About MEEDIA

MEEDIA

MEEDIA is a German-language media industry news service, published at meedia.de. Online since July 14, 2008, it reports on the media, advertising, and communications industries — publishing houses, broadcasters, agencies, platforms, and the people who run them. The brand belongs to the Salzburg-based Medienfachverlag Johann Oberauer GmbH, which acquired it at the turn of 2023/2024 from the insolvent BG Germany GmbH. Its readership consists of media professionals: managers, journalists, and marketers in the media and advertising industries who follow their own sector's business news. In the German media-trade press, MEEDIA holds the position of the industry's daily news service — faster and more business-oriented than the profession's magazines, and one of the longest-running digital-native media brands in the German-speaking market.

Overview

MEEDIA presents itself as a Branchendienst zu Medienthemen — an industry service for media topics, published in German. Its editorial program covers the business of media: publishing houses and their strategies, broadcasters and streaming services, agencies and the advertising market, platforms and technology, and the personnel changes — appointments, departures, restructurings — through which the industry's power structures become visible. Newsletters distribute the reporting to a professional subscriber base; the publisher reported around 30,000 newsletter subscribers in 2024.

The readership is the media industry itself: executives and managers at publishers, broadcasters, and agencies, journalists covering the media beat, and marketing and communications professionals. The outlet's reach figures illustrate its standing: in 2011 the publisher reported 1.58 million visits and 3.47 million page impressions; by its own account MEEDIA reached 265,000 unique users monthly in 2023 with around 35,000 newsletter subscribers; in May 2024, after the ownership change, the publisher reported 117,000 unique visitors and 30,000 newsletter subscribers.

The brand's recent history has been turbulent — insolvency of its previous owner, acquisition by the Oberauer media specialist publishing house, and the death of its editor-in-chief Gregory Lipinski in October 2024 — but the outlet continues to operate as the Oberauer group's media-industry news service, alongside the group's other trade titles such as medium magazin, kress, and PR Report.

History

The website went online on July 14, 2008, with Dirk Manthey — the founder of the Verlagsgruppe Milchstrasse — as publisher and Georg Altrogge as editor-in-chief. MEEDIA began as a Hamburg-based digital-native media service, part of the wave of online industry journalism that accompanied the digitalization of the German media business. Altrogge left the post at the end of February 2013; he was succeeded in mid-May 2013 by Christian Meier, who moved to the daily Die Welt in 2014.

On April 1, 2013, Manthey sold MEEDIA to the Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt, placing the young brand within one of Germany's leading business-publishing houses. On February 1, 2019, MEEDIA was sold again — this time to BG Germany, formerly G+J Entertainment Media. Under managing director Timo Busch, MEEDIA was repositioned: Busch brought in Matthias Oden as editor-in-chief, moved the editorial seat from Hamburg to Munich, launched a weekly print magazine of the same name, and introduced a paywall in May 2020. After Oden's departure, Busch took over the editorship himself at the end of 2020; from 2021 to June 2023 Stefan Winterbauer served as editor-in-chief.

In July 2023 the previous owner BG Germany filed for insolvency. At the turn of 2023/2024 the Salzburg-based Medienfachverlag Johann Oberauer GmbH acquired the MEEDIA brand from the insolvent company, with the editorial team moving to Oberauer as well. The acquisition also secured the long-term continuation of BG Germany's sister titles Blickpunkt:Film, Digital Production, GamesMarkt, and MusikWoche. Under Oberauer — led by managing directors Dagny and Verena Oberauer — MEEDIA was placed on a secure economic footing, with editor-in-chief Gregory Lipinski leading the experienced team until his death in October 2024.

Coverage and Content

The editorial coverage of MEEDIA follows the business of the media and advertising industries. Publishing houses form a standing focus: strategies, mergers, circulation and reach developments, and the digital transformation of newspaper and magazine publishers. Broadcasting coverage addresses public-service and private broadcasters, streaming services, and the regulatory framework of the dual broadcasting system. The agency and advertising market — media agencies, creative agencies, and the advertising economy's cycles — is covered as the industry's commercial engine.

Personnel reporting is the outlet's signature: appointments, departures, and restructurings in the leadership of publishers, broadcasters, and agencies, reported with the speed of a news service. Platform and technology topics — from social networks to artificial intelligence in media production — round out the mix, alongside the marketing and advertising topics that the Oberauer acquisition explicitly targeted as the group's entry into the marketing and advertising segment.

The weekly print magazine launched under Timo Busch extended the brand into print, and the May 2020 paywall marked the shift toward reader revenue. Under the Oberauer ownership, the outlet continues as a digital news service with newsletters as a central distribution channel, serving the media industry's professionals with business news about their own sector. The acquisition's strategic logic — giving the Austrian specialist publisher an entry into marketing and advertising coverage — positions MEEDIA as the group's bridge between media journalism and the advertising business.

Organization and Ownership

MEEDIA is operated by the Medienfachverlag Johann Oberauer GmbH of Salzburg, Austria — the media specialist publishing house behind medium magazin, kress, PR Report, and the European Publishing Congress, led by managing directors Dagny and Verena Oberauer. The publishing house acquired the MEEDIA brand at the turn of 2023/2024 from the insolvent BG Germany GmbH, with the editorial team transferring to Oberauer. The last editor-in-chief before the acquisition era's end was Gregory Lipinski, who led the editorial team until his death in October 2024.

The brand's ownership history reflects the consolidation of German media-trade publishing: founded 2008 by Dirk Manthey (Verlagsgruppe Milchstrasse), sold April 2013 to the Verlagsgruppe Handelsblatt, sold February 2019 to BG Germany (formerly G+J Entertainment Media), insolvency of BG Germany in July 2023, acquisition by the Oberauer publishing house at the turn of 2023/2024. The editorial seat moved over the years from Hamburg to Munich under Busch and now operates within the Oberauer group structure.

Reach and subscriber figures are reported by the publisher: 117,000 unique visitors and 30,000 newsletter subscribers as of May 2024. The commercial model combines digital advertising with the newsletter business and — since the 2020 paywall introduction — reader revenue, positioning MEEDIA as the Oberauer group's subscription-capable news service for the media and advertising industries.

Digital Presence

The outlet's digital home is meedia.de, where the news service publishes its industry reporting on a rolling basis. The site's newsroom-speed coverage of the media business — appointments, deals, strategies, and market developments — is distributed through newsletters that reach around 30,000 subscribers, making the newsletter one of the brand's central products alongside the website.

The outlet maintains a presence on the professional social networks where its media-industry audience is active, distributing news and engaging with the community of media professionals. Within the Oberauer group's digital infrastructure, MEEDIA sits alongside the group's other media-trade titles — medium magazin, kress, PR Report, Newsroom.de — forming a portfolio of specialist journalism about journalism and media. The brand's digital continuity through insolvency and acquisition testifies to its established position: for more than fifteen years, MEEDIA has been the German media industry's daily mirror, and under the Salzburg publishing house it continues that role with the backing of a specialist publisher whose core business is media-trade journalism itself.