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Weltbild

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Weltbild Publishing Group
Company typeGmbH & Co. KG
Founded2001
FounderJosef Hall
Headquarters
Augsburg
,
Germany
Key people
Christian Sailer, Angela Schünemann
Number of employees
1,300 (December 2015[1])
ParentDroege International Group
Websitewww.weltbild.com

Weltbild Publishing Group (German: Verlagsgruppe Weltbild) is a major German publisher and media retailer based in Augsburg. It is partner of the holding company DBH Deutsche Buch Handels GmbH & Co. KG and itself it is owned by the dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church of Germany. The name Weltbild roughly translates to "worldview".

Since 2001, Weltbild had had a joint venture with OZ-Verlag in the magazine sector (Living & More GmbH, Offenburg). There were also 50/50 joint ventures with the Belgian media company Belgomedia (Bayard Presse, France, and Roularta Media, Belgium). Weltbild published magazines in the Parenting and Family, 40-plus/50-plus, and Home and Garden segments. In fiscal 2007/2008, Weltbild sold its entire magazine division to the French Bayard Group.[2]

As of 2006, Weltbild claims to be Germany's largest media and mail-order company, with a market share of ten percent. It also says it is No. 2 among online book retailers (presumably after Amazon.de). Weltbild employs some 6,400 employees and has a revenue of 1,7 billion EUR. According to the enterprise, some 5,5 million customers in the German-speaking countries buy Weltbild books by mail order, in one of the 300 Weltbild shops or over the Internet. Its mail-order catalogue has a print run of four million.[citation needed]

Bankruptcies

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Weltbild filed for bankruptcy on 10 January 2014.[3] On 2 August 2014 the financial investor Droege International Group bought 60% of the company's shares and started a recapitalisation.[4] In June 2024, Weltbild filed for insolvency. Their remaining 14 stories were closed by the end of August and their website was taken down.[5] Rival bookstore Thalia acquired Weltbild's online assets in September.[6][7]

Controversy

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Erotica books in the assortment of the company caused a controversy in 2011.[8]

In June 2013, Weltbild ran into controversy when they notified Canadian based publishing house Icon Empire Press that they would no longer be carrying their book titles. Weltbild informed the publishing house that they were owned by the Diocese of the Catholic Church of Germany and the book titles carried by Icon Empire Press did not meet the standards of traditional values.[9]

References

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  1. ^ Kerler, Michael (22 December 2015). "Kurz vor Weihnachten: Weltbild entlässt 48 Mitarbeiter". Augsburger Allgemeine (in German). Mediengruppe Pressedruck. Archived from the original on 2 July 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
  2. ^ "Bayard übernimmt den Zeitschriftenbereich von Weltbild". new-business.de (in German). Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  3. ^ "Catholic Church-owned German bookseller Weltbild files for insolvency". Reuters.
  4. ^ "Insolventer Verlagskonzern: Investor Droege übernimmt Weltbild schrittweise". Der Spiegel. 4 August 2014 – via Spiegel Online.
  5. ^ Nawotka |, Ed. "Germany's Weltbild to Close Remaining Stores". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 20 November 2024.
  6. ^ "Bundeskartellamt - Thalia Bücher GmbH can acquire assets of Weltbild GmbH & Co. KG". Bundeskartellamt. 17 September 2024. Retrieved 20 November 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ "Weltbild.de wird zu Thalia.de: Das ändert sich für Sie". Thalia.de.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ "Catholic Church Makes A Fortune In The German Porn Business". Worldcrunch.
  9. ^ "Germany's Catholic-owned Weltbild sells straight erotica but drops Vancouver gay literature publisher". 14 June 2013.
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