About t3n

t3n

t3n is the magazine and platform for the digital future: a Hannover-based media brand that covers current developments and trends in the digital economy and society online and in a quarterly print magazine. Founded in 2005 behind the publisher Yeebase Media, the brand has traced a steep growth curve and counts today among the highest-reach B2B platforms of the German digital industry. The editorial team delivers practical, relevant content for a distinctive and engaged community of digital pioneers, and the offering extends beyond journalism into directory services for jobs, events, and companies, media sales solutions, and premium knowledge products. The online platform reports more than 8.6 million monthly visits, the print edition has a distributed circulation of 31,400 copies, and more than 700,000 people follow t3n on social networks.

Overview

t3n describes itself as the magazine for digital business and the platform for digital pioneers. Its core is a newsroom in Hannover that produces daily online coverage of the digital economy, from startups and software to artificial intelligence, e-commerce, marketing, and the future of work, complemented by a quarterly print magazine that takes a deeper, more reflective look at the trends shaping the digital society. The audience is the German-speaking digital industry: founders, developers, marketers, managers, and technology professionals who want to build broad knowledge of digital trends and developments.

What distinguishes t3n from a conventional trade publication is its platform character. Alongside editorial content, the brand operates directory services for jobs, events, and companies, sells media and advertising solutions, and offers premium knowledge products under the t3n Pro label. The online platform at t3n.de is the largest German-language B2B offering for the digital industry by reach, and the brand's self-description, "positive, practical, nerdy, and bold," captures its confident, approachable, and humorous tone, with the mission of helping digital pioneers shape the future positively. The company behind the brand, Yeebase Media GmbH, is based in Hannover, and since December 2021 it has been wholly owned by the Heise Group, remaining an independent company with its own brand presence.

History

t3n was founded in 2005 in Hannover by Andreas Lenz and Jan Christe, emerging from the Web 2.0 and open-source scene that the Yeebase Media publishing house had grown out of. In its early years the magazine covered the open-source and web-technology world, and it grew steadily beneath the radar of the larger media houses, building a loyal community of readers who identified with the "digital pioneers" label the brand cultivated. Over the years the editorial scope widened from its technical roots to the full breadth of the digital economy, and the company evolved from a magazine publisher into a platform business.

A decisive milestone came on 15 December 2021, when Heise Medien GmbH and Co. KG acquired 100 percent of the shares of Yeebase Media GmbH, making t3n part of the Heise Group, the Hannover media house behind heise online, c't, and iX. Heise described t3n as one of the most successful German media startups, noting that it had just completed the best year in its company history in economic terms. The acquisition was presented as a partnership of equals: t3n would remain an independent company with its own brand presence, the Hannover location, the staff, and the management would stay unchanged, and the founders' entrepreneurial character would be preserved. Ansgar Heise, the managing partner of the Heise Group, called t3n "a true partner of the heart," emphasizing the long-standing mutual respect between the two Hannover companies, while co-founder Andreas Lenz stressed that t3n would keep the character of a self-confident indie brand, continuing its path from publisher to platform for digital pioneers with the support of the Heise Group.

The years since the acquisition have seen t3n consolidate its position as the central meeting point for the German digital industry. The brand's community metrics underline its scale: more than 8.6 million monthly visits to the online platform, over half of them from unique users, a distributed print circulation of 31,400 copies, more than 700,000 followers across social networks, and a newsletter with around 170,000 subscribers.

Coverage and Content

t3n's editorial coverage spans the digital economy in the round. The online newsroom reports daily on startups and venture capital, software and apps, artificial intelligence and data, e-commerce, digital marketing, cybersecurity, and the changing world of work, with an emphasis on practical value: how-to guides, tool comparisons, and explainers that help readers apply new technologies in their professional lives. The quarterly print magazine takes a slower, more curated approach, dedicating each issue to the trends and questions that will shape the digital future, with long-form features, interviews, and analysis.

The brand has developed signature editorial formats. One of the best known is its list of "20 digital pioneers under 20," presented in the magazine's 2016 edition, which introduced twenty young talents under the age of twenty with their ideas and demands on the working world, from a fifteen-year-old who built an eye-controlled wheelchair system with a classmate to young founders rethinking communication and business. The format captures t3n's optimistic, forward-looking editorial stance: the future is being built by the young, the transparent, and the digital.

Beyond journalism, t3n's content strategy includes the directory services that make the platform a practical tool for its community: job listings for the digital industry, event calendars, and company directories that help readers navigate careers and business relationships. The t3n Pro premium offering adds deeper knowledge products, and the media sales arm sells advertising and content solutions to companies that want to reach the digital-pioneer audience. The newsletter, with its roughly 170,000 subscribers, is one of the most-read daily briefings of the German digital scene.

Organization and Ownership

The company behind t3n is Yeebase Media GmbH, registered at the Hannover district court and headquartered in Hannover, at Karl-Wiechert-Allee 10 in the 30625 district. The managing directors are Jörg Mugke and Tobias Schäffer. Since December 2021 the company has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Heise Medien GmbH and Co. KG, the Hannover media group behind heise online, c't, iX, and other technology publications. The acquisition left t3n's independence intact: it operates as a standalone company with its own brand presence, its own editorial leadership, and its Hannover base, with the founders' entrepreneurial culture preserved.

The editorial leadership is documented in the company's imprint: the editors-in-chief are Marcel Romahn and Luca Caracciolo, with Caracciolo also serving as chief content officer, and Romahn named as the person responsible for content under German media law. The founders, Andreas Lenz and Jan Christe, remained connected to the company after the acquisition, with Lenz moving from CEO to a new role and Christe continuing as a management advisor. Financial details of the company's operations are not publicly confirmed beyond the reach and circulation figures the brand publishes about itself.

Digital Presence

t3n is first and foremost a digital brand. The online platform at t3n.de is the heart of the operation, publishing daily news, guides, and analysis and hosting the job, event, and company directories. The site draws more than 8.6 million visits per month, more than half from unique users, making it one of the highest-reach B2B platforms in the German digital industry. The t3n newsletter, with around 170,000 subscribers, extends the daily editorial rhythm into readers' inboxes, and the brand's social media presence counts more than 700,000 followers across the major networks, where t3n shares stories, engages its community of digital pioneers, and promotes its events and premium products.

The quarterly print magazine complements the digital offering rather than competing with it: a collectible, long-form product for readers who want depth and curation beyond the daily feed. The brand also maintains a presence in the events business through its directories and partnerships, and its media sales solutions give advertisers access to one of the most concentrated audiences of technology decision-makers in the German-speaking world. The company's imprint and privacy pages document its Hannover address and management, and the brand's visual identity, confident, colorful, and playful, runs consistently across web, print, newsletter, and social channels, reinforcing the "digital pioneers" community that has been the brand's foundation since 2005.