About Automobilwoche

Automobilwoche

Automobilwoche is the German B2B automotive industry and business newspaper, published in Munich as part of the Crain Communications' Automotive News Group. Founded in 2001 and distributed twice monthly on Mondays with a circulation of approximately 15,000 copies, it addresses the decision-makers at car manufacturers, suppliers and in the car trade — the executives who run the German automotive industry, from Wolfsburg and Munich to Stuttgart and the supplier heartlands. It describes itself as Germany's most-cited industry medium: the exclusive information advantage it delivers in print and digital form, on the rapid transformation through digitalization, electrification, autonomous driving and new forms of individual mobility that is changing the entire value chain in automotive manufacturing and distribution. As the German member of the Automotive News family — alongside Automotive News, Automotive News Europe and Automotive News China — it brings the global automotive group's reporting power to the German industry's executives, complemented by its own Automobilwoche Konferenz.

Overview

The German automotive industry's executives operate in one of the world's most competitive and most scrutinized business environments: the transformation to electric mobility, the software-defined vehicle, the Chinese manufacturers' European offensive, the supply-chain restructurings, and the political regulation from Berlin and Brussels. Automobilwoche serves this world as the "Branchen- und Wirtschaftszeitung" — the industry and business newspaper — with a program built around the exclusive: the scoops, the background analyses, and the executive interviews that give decision-makers their information advantage. Where the general business press covers the automotive industry as one sector among many, Automobilwoche covers it as the only subject — with the depth, the sources and the industry access that the specialist commands.

The editorial mix follows the industry's executive agenda. The news coverage delivers the industry's developments: the OEM strategies, the supplier deals, the management changes, the plant decisions, and the policy developments — reported with the speed the twice-monthly Monday rhythm and the digital channels allow. The background analyses dissect the transformation: the electrification economics, the battery strategies, the software architectures, the autonomous-driving timelines, and the new mobility business models. The executive interviews give the industry's leaders — the CEOs, the board members, the supplier chiefs — space to explain their strategies. The data and rankings provide the industry's benchmarks. The Automobilwoche Konferenz extends the brand into the physical: the industry's executives gathering for the conference program.

History

Automobilwoche was founded in 2001, in the decade when the German automotive industry's globalization accelerated: the DaimlerChrysler era, the supplier industry's internationalization, and the first wave of automotive digitalization created the executive information market the title would serve. Established as the German member of the Crain Communications' Automotive News Group — the Detroit-based publishing group whose Automotive News (founded 1925) is the American industry's trade newspaper — Automobilwoche brought the group's automotive journalism model to the German market: the industry-exclusive reporting, the executive focus, and the conference business.

The title's development tracks the German automotive industry's transformations: the 2000s premium boom and globalization, the financial crisis's industry rescue, the 2010s diesel crisis and the electrification turn, and the 2020s disruption — the software-defined vehicle, the Chinese competition, the supply-chain crises, and the political battles over the combustion-engine phase-out that have divided the industry's boardrooms. Through these changes, the Munich operation (with its team of around 29 employees) maintained the title's positioning: the industry and business newspaper for the decision-makers, the most-cited German industry medium. The digital transformation added the automobilwoche.de portal's continuous news flow, the newsletters, and the digital editions — while the twice-monthly Monday print rhythm remained the brand's anchor: the newspaper the industry's executives read at the week's start. The Automotive News Group's global network — the Detroit, European and Chinese newsrooms — gives the German title the international reporting depth its globalized industry requires.

Coverage and Content

Each issue's program follows the automotive industry's executive agenda. The news coverage delivers the industry's developments with the exclusive emphasis: the OEM boardroom decisions, the supplier industry's deals and restructurings, the management appointments and departures, the plant and investment decisions, and the political regulation — from the EU's CO2 fleet targets to the German industrial policy. The background pieces analyze the transformation's economics: the electrification's cost structures, the battery value chain, the software-defined vehicle's business models, and the autonomous-driving commercialization timelines.

The executive interviews are the title's signature: the conversations with the industry's leaders — the manufacturer CEOs, the supplier chiefs, the trade's executives — in which strategies are explained and positions staked, and which the general business press then quotes: the most-cited industry medium's citation circuit. The data journalism provides the benchmarks: the production figures, the market data, and the rankings the industry uses. The opinion and commentary give the industry's debates their forum. The conference coverage — the Automobilwoche Konferenz and the industry's other gatherings — documents the executive community's physical meetings. The digital channels extend the coverage between the Monday issues: the portal's breaking news, the newsletters' curated selection, and the analyses the transformation's pace demands — the executive briefing that reaches the smartphone before the board meeting starts.

Organization and Ownership

Automobilwoche is published in Munich as part of Crain Communications Inc.'s Automotive News Group — the Detroit-based publishing group (1155 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit) whose automotive portfolio includes Automotive News, Automotive News Europe, Automotive News China and the German Automobilwoche. The Munich team of around 29 employees operates the German title within the group's international newsroom network, giving it access to the Detroit, European and Asian reporting — the global newsgathering behind the German industry's most-cited medium. The group's chairman Keith E. Crain's automotive publishing tradition — the family-owned Crain Communications' industry-journalism model — shapes the title's editorial culture: the industry-exclusive, executive-focused reporting.

Commercially, Automobilwoche follows the B2B industry-press model: subscriptions from the automotive industry's companies (the executive readership of manufacturers, suppliers and the car trade, whose employers pay for the information advantage), advertising from the industry's suppliers and service providers — the companies whose customers are the industry's decision-makers — plus the conference revenues from the Automobilwoche Konferenz. The audience — the decision-makers at OEMs, suppliers and in the car trade — is the German automotive industry's concentrated executive readership, the most-cited industry medium's community. The twice-monthly Monday distribution (circulation ~15,000) structures the industry's executive week.

Digital Presence

The brand's digital home is automobilwoche.de, carrying the continuous industry news flow, the issue presentations, and the digital editions — the always-on extension of the twice-monthly Monday newspaper. The portal's news sections deliver the automotive industry's developments with the digital speed the transformation demands: the breaking OEM and supplier news, the management changes, and the policy updates, updated through the publishing week. The newsletters bring the curated executive selection to the inboxes.

On social media — including the LinkedIn presence with its 84,000+ followers — the brand maintains the industry's professional conversation: the news distribution, the executive-interview highlights, and the conference coverage. The Automobilwoche Konferenz extends the brand into the physical: the industry's executive gathering. After more than two decades — from the 2001 founding through the industry's transformations to today's disruption era — Automobilwoche operates as the German automotive executives' media platform: the twice-monthly newspaper for the curated exclusive reading, the portal and newsletters for the continuous news flow, and the conference for the physical gathering — the industry and business newspaper for the decision-makers, in print, online and in person, every Monday, year after year.