About W&V Werben & Verkaufen

W&V Werben & Verkaufen

W&V Werben & Verkaufen is Germany's leading trade magazine for the communications, media and marketing industry. Published in Munich by the Verlag Werben & Verkaufen GmbH, part of the Ebner Media Group, it has reported on advertising, agencies, brands, media and digital business since 1963. What began as a weekly print trade paper has evolved into a multi-channel media brand: alongside the print magazine, which now appears four times a year, W&V runs the daily news portal wuv.de, newsletters, congresses, seminars, awards and a vertical job network. For generations of marketers, advertisers and media professionals, the three letters W&V have been shorthand for the industry's paper of record.

Overview

W&V addresses everyone who works professionally with marketing communication: brand managers and marketing decision-makers in companies, agencies of all disciplines, media houses and planners, market researchers and the growing digital business community. Its editorial promise is first-hand information on the industry's news — reports, analyses, interviews, case studies and data covering the full spectrum from advertising to media, from marketing to multimedia, from direct marketing to PR.

The brand's authority rests on six decades of continuous industry coverage. Generations of careers in German advertising have been accompanied — and often shaped — by W&V's reporting on account moves, agency foundings, campaign launches, management changes and the structural transformations of the business, from the rise of television advertising through the digital revolution to the current era of AI-driven marketing. The magazine's rankings, awards and events give the industry its shared reference points, while the daily website keeps professionals informed between print issues.

Commercially, W&V operates the classic B2B media model in its modern form: advertising and sponsored formats in print and digital, paid congresses and seminars, awards with entry fees and partnerships, and the W&V Job-Network, a vertical recruitment platform for the communications industry. This diversification has carried the brand through the structural decline of print advertising that reshaped the entire trade-press sector.

History

The publisher behind W&V was founded in 1961 as the Europa Fachpresse Verlag in Munich. The magazine itself launched on 4 April 1963 under the title Werben & Verkaufen, quickly establishing itself as the trade paper of the West German advertising industry in its post-war boom years. Through the following decades it chronicled the industry's expansion: the rise of television as an advertising medium, the creative revolution in agencies, the consolidation of media planning, and Germany's emergence as one of the world's largest advertising markets.

The publishing house grew into a media group for the communications industry, adding brands such as Kontakter and LEAD digital to the flagship title and building a substantial events business with congresses, seminars and awards. For much of its history the publisher belonged to the Süddeutscher Verlag in Munich, part of the Südwestdeutsche Medienholding in Stuttgart. In more recent years the publishing house became part of the Ebner Media Group, the Ulm-based specialist publisher, under whose roof W&V continues to operate from Munich.

The brand's recent history reflects the wider transformation of trade media. The print magazine, once a weekly, now appears four times a year, while the digital operation at wuv.de carries the daily news business with newsletters, apps and industry databases. In January 2024 the sister brand Internet World Business — the Ebner group's e-commerce and online-marketing title, published since 2005 — was merged into W&V, with its online presence and print magazine discontinued and its commerce coverage continuing under the W&V umbrella. The move consolidated the group's marketing-media portfolio around its strongest brand.

Content and Sections

W&V's editorial coverage spans the entire communications value chain. Agency news — account wins and losses, foundings, mergers, management changes — forms the traditional core, complemented by reporting on advertisers and brands: campaign launches, marketing strategies, brand management and the people behind them. Media coverage examines publishers, broadcasters, platforms and the evolving economics of attention, while dedicated digital coverage follows online marketing, social media, e-commerce, data and marketing technology.

Analysis and opinion give the brand its distinctive voice. Leading industry figures write commentaries, the editorial team produces in-depth reports on structural trends, and interviews with CEOs, CMOs and agency heads provide the insider perspective the trade expects. Rankings and awards — including the industry's honours for creative and effective work — create the shared calendar of recognition that structures the industry's year. Specials and themed issues dive deep into topics such as employer branding, sustainability in marketing or the agency business models of the future.

The events business extends the editorial brand into live formats: congresses and conferences bring the industry together around current themes, seminars provide professional training, and award ceremonies celebrate the year's best work. The W&V Job-Network serves the industry's recruitment market, connecting employers with the specialists — from creatives to data analysts — that the modern communications business demands. Together, print, digital, events and recruitment form an integrated platform serving the industry's information, networking and career needs.

Publisher and Organization

W&V is published by the Verlag Werben & Verkaufen GmbH, a specialist publishing house for marketing, media and communication headquartered at Hultschiner Strasse 8 in Munich. Founded in 1961 as the Europa Fachpresse Verlag, the company is part of the Ebner Media Group. The publishing house describes itself as the leading media house for professional information in the communications industry, addressing all target groups in media, marketing, communication and digital business through its title portfolio.

The German Wikipedia's profile of the magazine lists Rolf Schröter as editor-in-chief and Marco Parrillo as managing director of the publishing house, figures that reflect the brand's established leadership structure. Beyond the flagship magazine, the publisher's portfolio has included titles such as Kontakter and LEAD digital, and the company operates a substantial events business with high-profile congresses, seminars and awards. The integration of the Internet World Business brand into W&V in January 2024 further concentrated the group's marketing-media activities around the W&V brand, with the commerce topics continuing under its umbrella.

Digital Presence

The digital home of the brand is wuv.de, a daily news portal for the communications industry carrying news, trends, cases, analyses, interviews and studies on marketing, agencies, advertising, media, market research, campaigns and social media. Newsletters deliver the day's industry news directly to professionals' inboxes, while apps and industry databases extend the offering. The portal's full text archive, documented back to 1993 in press databases, makes W&V's reporting a researchable record of the industry's modern history.

Social media channels distribute stories and drive discussion among the industry's professionals, and the brand's events are marketed and accompanied digitally. The W&V Job-Network operates as the industry's vertical job platform, integrated with the editorial brand. Video formats and podcasts supplement the written coverage, reflecting the multimedia habits of the marketing audience itself. In an industry that lives on digital channels, W&V's own digital transformation — from a weekly print paper to a multi-channel media brand with print, web, newsletters, events and recruitment — mirrors the change it reports on, securing its position as the indispensable information platform of Germany's communications business. The consolidation of the Ebner group's marketing titles around W&V, completed with the absorption of Internet World Business, has further strengthened the brand's claim to be the single central medium for everyone working in German marketing, media and communication.