Business News
Axel Springer AG to suspend corporate events in 2009
Tuesday 09. December 2008 - Journalism and staff motivation take priority
To date, despite the obvious signs of economic gloom, Axel Springer AG has weathered the crisis well and been able to avoid drastic cutbacks affecting staff, publications or online products. Every effort is to be made in future to keep things this way. So far the best defence has been rigorous attention to cost management – and this course will continue. In view of falling advertising revenues and the difficulty of making any kind of forecast for the coming year, the executive board today decided to suspend corporate events for 2009.
This decision affects all celebrations, receptions and galas. BILD will still organize its childrens charity collection special “Ein Herz for Kinder” next year, but it will take a different form. The prizes and awards will be announced in the publications, but not presented at special events.
Writing to the guests invited to the New Years reception that was to have been held in Berlin at the beginning of January, Dr. Mathias Döpfner said, “We do not want to make any savings that will affect the quality of our journalism or the motivation of our employees. To date we have dismissed no staff and none of our newspapers or magazines have folded. We hope to be able to avoid this in the future as well. And we want to continue investing in what is fundamental to our business – the excellence of the content.”
The executive board has also instructed the various divisions to use the gap year as a creative development phase, so that when they re-emerge, these successful events, which are to remain an important part of an integrated brand communication, will be developed further and enhanced.