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Film und Medien Stiftung NRW➝Media Region NRW➝Media Branches NRW➝Publishers / Newspapers

Publishers / Newspapers

Major names characterize the well-established publishing landscape in North Rhine-Westphalia. Traditional newspaper publishing houses like Funke, DuMont, Handelsblatt & Co. have since become diversified content enterprises with numerous digital services. Moreover, NRW is home to a quarter of all book publishers in Germany and also occupies a leading position for the bookshops. NRW can name Germany’s largest media concern and a real global player its own with Bertelsmann based in the East Westphalian town of Gütersloh. The Journalismus Lab of the Landesanstalt für Medien NRW is committed to strengthening and diversifying journalism in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Facts and figures

  • five of Germany’s largest newspaper groups all based in NRW: Funke Media Group, Handelsblatt Media Group, Ippen Group, Rheinische Post Media Group, DuMont Media Group
  • 40 daily newspapers with a circulation of more than 1.85 million copies
  • 10.8 million people use the newspapers’ digital content each day
  • highest concentration of publishers with 345 companies
  • 670 bookshops
  • Bertelsmann Printing Group: Europe’s largest network of printing plants
  • in a national comparison, NRW’s book publishers generate the largest turnover in Germany with 6.8 billion euros
  • lit.Cologne: back as a physical event in Cologne
  • drupa: the world’s largest trade fair for print and cross-media solutions

More information:

Publishers in NRW

Johannes Werle
Chairman of the Board of Management, Rheinische Post Media Group
The strength of North Rhine-Westphalia lies in its incredibly exciting diversity. Our investmenr in Bonn's General-Anzeiger is a clear commitment to our NRW location. We will actively shape this in print and digital form.
Christian DuMont Schütte
Chairman of the media group DuMont Schauberg
NRW stands out because it is the place with the greatest diversity of newspapers among the large-area German states. 40 daily papers with a circulation of 2.2 million copies are published here.
Sabine Cramer
Managing Director Publishing DuMont Buchverlag
I know no other city where people have so much pleasure in talking with one another and at such length and where one can make contacts so quickly as in Cologne. Where could be a better place to produce books which are, above all, one thing - communication?
Hejo Emons
Founder and Publisher Emons Verlag
You'd think that the writers are in Berlin, the bestsellers are produced in Munich, and the hard publishing work is done in NRW. But Bastei-Lübbe can also produce bestsellers and it was, after all, from Cologne that the regional crime novel developed into fiction's most successful segment at the moment.