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German media giant RTL Group to axe 500 jobs

German media giant RTL Group said Tuesday it is cutting 500 jobs and will dump about 20 magazines in Germany due to the continued print media crisis and rising costs.

View of the RTL Deutschland publishing building at Baumwall in Hamburg Harbour.
View of the RTL Deutschland publishing building at Baumwall in Hamburg Harbour. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Marcus Brandt

The jobs will be lost in the northern city of Hamburg, said RTL Group, which is a subsidiary of German media and publishing group Bertelsmann.

RTL Group currently employs 7,500 people in Germany. It also plans to reorganise its portfolio of publications and concentrate
on flagship titles, which represent about 70 percent of current sales, the group said.

The business will keep about 10 magazine titles, which it owns through subsidiaries. This includes the German versions of GEO, Gala and Capital, as well as the women’s title Brigitte and news magazine Stern.

READ ALSO: German software giant SAP to cut 3,000 jobs

The roughly 20 remaining titles will be sold or their publication will cease, RTL Group said.

As a result, 200 extra staff will leave the company, taking the total number of posts lost at the group to 700.

Thomas Rabe, RTL Group CEO, cited a “rapidly changing media landscape and the challenging overall economic situation” for the decisions.

The “core brands” that remain will be developed further with investments of about €80 million ($85 million) by 2025, he said.

The magazine industry has been in decline for years as more readers shift online. But soaring inflation has pushed up costs for key materials like paper, worsening the situation.

RTL Group owns 56 TV channels and 36 radio stations in Europe, as well as newspapers, mainly in France, Germany and Luxembourg.

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INDUSTRY & TRADE

German arms maker to hire workers from ailing auto firm

German weapons manufacturer Rheinmetall, whose business has boomed amid the Ukraine war, is set to hire workers from Continental as the auto supplier cuts thousands of jobs, the companies said on Friday.

German arms maker to hire workers from ailing auto firm

The defence group Rheinmetall has seen demand soar as countries rush to re-arm following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

It is setting up new factories and said in March it was targeting a record €10 billion in sales this year.

In contrast Continental, which makes tyres and supplies car components, is in the process of cutting over 7,000 jobs worldwide as it faces intense competition and the tricky switch to electric vehicles.

The companies said they had inked an agreement “to partly cover Rheinmetall’s fast-growing personnel requirements in the coming years with Continental employees affected by the transformation” in the auto sector.

As a first step, up to 100 employees from Continental’s Gifhorn plant in northern Germany, which is set to close in 2027, will get jobs with Rheinmetall at a nearby site, they said.

Events will be organised at other sites in Germany at which staff can find out about career opportunities at Rheinmetall.

Rheinmetall is the third company that Continental has signed up to its initiative to help staff find new jobs.

READ ALSO: EXPLAINED – Which German companies are planning to cut jobs?

“The profound changes in all industries can only be tackled together,” said Continental human resources boss Ariane Reinhart.

Peter Sebastian Krause, who oversees human resources at Rheinmetall, said Continental was an “excellent match” for the defence group.

Rheinmetall is expecting sales growth of up to 40 percent in the current financial year. Soaring demand means the company needs to hire staff quickly, at a time when Germany is suffering from shortages of skilled labour. 

In a country still haunted by post-War War II guilt, Germany’s weapons manufacturers were for years not the most celebrated firms.

Europe’s top economy preferred to highlight its well-known carmakers or industrial giants.

That has started changing since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, as demand for military equipment boosts the arms industry’s fortunes.

READ ALSO: What a Russian victory in Ukraine would mean for Germany

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