‘A full-on embrace’: how the EU’s largest news publisher fell in love with the US

## Summary
Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images ‘A full-on embrace’: how the EU’s largest news publisher fell in love with the US After recent purchase of UK’s Daily Telegraph, Axel Springer and its ‘guru-like’ CEO, Mathias Döpfner, have sights on transatlantic expansion I n Mathias Döpfner’s 2023 book Dealing with Dictators, the chief executive of the German media company Axel Springer SE proposed a fix for western democracy: states that respect the rule of law should stick together and prioritise trading with each other. Photograph: Hannibal Hanschke/EPA “In spite of everything we’ve learnt about [Donald] Trump and Musk over the last year, Döpfner and his crowd are still true believers,” said Matthew Karnitschnig, a former Politico chief correspondent in Europe, who left Axel Springer last year to head up the Brussels-based news site Euractiv. “It’s a full-on embrace.” None of the former or current Springer employees interviewed for this article said Döpfner had directly intervened in editorial matters, and in a statement a company spokesperson said: “Editorial independence is sacrosanct at Axel Springer. Even then, former colleagues recall a talent for charming the executive floor. “Some music critics care only about music, but that was not Mathias,” recalls one former colleague. “There was a sense he was destined for higher things, like a nobleman without a title.” View image in fullscreen Döpfner in 2001, shortly before he became chief executive. He reiterated that message in another article in Politico this week , accusing European leaders of “alienating” their main ally by criticising Trump’s war in Iran. “The romantic view of the Anglosphere runs deep inside Axel Springer,” said one company insider. “And Mathias is the biggest romantic of them all.” View image in fullscreen The Telegraph will boost Axel Springer’s base of English-language subscribers.

## Article Content
Döpfner regularly portrays expansion as being driven above all by a political vision: the need to shore up the values of the west.
Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
View image in fullscreen
Döpfner regularly portrays expansion as being driven above all by a political vision: the need to shore up the values of the west.
Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images
‘A full-on embrace’: how the EU’s largest news publisher fell in love with the US
After recent purchase of UK’s Daily Telegraph, Axel Springer and its ‘guru-like’ CEO, Mathias Döpfner, have sights on transatlantic expansion
I
n Mathias Döpfner’s 2023 book Dealing with Dictators, the chief executive of the German media company
Axel Springer
SE proposed a fix for western democracy: states that respect the rule of law should stick together and prioritise trading with each other. Better that, he declared, than indulging the illusion that doing business will tame “self-styled strongman leaders”.
So it came as quite the surprise when last month Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, was given a prominent opinion article in Welt am Sonntag, less than four weeks before the riskiest elections of the rightwing populist’s career. “It caused a lot of strong irritation,” said a former editor at the Springer-owned broadsheet.
Long a powerful and polarising force in Germany’s postwar media landscape, Axel Springer is now aiming to become a major player in the transatlantic sphere. In 2021 it added the US-European outlet Politico to its large portfolio of German titles, and is
buying the UK’s Daily Telegraph
in a £575m all-cash deal.
View image in fullscreen
Viktor Orbán’s opinion article ‘caused a lot of strong irritation’, a former editor said.
Photograph: Pier Marco Tacca/Getty Images
In his books, interviews and the op-eds that regularly appear under his name in Springer-owned outlets, Döpfner portrays this expansion as being driven above all by a political vision: the need to shore up the values of the west.
But critics say such lofty goals are sometimes undermined by the pages of his own titles.
Before the Orbán controversy, Die Welt caused a scandal in 2024 when it ran
an op-ed by Elon Musk urging German voters to back the far-right Alternative für Deutschland
, which led to the paper’s opinion editor resigning in protest. It took another staff rebellion to stave off an editorial from the former AfD co-leader Alexander Gauland a year later.
Döpfner has said the AfD’s policies are “the opposite of what Axel Springer stands for”, and none of his outlets have explicitly backed the far right outside op-eds, which often platform opinions that differ from a newspaper’s own editorial stance.
But as
Europe
slowly retreats from an increasingly erratic US, the EU’s largest news publisher looks determined to single-handedly reverse the trend. Enthusiastic for all things American and strategically uninterested in European autonomy, Axel Springer is boosting the political disruptors beloved of Silicon Valley almost by default, critics say.
View image in fullscreen
The AfD co-chair Alice Weidel speaking online to Elon Musk during her election campaign launch in Halle in January.
Photograph: Hannibal Hanschke/EPA
“In spite of everything we’ve learnt about [Donald] Trump and Musk over the last year, Döpfner and his crowd are still true believers,” said Matthew Karnitschnig, a former Politico chief correspondent in Europe, who left Axel Springer last year to head up the Brussels-based news site Euractiv. “It’s a full-on embrace.”
None of the former or current Springer employees interviewed for this article said Döpfner had directly intervened in editorial matters, and in a statement a company spokesperson said: “Editorial independence is sacrosanct at Axel Springer. We believe that the best way to safeguard that is through financial and economic success.”
A self-described “mix between carpet-bagger and aesthete”, Döpfner got his break in journalism by writing album reviews and profiles of conductors for the highbrow broadsheet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung while studying for his PhD.
Even then, former colleagues recall a talent for charming the executive floor. “Some music critics care only about music, but that was not Mathias,” recalls one former colleague. “There was a sense he was destined for higher things, like a nobleman without a title.”
View image in fullscreen
Döpfner in 2001, shortly before he became chief executive.
Photograph: Kay Nietfeld/EPA
After editing two ailing regional newspapers, Döpfner rose up the ranks at Springer, editing Welt before being made the publishing house’s chief executive in 2002. He has been its main shareholder since 2020, when its founder’s widow, 83-year-old Friede Springer, gave him a 15% stake in the company.
In the early 2010s Döpfner made a series of bold strategic decisions, dumping the venerable print titles Berliner Morgenpost and Hamburger Abendblatt and investing in digital classifieds. It paid off financially, and earned him a rep

---

## Expert Analysis

### Merits
- So it came as quite the surprise when last month Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, was given a prominent opinion article in Welt am Sonntag, less than four weeks before the riskiest elections of the rightwing populist’s career. “It caused a lot of strong irritation,” said a former editor at the Springer-owned broadsheet.
- View image in fullscreen Viktor Orbán’s opinion article ‘caused a lot of strong irritation’, a former editor said.
- We believe that the best way to safeguard that is through financial and economic success.” A self-described “mix between carpet-bagger and aesthete”, Döpfner got his break in journalism by writing album reviews and profiles of conductors for the highbrow broadsheet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung while studying for his PhD.
- View image in fullscreen In a December 2025 opinion article, Döpfner insisted that Trump wanted ‘a strong Europe, a reliable and effective partner’.

### Areas for Consideration
- Before the Orbán controversy, Die Welt caused a scandal in 2024 when it ran an op-ed by Elon Musk urging German voters to back the far-right Alternative für Deutschland , which led to the paper’s opinion editor resigning in protest.
- Döpfner’s suggestion that Springer could move into the top spot in the American market, however, seems unrealistic. “Especially on the rightwing spectrum, media consumers in the US lean towards broadcasting and podcasts,” said Abi Watson of Enders Analysis. “It’s a difficult market to launch into.” A spokesperson said in a statement: “Axel Springer stands for freedom, free speech, the rule of law and democracy.

### Implications
- Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images ‘A full-on embrace’: how the EU’s largest news publisher fell in love with the US After recent purchase of UK’s Daily Telegraph, Axel Springer and its ‘guru-like’ CEO, Mathias Döpfner, have sights on transatlantic expansion I n Mathias Döpfner’s 2023 book Dealing with Dictators, the chief executive of the German media company Axel Springer SE proposed a fix for western democracy: states that respect the rule of law should stick together and prioritise trading with each other.
- Better that, he declared, than indulging the illusion that doing business will tame “self-styled strongman leaders”.
- More recently, Döpfner’s pronouncements on the future of news publishing have attained a prophetic fervour.
- He reiterated that message in another article in Politico this week , accusing European leaders of “alienating” their main ally by criticising Trump’s war in Iran. “The romantic view of the Anglosphere runs deep inside Axel Springer,” said one company insider. “And Mathias is the biggest romantic of them all.” View image in fullscreen The Telegraph will boost Axel Springer’s base of English-language subscribers.

### Expert Commentary
This article covers springer, axel, europe topics. Notable strengths include discussion of springer. Areas of concern are also raised. Readability: Flesch-Kincaid grade 0.0. Word count: 1728.