Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) is one of Germany's most influential national daily and business newspapers. The FAZ covers all areas from politics and business to the arts, science, technology, and sports. It focuses on in-depth analysis, exclusive investigative reporting, opinionated editorials, and a liberal-conservative profile.
With a daily circulation of around 170,000 copies (according to IVW 2024) and a broad digital readership, it reaches a well-educated and influential target group throughout Germany and beyond. Especially in Hesse, its country of origin with headquarters in Frankfurt am Main, it has a significant influence on the local and national media landscape and sets journalistic standards.
The FAZ has a unique ownership structure, which is designed to protect the newspaper from influence by majority shareholders and thus preserve its editorial independence. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is 93.7 percent owned by the non-profit FAZIT Foundation. The remaining 6.3 percent of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH is held by the publishers, who also play a decisive role in determining the newspaper's editorial line.
This participation of the publishers at the shareholder level is intended to strengthen the independence and autonomy of the editorial policy. The editorial board has managed the newspaper collegially since its founding—the FAZ does not have a traditional editor-in-chief, and the publishers are jointly responsible for politics, business, and culture. The current publishers are Gerald Braunberger, Jürgen Kaube, Carsten Knop, and Berthold Kohler. The chairmanship of the editorial board rotates regularly to reinforce the collegial principle.
The FAZIT Foundation gGmbH, in turn, has an executive "board of trustees" which jointly oversees the management of the foundation and the preservation of its purpose – ensuring the economic and independent management of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung GmbH. This includes the obligation that, upon appointment to the board of trustees, members must acquire a mandatory share in the FAZIT-Stiftung gGmbH, which they must transfer to their successor unencumbered upon leaving. The board of trustees, which currently has nine members, is chaired by former director of Bayerischer Rundfunk, Ulrich Wilhelm.
The FAZ is investing heavily in its digital offerings, such as high-quality apps, podcasts, and new formats such as the F.A.Z. Kaufkompass, which emerged from the takeover of the test portal AllesBeste.de and has significantly expanded the product testing offering. New sections and digital formats specifically target younger and digitally savvy audiences. Editorial independence and a balance between a conservative-liberal mission statement and a multi-award-winning pool of authors with a diversity of opinions shape the newspaper's self-image.
Key Facts
| Audience Share | 3.46% |
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| Ownership Type | Private |
| Content Type | Paid |
| Active Transparency | company/channel informs proactively and comprehensively about its ownership, data is constantly updated and easily verifiable |
Ownership
| Ownership Structure | The publisher is Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitungs GmbH, which is 93.7% owned by the FAZIT Foundation Gemeinnützige Verlagsgesellschaft and 1.6% each by the publishers Carsten Knop, Berthold Kohler, Gerald Braunberger, and Jürgen Kaube, who determine the editorial line of the newspaper. |
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| Voting Rights | Decisions at Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitungs GmbH are made by a simple majority of the shareholders' votes. Since the FAZIT Foundation dominates the shares, the Board of Trustees of the FAZIT Foundation has the overwhelming power of determination. This structure is based on the founding principle of the FAZ founders to protect the FAZ's editorial independence from the influence of majority shareholders. The publishers of the FAZ traditionally have co-determination rights over the editorial direction of the FAZ through their shareholdings. |
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Facts
| Founding Year | 1949 The initiative to found the FAZ stems from a decision by the Economic Policy Society (WiPoG), which wanted to see its interests better represented in the public sphere. The newspaper explicitly does not see itself in the tradition of the Frankfurter Zeitung, which was banned by the NSDAP. |
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| Contact | Pariser Straße 1 60486 Frankfurt am Main Germany Info@faz.net +49 (0)69 7591-0 https://www.faz.net/ |
| Revenue | € 223.62 Million / $ 205,73 Million (2023) |
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| Operating Profit | € 5.102 Million / $ 4,69 Million (2023) |
| Advertising (in % of total funding) | € 57.4 Million (2023) / $ 52.8 Million |
| Market Share | Missing Data |