Axel Springer downsizes board, new CEOs for WELT and "Bild"

Ulrike Handel, the board member responsible for Axel Springer's national media business, is leaving the company. The media group announced that it had been "mutually decided" that she would resign from her position on the board at the end of the year. Supervisory Board Chairman Ralph Büchi said: “In the course of working on the strategy project for News Media National, we mutually decided to end the cooperation due to differing views on the direction and structure of the division. We thank Ulrike Handel for her great commitment to Axel Springer and wish her all the best for her professional and personal future.”

Ulrike Handel said: "I found Axel Springer to be very entrepreneurial and dynamic, and above all I was able to work with highly motivated and professional people. This is a gift. I would like to thank the Supervisory Board, my Management Board colleagues and all employees for the time we spent together and wish them the best of luck in the transformation.”

Responsibility for Ulrike Handel's department is shared. Effective immediately, Mathias Döpfner will be responsible for the two brand groups “Bild” and WELT on the Executive Board of Axel Springer SE. In the future, the Management Board will consist of four members.

In addition, Axel Springer plans to manage the WELT and "Bild" brand groups as independent units, each with its own CEO. Both groups were previously managed together under the umbrella of the News Media National segment. With more entrepreneurial independence, structures are to be designed more clearly, decision-making processes accelerated and brand identification and target group addressing by WELT and “Bild” are to be strengthened. Claudius Senst (36), who was previously responsible for WELT and "Bild" as CEO, will become head of the "Bild" group. Carolin Hulshoff Pol (44) becomes CEO of the WELT Group. She is currently the managing director of "Bild".

CEO Mathias Döpfner explained: “We want to strengthen the journalistic core of the brands even more consistently and invest in the digital future of journalism. This is not possible through more centralization, but through more decentralized entrepreneurial energy. That's why we will organize 'Bild' and WELT in their differences even more independently and as lean as possible. In the future, strong editors-in-chief and strong female entrepreneurs should manage the brands like their own companies.”