Mathias Döpfner, longtime CEO of German publishing conglomerate Axel Springer, has a radical thought for Politico, which Springer bought for more than US$1 billion late last year — centrism!
“We want to prove that being nonpartisan is actually the more successful positioning,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post.
But Döpfner is a billionaire media baron and ardent “freedom advocate”, so “non-partisan” might mean something different to him.
As the Post revealed, that extends to asking his colleagues whether they should “pray that Donald Trump will again become president of the United States of America” in the lead-up to the past US election. We particularly like the Werner Herzog-level of fury in his initial denial:
That’s intrinsically false. That doesn’t exist. It has never been sent and has never been even imagined.
This is particularly funny given what he has to say next:
When shown a printout of the text, Döpfner allowed a glimmer of recognition. It’s possible, he said, that he may have sent the email “as an ironic, provocative statement in the circle of people that hate Donald Trump”, because that’s exactly the kind of ironic, provocative thing that Döpfner, a garrulous and enthusiastic texter, likes to do.
‘That is me,’ he said. ‘That could be.’
Going back further, The New York Times reported Döpfner’s comments when a journalist at Bild — a right-wing tabloid Axel Springer owns — was accused of alleged sexual misconduct. Döpfner wrote that any investigation into allegations had to be “especially careful” because the accused journalist was “really the last and only journalist in Germany who is still courageously rebelling against the new GDR authoritarian state”. The reference to Communist East Germany was a German equivalent of “Dictator Dan”, which became particularly popular during COVID restrictions.
Oh, incidentally, if Bild sounds familiar, it’s because it was one of the publications caught up in the charm offensive Uber undertook in attempting to get around regulation in Germany and elsewhere — indeed, Axel Springer went so far as to invest US$5 million in the company.
