- 150 Years of Bauer Media
- Bauer Media Group "150 Years of Now": Moments & Milestones
- Press Release "Happy Anniversary: Bauer Media Group turns 150"
Scientific research 1933-1945: