Donald Trump wouldn’t approve. Just days after a board member of Axel Springer, Politico’s German parent,accused the outlet of “bad journalism” and its journalists of being “woke”, the company confirmed that the director – Argentine entrepreneur Martín Varsavsky – was leaving the board (as first reported by Euractiv’sThe Chattering Classes) after more than a decade.
The move was the latest sign that the once-mighty Springer, the EU’s largest news publisher, has lost its way in the fog of the culture wars as it tries to manage its transatlantic media empire.
To most journalists, that conclusion will sound counterintuitive, bordering on provocative. After all, Varsavsky, a fan and friend to both Elon Musk and Argentine President Milei, violated the central tenets of responsible publishing by challenging the independence of the newsroom.
Most serious publishers would not have hesitated to boot a director to the curb for such an infraction. Yet Springer isn’t just any media company. Though it owns Politico, which it acquired in 2021 for about $1 billion, its take-no-prisoners culture was shaped by Bild, Europe’s best-selling tabloid.
Founded in 1946 by Axel Springer, a die-hard German conservative, the company’s journalism has always been deeply influenced by the man in charge. Springer’s current chief executive and major shareholder, Mathias Döpfner, proved as much a few years ago in a seriesof leaked text messages to Bild’s then-editor in which he encouraged him to push his preferred political party in the run-up to a national election.
For most of his tenure in running what many still regard as Europe’s most influential publisher, Döpfner stayed true to the two central pillars of Springer’s philosophy: unwavering support for Israel and the transatlantic alliance.
What changed? In a word, Politico.
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