About Chip

Chip

Chip is one of Germany's oldest and largest computer magazines, first published in September 1978 and based in Munich. For more than 45 years it has served the computer-interested reader with tests, buying advice, practical workshops and the famous download portal — growing from a print magazine into one of the most-visited German-language media portals, CHIP Online at chip.de. In April 2024 the print magazines Chip and Chip Foto-Video were licensed to the newly founded Five Monkeys Media, while the online platform remained with BurdaForward. The print title is led by editor-in-chief Benjamin Lorenz (since 2024); editorial responsibility for chip.de lies with editor-in-chief Manuel Schreiber.

Overview

Chip appears as a monthly print magazine and as the daily digital portal chip.de. The print magazine's formula — comprehensive tests of hardware and software, buying guides, practical workshops and the DVD supplement with software — made it the market leader of the German computer press for decades. The online portal extends the brand into daily technology journalism: hardware and software tests, price comparisons, downloads and community features, reaching millions of users.

The brand's identity is practical and reader-oriented: Chip addresses the computer user who wants to buy wisely, use effectively and solve problems — less the professional of c't or iX, more the engaged consumer who expects the magazine to do the testing work for them. The Chip test centre, led by Reinhard Scholl, is the institutional core of this promise.

History

Chip was launched in September 1978 — among the first German-language computer magazines, appearing at the dawn of the microcomputer era. Through the home-computer boom of the 1980s, the PC's conquest of the 1990s and the internet revolution, Chip grew into Germany's largest computer magazine, with average monthly sales exceeding 400,000 copies in the mid-2000s. The magazine's test expertise, its buying guides and its software DVD made it the indispensable companion of the German computer buyer.

The digital transformation brought CHIP Online, operated from 2002 with its own editorial team by Chip Digital GmbH — acquired by Hubert Burda Media in October 2007 — which grew into one of the most-visited German-language portals with its tests, price comparisons and the famous download area. In 2009 the mobile portal Xonio was integrated; in 2013 Chip Xonio Online GmbH was renamed Chip Digital GmbH; and in 2021 the company was merged with other Burda digital businesses — including Focus Online, Bunte.de, TVSpielfilm.de and Fit for Fun — into BurdaForward GmbH.

In April 2024 BurdaForward transferred the licence for the print magazines Chip and Chip Foto-Video to Five Monkeys Media — a joint venture of the Kouneli Holding (publisher of the German Playboy and Sports Illustrated) and New C GmbH, led by managing partner Andreas Laube — while chip.de remained with BurdaForward. The print and online businesses continue to cooperate closely, including on the product tests from the Chip test centre, which stayed with Burda.

The Five Monkeys Media construction is characteristic of the German magazine market's adaptation strategies. Kouneli Holding — the publisher behind the German editions of Playboy and Sports Illustrated — brought the men's-lifestyle publishing expertise and the new-company energy; New C GmbH, which had already been editorially responsible for Chip Foto-Video for several years, brought the title-specific know-how; and Andreas Laube's move from BurdaForward to managing partner ensured continuity of the brand's publishing relationships. Eleven employees were affected by the transition, with negotiations over their remaining with BurdaForward or individual solutions — the human dimension of the print-to-licence restructuring.

Content

The monthly print magazine leads with tests: hardware — PCs, notebooks, smartphones, components, peripherals — tested in the Chip test centre with measurements and comparative verdicts, and software tested for function and value. Buying guides translate the test results into recommendations for every budget and need, and the practical workshops teach readers to get more from their systems — Windows tuning, smartphone tricks, smart-home setups, security hardening.

The DVD supplement, long a signature of the print edition, delivers software, tools and the magazine's archives. Special editions — Chip Test & Kauf, Chip Linux, Chip Foto-Video — serve the specialist interests within the readership. The online portal's content mirrors the magazine's pillars with daily currency: news, tests, price comparisons, downloads and the buying guides that answer the consumer's immediate questions.

The brand has faced criticism over the years — notably over the "Chip Installer" offered with software downloads, which users complained could distribute potentially unwanted programmes, and over a partnership with a support-hotline provider that was removed after public criticism — episodes the brand has addressed while maintaining its market position.

Coverage & Audience

The print Chip is sold throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland at newsstands and by subscription, appearing monthly, and chip.de is one of the most-visited German-language media portals. The readership is the computer-interested consumer: buyers researching their next PC or smartphone, users seeking practical help, and the broad mainstream of technology users who want competent guidance without specialist jargon.

The portal's reach extends far beyond the print circulation, making Chip one of the most influential consumer-technology brands in the German language. Its test verdicts and buying guides shape purchase decisions across the German-speaking market, and its download portal has been a fixture of German internet culture for two decades. The famous Chip download area — the software library where generations of German users fetched their tools, drivers and freeware — is among the longest-running institutions of the German web, its best-of lists and editorial selections guiding users through the software jungle with the same practical spirit as the print magazine's buying guides.

Ownership

The Chip brand's ownership reflects the restructuring of German media: the online platform chip.de is operated by BurdaForward GmbH, the digital publishing arm of Hubert Burda Media, while the print magazines Chip and Chip Foto-Video have been published under licence since April 2024 by Five Monkeys Media — the joint venture of Kouneli Holding GmbH and New C GmbH led by Andreas Laube. The Chip test centre remains with Burda, supplying both businesses.

Hubert Burda Media — the Offenburg- and Munich-based media group behind Focus, Bunte, Superillu and a portfolio of digital businesses — has owned the Chip digital business outright since 2007. The licensing arrangement for print preserves the magazine's continuity while focusing BurdaForward on the digital platform.

Digital Presence

chip.de is the brand's digital flagship and one of Germany's most-visited websites: daily technology news, hardware and software tests from the Chip test centre, price comparisons, the download portal and community features. The site's buying guides and test verdicts are among its most-used content, serving the consumer's purchase journey from research to decision.

The Chip app and social media channels extend the brand's practical journalism to mobile users, with the download portal and the test content adapted for the smartphone. The monthly print magazine remains the home of the comprehensive test and the definitive buying guide; the digital portal provides the daily news, the price comparison and the download. For the German computer consumer, Chip remains what it has been since 1978: the practical guide to the digital world.

The Five Monkeys Media licensing — since April 2024, the joint venture of Kouneli Holding and New C GmbH under Andreas Laube — continues the print magazines with the specialist's focus: the lower overheads, the closer scene proximity, the brand's heritage preserved. The BurdaForward digital home — chip.de with the test centre's expertise — maintains the online authority: the daily tests, the buying guides, the download portal that is among the German web's longest-running institutions. The 1978 founding — the September launch in Munich, the Vogel-Verlag origins — is the institutional memory: the computer magazine that accompanied the PC from its infancy. The test centre — the laboratories, the measurement protocols, the comparative verdicts — is the methodology's home: the independence that the readers trust, the data that the buying decisions follow. In the German consumer-technology press, Chip is the veteran: the brand that taught Germany to buy computers, and that continues to serve the digital consumer across the print and pixel divide — the September 1978 promise, kept.