About Produktion

Produktion

Produktion is the German-language trade newspaper for the manufacturing industry — the Fachzeitung for production managers, purchasers, design engineers and executives in the German industry. Founded in 1962 by the Verlag moderne Industrie (founded 1952 in Munich by the business journalists Wolfgang Dummer and Norbert Müller), it is published in Landsberg am Lech — today under the house's mi-connect brand. The publisher: the Verlag moderne Industrie GmbH, Landsberg am Lech (managing director: Moritz Warth; publishing director: Stefan Waldeisen) — since 1993 owned by the Süddeutscher Verlag; the house employs around 110 people and publishes ten trade journals. The actual circulation: 18,224 copies — the machinery and equipment sector alone accounting for 35.3 percent of recipients. The digital editor-in-chief: Stefan Weinzierl (since 2022). The portal: produktion.de — with current September 2026 industry news.

Overview

Produktion is a German-language trade newspaper for the manufacturing industry, published by the Verlag moderne Industrie GmbH (mi-connect) in Landsberg am Lech. The audience: the decision-makers in production and procurement — the purchasing (46.7 percent of recipients), the design engineering (18.9 percent), the production (16.8 percent), the business management (15.6 percent) — in companies from 1 to over 1,000 employees. The purchasers — the technical and strategic buyers, nearly half the readership — read Produktion as the sourcing intelligence: the suppliers, the prices, the technologies. The design engineers read the product news: the machines, the tools, the materials. The production managers — the CTOs, the maintenance, the production preparation — read the operations: the processes, the efficiency. The business managers — the owners, the executives, the directors — read the economy: the forecasts, the strategies. The company sizes — 51.3 percent with 1–99 employees — show the Mittelstand's weight: the small and medium manufacturers as the core audience. The sector split: manufacture of machinery and equipment 35.3 percent (6,430 recipients), fabricated metal products 18.1 percent (3,293), basic metals 5.5 percent, rubber and plastics 7.2 percent, motor vehicles and transport equipment 7.6 percent, chemicals 4.7 percent. The programme: the industry's current news — the September 2026 headlines: the 2.2 percent July drop in German industrial production, the high level of major insolvencies in automotive and mechanical engineering, Volkswagen's "Zukunftsplan 2030" (50,000 jobs), the VDMA's demands for building-sector funding policy, the DIW's raised forecast — the industry's September 2026 in headlines. The actual circulation (TAC): 18,224 copies — the audited B2B reach, the advertisers' verified audience. The sister titles: Technik & Einkauf, IDT, Fertigung, Fluid — the house's portfolio: the purchasing, the drive technology, the manufacturing, the fluid power.

History

Produktion's history is the Verlag moderne Industrie's founding story. The publishing house was founded in 1952 by the business journalists Wolfgang Dummer and Norbert Müller in Munich as a book publisher. The 1952 founding's context — the Wirtschaftswunder's hunger for business literature — gave the house its start: the Munich business journalists' book venture. In 1962 the company founded the trade newspaper Produktion — the manufacturing industry's own paper — followed in the subsequent decades by further trade titles in manufacturing, metalworking and operations technology. The 1962 founding's timing — the Wirtschaftswunder's industrial peak — created the newspaper's market: the factories' managers needing their own press. The Hannover outpost — the six-employee order-information service Industryleads — extended the house's B2B services. In 1993 the Süddeutscher Verlag acquired all shares in the Verlag moderne Industrie. The 1993 acquisition — the Munich newspaper group's industrial-media expansion — gave the house the corporate backing: the Süddeutsche Zeitung's publishing group behind the trade journals. In 2004 and 2005 the book and loose-leaf business was sold to the group sister Verlagsgruppe Hüthig Jehle Rehm and to the Münchner Verlagsgruppe; the book and magazine distribution was sold to Rhenus Medien Logistik in 2005. The 2004/2005 divestments — the book business's sale, the logistics' outsourcing — focused the house: the trade-journal business as the core, the ten titles as the portfolio. Since then the company's core business has been the trade-journal business — ten trade journals by the house's own account, with headquarters in Landsberg am Lech and around 110 employees (16 million euros revenue, 2012). The house's digital brand: mi-connect (mi-connect.de). The digital editor-in-chief: Stefan Weinzierl — the trained electrician turned Münchner Merkur volunteer, mi-connect editor for "Instandhaltung", Chef vom Dienst at Produktion, advanced to Chefredakteur Digital in 2022. The Weinzierl biography — the electrician's apprenticeship, the journalism's traineeship — is the trade press's ideal: the craft understood, the writing learned. The 2022 advancement — the digital chief editorship — signals the house's priority: the online formats' leadership.

Coverage and Content

The newspaper's programme is the manufacturing industry's current affairs. The economy: the industrial production's monthly figures, the insolvencies, the forecasts (DIW, Bundesbank). The companies: the appointments (Armin Küper succeeding Klaus Kasper as COO at Pferd Tools), the strategies (Volkswagen's 2030 future plan). The associations: the VDMA's policy demands. The technology: the production engineering — the machines, the tools, the processes. The portal produktion.de carries the daily news with author pages (Stefan Weinzierl's September 2026 articles) and topic tags (Wirtschaft). The journalism is the industrial trade press's: the factual, the data-driven, the practice-oriented — the production managers' newspaper, the "Brückenbauer zwischen Maschinenhalle und Managementetage" (bridge-builder between the machine hall and the management floor), from the 1962 founding to the current portal.

Organization and Ownership

Produktion is published by the Verlag moderne Industrie GmbH (mi-connect), Justus-von-Liebig-Strasse 1, D-86899 Landsberg am Lech. The managing director: Moritz Warth; the publishing director (Verlagsleiter): Stefan Waldeisen. The owner: the Süddeutscher Verlag (since 1993). The digital editor-in-chief: Stefan Weinzierl (since 2022) — steering the online content of Produktion, Technik & Einkauf, IDT, Fertigung and Fluid. The house: over 100 employees (110 per the house's data), ten trade journals, internet portals, congresses and seminars — mainly for executives and engineers in the German industry. The commercial model is the B2B industrial media's: the subscriptions, the industry's advertising, the congresses and seminars, the address rental. The subscriptions — the 18,224-copy actual circulation — reach the industry's decision-makers: the purchasers, the engineers, the managers. The industry's advertising — the machine builders, the tool makers, the component suppliers — monetises the investment-goods audience: the advertisers' access to the buyers. The congresses and seminars — the house's events — monetise the expertise: the participants' fees. The address rental — the recipient database — monetises the reach: the direct marketers' targeting. Current print staffing beyond the above is not publicly confirmed in the sources available — the Landsberg house's discretion.

Digital Presence

Produktion's portal is produktion.de — the daily industry news, the author pages, the topic tags — the newspaper's digital edition, the industry's morning read. The house's portal mi-connect.de carries the media data and the title portfolio. The newsletters and specials: the online formats for decision-makers in production and procurement. In the German industrial trade-press landscape Produktion occupies the manufacturing-newspaper pole: the 1962-founded Landsberg title — the 18,224-copy circulation, the Süddeutscher Verlag ownership, the mi-connect digital brand — on produktion.de, the manufacturing industry's trade newspaper, Landsberg's industrial voice since 1962, the Mittelstand's newspaper, the machine hall's morning read, the management's briefing, the industry's chronicle since 1962, still the Fachzeitung, still indispensable, daily online, the newspaper's digital pulse, the industry's heartbeat, the Mittelstand's voice. The manufacturing-newspaper positioning — the Fachzeitung against the Fachzeitschriften — is the title's format: the newspaper's currency, the industry's daily bread. The Süddeutscher Verlag's ownership — the Munich group's industrial media — is the title's backing: the corporate publishing power. The mi-connect brand — the house's digital identity — is the title's future: the online formats' growth.