About Personalmagazin

Personalmagazin

Personalmagazin — "Impulse zur Gestaltung der Arbeitswelt" — is the monthly German specialist magazine for human-resources management, published by Haufe-Lexware in Freiburg im Breisgau since 1999. With 26,173 sold and 27,281 distributed copies (IVW IV/2025), it is considered the highest-circulation and bestselling specialist magazine in the German-speaking HR world, aimed at HR and management executives in companies and organisations. The publisher (Herausgeber) is Reiner Straub; the ISSN is 1438-4558. In 2020 the Deutsche Fachpresse named it "Fachmedium des Jahres" in the category "Best specialist journal over 2.5 million euros revenue." Every two years the redaction names the "40 führenden HR-Köpfe im Personalmanagement."

Overview

Personalmagazin is a German-language monthly specialist magazine for personnel management, published by Haufe-Lexware in Freiburg im Breisgau. The subtitle — "Impulse zur Gestaltung der Arbeitswelt" (impulses for shaping the working world) — is the editorial programme: the practical impulses for a future-proof working world, the analyses of current HR trends from independent perspectives, the reliable factual basis for better HR decisions. The readers: the HR and leadership executives in companies and organisations — from the corporations through the Mittelstand to the startups. The programme: the insights of top managers and experts with future-oriented practice projects, supplemented by current studies — the well-founded facts as the reliable basis for better decisions — with the focus on employee-oriented HR management, strengthening HR as the driving force of corporate leadership. The practice projects are the magazine's signature: the corporations', Mittelstand's and startups' HR innovations reported as the case studies — the recruiting campaigns, the onboarding programmes, the learning platforms, the feedback cultures — the readers learning from the peers. The top managers' and experts' insights — the CHROs' interviews, the consultants' analyses — give the practice the reflection. The current studies — the Haufe's own research, the universities' findings, the consultancies' surveys — give the practice the evidence: the facts as the reliable basis for the better HR decisions. The employee-oriented HR management — the focus on the employee experience, the work-life balance, the purpose — is the editorial line: the HR as the employees' advocate and the company's driver. The prices: the annual subscription 229 euros, the mini-subscription 39 euros. The print magazine has also appeared as a digital edition since 2014; the app was named "Fachmagazin des Jahres" in 2015 in the "Best e-paper" category.

History

Personalmagazin has appeared monthly at Haufe-Lexware in Freiburg since 1999 — over 25 years as the first address for HR trends and the shaping of the working world. The Haufe Group — the Freiburg specialist publisher for law, tax, HR and the digital working world — gave the magazine the house's HR competence: the Haufe Personal Office's specialist knowledge, the academy's continuing education, the software's practice. The Personal Office Gold bundle — the twelve magazine issues with the tablet app's animated graphics, exclusive videos and extras — integrates the journal into the software: the HR department's knowledge base including the magazine. The academy's 40-plus annual online seminars — the continuing education on the current topics — extend the magazine's journalism into the training: the editors' topics taught. The 2020 "Fachmedium des Jahres" award — the Deutsche Fachpresse's prize in the "Best specialist journal over 2.5 million euros revenue" category — confirmed the market leadership. The revenue threshold — the over-2.5-million category — places the magazine among the German specialist press's heavyweights: the B2B journals with the substantial subscription and advertising revenues. The digital edition since 2014 and the awarded app in 2015 modernised the print monthly. The scientific sibling Personal quarterly — the quarterly research journal publishing new HR-management research findings; its predecessor Personal sold by the Handelsblatt Fachmedien to the Haufe Group in 2011 and renamed — extends the brand into the science. The quarterly's double-blind peer review — the conceptual and empirical original contributions from the business, economics, psychology and sociology — is the academic rigour that the monthly's practice journalism complements: the research and the practice under the Haufe roof. The biennial "40 führenden HR-Köpfe" — the redaction's choice of the 40 leading HR heads in personnel management — is the industry's ranking ritual. The ranking's function: the HR profession's visibility — the CHROs and HR directors named, the careers celebrated, the role models presented. The selection — the redaction's judgement of the influence, the innovation, the impact — is the industry's honour: the 40 faces of the German HR. The publication — the portraits, the interviews, the laudations — is the magazine's event: the HR community reading about its leaders.

Coverage and Content

The magazine's programme is the working world's HR shaping. The practice projects: the top managers' and experts' future-oriented projects from corporations, Mittelstand and startups — the best practices reported. The trend analyses: the current HR trends — the new work, the talent management, the HR digitalisation, the employer branding, the diversity — analysed from independent perspectives. The studies: the current research — the facts as the reliable basis for the decisions. The labour law: the current case law — the HR manager's legal everyday. The interviews: the HR leaders' voices — the "40 führenden HR-Köpfe" and beyond. The books: the new HR literature. The Haufe Talent Management Gipfel — the 2015 summit asking "How will innovations develop and how can HR promote them?" with Google's Frank Kohl-Boas, Haufe-Umantis's Stephan Grabmeier, HR-Pioneers' André Häusling and Deutsche Bahn's Kerstin Wagner — shows the magazine's event journalism. The journalism is the HR specialist press's: inspiring, practical, independent — the impulses for the better working world.

Organization and Ownership

Personalmagazin is published by Haufe-Lexware GmbH & Co. KG in Freiburg im Breisgau — the Haufe Group's specialist publishing house. The Herausgeber is Reiner Straub. The commercial model is the specialist magazine's: the subscriptions — 229 euros annually, the 39-euro mini-subscription — the HR industry's advertising — the HR software vendors, the consultancies, the continuing-education providers — the Haufe Personal Office Gold's bundled twelve issues ("Deutschlands meistgelesenem Fachmagazin im Personalwesen" with the tablet app's animated graphics, exclusive videos and extras), and the events. The ISSN is 1438-4558. The 26,173 sold and 27,281 distributed copies (IVW IV/2025) are the audited currency. The "Fachmedium des Jahres" 2020 and the app's 2015 e-paper prize are the external validations. Detailed editorial-staff information beyond the Herausgeber is not publicly confirmed in the sources available.

Digital Presence

The magazine's home is haufe.de/personal — the Haufe HR portal with the magazine's articles, the dossiers, the studies, the subscriptions. The digital edition since 2014 and the awarded app — the tablet reading with animated graphics, exclusive videos and extras — carry the monthly into the digital. The YouTube videos — the Talent Management Gipfel's expert answers — extend the print into the moving image. The Haufe shop (shop.haufe.de) sells the subscriptions: the annual and the mini. In the German HR-media landscape Personalmagazin occupies the market-leader pole: alongside the Personalwirtschaft (F.A.Z. Business Media, since 1974), the Personalführung (DGFP, since 1968) and the scientific Personal quarterly, the Freiburg monthly is Germany's most-read HR specialist magazine — 26,173 sold copies, the "Fachmedium des Jahres," the "40 HR-Köpfe" — monthly in print and digital, for the HR executives shaping the working world. The market leadership — the highest-circulation and bestselling HR specialist magazine in the German-speaking world — is the audited fact: the 26,173 sold copies against the competitors' smaller circulations. The Haufe house's HR ecosystem — the magazine, the Personal Office software, the academy's seminars, the Talent Management Gipfel — is the competitive moat: the HR executive living in the Haufe world, the magazine as its journalistic voice.