German publisher Axel Springer raised its annual revenue forecast on Wednesday after recording a double-digit jump in advertising revenue during the nine-month period.
In the first nine months of this year, advertising revenue surged by 16 percent to 1.48 billion euros, supported by advertising columns in print media and digital advertising, which accounts for 63 percent of Springer’s total revenue.
Springer publishes, among others, the daily newspapers Bild and Die Welt and the magazine Rolling Stone, and since last month has forced Bild readers to accept the publication of ads if they wish to read it for free online.
The German advertising market is expected to grow by two percent this year, with online advertising revenue for the first time expected to exceed that of newspaper advertising, Reuters notes.
At Springer, the annual revenue growth forecast was raised on Wednesday to five to seven percent, up from the previously expected two to five percent.
“This year, our priority is growth. We see great potential in our advertising column models and in journalistic brands in Europe and increasingly in the Anglophone world,” said CEO Mathias Doepfner in a statement.
In October, the German publisher acquired the news website Business Insider, and this year they also launched a European edition of the political news portal Politico. In July, the Japanese media group Nikkei narrowly acquired the Financial Times from them.
