Verlagsgruppe Ebner Ulm

Logo of Verlagsgruppe Ebner Ulm

Verlagsgruppe Ebner Ulm GmbH & Co. KG is a long-established German media company based in Ulm. The company's activities are concentrated in the Ebner Media Group, which publishes specialist media and organizes conferences, and Ebner Pressegesellschaft, which is responsible for the print business and also owns 66% of Neue Pressegesellschaft mbH. The company is one of the most important regional media houses in Baden-Württemberg and now operates internationally, particularly through subsidiaries and partnerships in Europe, the USA, and Asia.


The group continues to have its headquarters in Ulm and publishes more than 40 daily newspapers, including the “Südwest Presse,” the “Lausitzer Rundschau,” and, through its stake in Neue Pressegesellschaft, the “Stuttgarter Zeitung” and “Stuttgarter Nachrichten.” In addition, it has more than 150 specialist media outlets and 16 advertising journals, giving it substantial reach and influence in various specialist target groups. Its economic influence is reflected in annual sales of around €170 million, around 360 employees in Germany, and more than 9,000 employees worldwide (including subsidiaries).


The owner is the Ebner family, which is now in its sixth generation of running the company. The most important decision-maker is Florian Ebner, managing director of the parent company Ebner Verlagsgruppe Ulm GmbH & Co. KG and Ebner GmbH, through which the family manages its assets. Since joining the company in 2019, Florian Ebner has played a key role in shaping the corporate strategy and modernization towards digital business models.


The owner is the Ebner family, which is now in its sixth generation of running the company. The most important decision-maker is Florian Ebner, managing director of the parent company Ebner Verlagsgruppe Ulm GmbH & Co. KG and Ebner GmbH, through which the family manages its assets. Since joining the company in 2019, Florian Ebner has played a key role in shaping the corporate strategy and modernization towards digital business models.


In the summer of 2025, it was announced that Südwestdeutsche Medienholding (SWMH) was to be restructured, with the Baden-Württemberg regional newspapers around the Stuttgarter Zeitung/Stuttgarter Nachrichten going to the Neue Pressegesellschaft owned by the Ebner family and Ruth Aberle. This transaction is the subject of controversy, as smaller shareholders in SWMH were apparently not informed about the sale and the sale price. The buyer of Medienholding Süd, which is acquiring all of SWMH's local daily newspapers, is Neue Pressegesellschaft (NPG), which is 66% owned by Ebner Pressegesellschaft.


This creates a quasi-monopoly in the regional newspaper market in parts of the greater Stuttgart and Swabia area, as the only relevant newspapers belong either to Neue Pressegesellschaft or Ebner Pressegesellschaft. Not only did the Federal Cartel Office criticize the acquisition, but so did minority shareholders (mostly descendants of the regional newspapers acquired by SWMH) of SWMH, who were only informed about the breakup of the holding company after the deal was completed.

Key Facts

Business FormCommercial / For-profit
Legal FormLimited partnership with limited liability company as general partner
Business SectorsMedia, Conferences, print business, real estate, travel agency

Ownership

Individual Owner

Media Outlets

Other Media Outlets

Other Radio Outlets

Neue Berliner Rundfunk

Other Online Outlets

Online-News:


www.acht-neun.de
www.alb-bote.de
www.citystories-ulm.de
www.fupa.net/region/suedwest
www.geislinger-zeitung.de
www.haller-tagblatt.de
www.hohenloher-tagblatt.de
www.hohenzollerische-zeitung.de
www.hz.de
www.neckar-chronik.de
www.neue-wuerttembergische-zeitung.de
www.reutlinger-nachrichten.de
www.rundschau-gaildorf.de
www.swp-wochenblatt.weekli.de
www.swp.de
www.tagblatt.de


Specialised Media: 

www.gitarrebass.de
www.keybords.de
www.natursteinonline.de
www.page-online.de
www.print.de
www.professional-system.de
www.skimagazin.de
www.wanderlust-magazin.de
www.watchtime.net
www.wuv.de
www.print.de
www.naturstein.de
https://www.developer-world.de
www.pctipp.ch

Other Print Outlets

Specialist magazines: 
Gitarre & Bass
Keyboards
PAGE
Ski-Magazin 
wanderlust
WatchTime Germany
Deutscher Drucker
Sound & Recording
SAZ Sport
Internet World
W&V Deutschland
Rettungsmagazin
Nordic Sports
Flexo + Tiefdruck
Sport-Fachhandel

Facts

Other Media Businesses

Print and online media: 

- Neue Pressegesellschaft (50%)
- Märkisches Medienhaus GmbH & Co. KG (100%)
- ZG Lausitz GmbH (66,6%)
- Südwest Presse GmbH (25%)
- Frankfurter Mediengesellschaft mbH & Co. KG (100%)
- Frankfurter Mediengesellschaft Beteiligungen GmbH (94%)
- Mediengesellschaft Donau-Iller Geschäftsführungs-GmbH (100%)
Zeitungsverlag Hechingen GmbH (100%)
- Geislinger Zeitung Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG (25%)
- Schwäbisches Tagblatt GmbH (25%)
- medienzentrum Berlin GmbH & Co. KG (17,5%)
- NPG Digital GmbH (100%)


Radio Broadcasting: 

- Neue Berliner Rundfunk GmbH & Co. KG (75,13%)
- Radio Regenbogen Hörfunk in Baden GmbH & Co. KG (7%)
- Radio 7 Hörfunk GmbH + Co. KG (22%)

 

Specialised media:  

- Ebner Media Group GmbH & Co. KG (100%)
- MM-Musik-Media-Verlag GmbH & Co. KG (100%)
- NPG Messe und Verwaltungs-GmbH (100%)
- myTischtennis GmbH (70%)
Printing: 
- Flexo + tief Druck GmbH (100%)
- LR Druckerei GmbH (100%)

Logistics: 

- SPL Südwest Presse Logistik GmbH (100%)
- Südwest-Mail Brief + Service GmbH (100%)
- REGIO Print-Vertrieb GmbH (100%)

Marketing and targeted advertising: 

- Südwest Presse Data Services GmbH (100%)
- Agentur Frey GmbH & Co. KG (25%)
- Schneider Direktmarketing GmbH & Co. KG (25%)

Rights management: 

- Contilla GmbH (38,56%)
- Gruppe Württembergsicher Verleger Medienbeteiligungen GmbH & Co. KG (33,13%)

Other Domestic Businesses

Real Estate: 

- NPG Immobilien GmbH (100%)


Travel Agency: 

- Südwest Presse + Hapag-Lloyd Reisebüro GmbH & Co. KG (50%)

Other International Businesses

Neue Medien Zürich AG (Zürich, Switzerland) (100%)
Ebner Publishing Inc. (New York, USA) (100%)

Founding Year1859

The origins of the company date back to the J. Ebner bookstore in Ulm, established in 1817. The founding of Ebner Pressegesellschaft coincided with the initiation of Ulmer Zeitung, which is today known as Südwest Presse.

Founder
  • Jakob Ebner

    Jakob Ebner was a bookseller from Ulm and one of the early press and print pioneers of the German Reich. Following a merger, Ebner & Spiegel GmbH grew to become one of the largest printing houses of the 20th century in the German-speaking region. Today, Ebner Pressegesellschaft has divested most of its print business, and Ebner & Spiegel GmbH is now owned by CPI-Print GmbH.

Employees300
ContactKarlstraße 3
89073 Ulm
Germany
info@ebnermedia.de
+49 731 88005-8000
www.ebnermedia.de
Tax / ID NumberLimited liability company and limited partnership. Registered office: Ulm, Amtsgericht (District Court) Ulm, Commercial Register A (HRA) 1900
Revenue€ 168,7 Mio / $ 182,3 Mio USD (2023)
Operating Profit€ 23,7 / $ 25,6 USD (2023)
Advertising (in % of total funding)Missing Data
Executive Board
  • Florian Ebner

    The son of Eberhard Ebner has been the sole managing director of Ebner Pressegesellschaft since his father's retirement in 2019. Little is publicly known about Florian Ebner. However, he has already brought significant change to the Ebner empire by consolidating the specialist publications of Ebner-controlled publishers within Ebner Media Group, which places strong emphasis on digitalization. In summer 2025, he made headlines for the dismantling of Südwest Medienholding (SWMH). Together with Thomas Schaub of Medien Union GmbH from Ludwigshafen, he is considered a joint architect and beneficiary of the dismantling, which was one of the most significant holding structures in the German media landscape.

Other Influential People
  • Eberhard Ebner

    Eberhard Ebner (born 1929) came from a publishing family in Baden-Württemberg and developed into one of Germany's most influential newspaper publishers. His career began in 1955 as management assistant at Schwäbische Donauzeitung. In the 1960s and 1970s, he shaped this newspaper together with other regional newspapers in southwestern Germany to form Neue Pressegesellschaft (NPG), with Südwest Presse as its flagship publication. Today NPG also includes Märkische Oderzeitung in Frankfurt (Oder) and Lausitzer Rundschau in Cottbus. Ebner served as managing director of NPG until 1982 and subsequently held the position of advisory board chair until 2018. Ebner Pressegesellschaft was entrusted with publishing Südwest Presse as its headquarters, but also served to manage Ebner's stakes in other companies.

    His publishing engagement, however, extended far beyond Ulm and NPG: He played a central role in building and developing Südwestdeutsche Medienholding (SWMH). There he represented the group of Württemberg publishers, who hold approximately half of the shares in SWMH. Following SWMH's acquisition of the majority stake in Süddeutsche Zeitung publisher in 2008, Ebner became a member of the newspaper's editorial board. Additionally, he served as vice president of the Association of German Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) from 1980 to 1996. 

    Eberhard Ebner died in 2024 at the age of 94.

  • Annabelle Ebner

    According to LinkedIn, she has served as managing director at Ebner Media Group GmbH & Co. KG since March 2025. She is presumably related to Eberhard Ebner but, unlike other family members, is not a shareholder, and this relationship is not mentioned on company websites or elsewhere on the internet.

  • Prof. Dr. jur. Holger Paesler

    He served as managing director of Ebner Verlagsgruppe for over 10 years before Florian Ebner took over. The doctorate-holding lawyer describes himself as an advocate for southwestern German media producers. He is currently managing director of the Association of Southwestern German Newspaper Publishers and the Association of Private Broadcasters Baden-Württemberg, and is a former managing director of the Association of Bavarian Newspaper Publishers. Additionally, he holds a professorship in media management at Macromedia University.

Data Publicly Available
ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.
Meta Data

Ebner Pressegesellschaft is 100% owned by Ebner GmbH, which holds no other stakes. During the research process, it was decided that Ebner Pressegesellschaft is the organization of interest for the Media Ownership Monitor, as the print business and stakes are managed through it.

Eberhard Ebner died in 2024. Since then, it has not been publicly announced what happened to his business shares—such as the 17.3% stake in Ebner Pressegesellschaft.

Documents (PDF)
  • Verlagsgruppe Ebner Ulm GmbH & Co. KG, Konzernabschluss zum Geschäftsjahr vom 01.01.2023 bis zum 31.12.2023
    File
  • Ausdruck Handelsregister A - Verlagsgruppe Ebner Ulm GmbH & Co. KG HRA1900
    File
  • Wiedergabe des aktuellen Registerinhalts, Märkisches Medienhaus, HRB 119 FF
    File
  • Ausdruck Handelsregister A, Märkisches Verlag- und Druckhaus GmbH & Co. KG, HRA 8 FF
    File
  • Historischer Abrduck, Märkisches Verlag- und Druckhaus GmbH & Co. KG, HRA 8 FF
    File
  • Wiedergabe des aktuellen Registerinhalts, Neue Pressegesellschaft, HRA 2005
    File
  • Ausdruck Handelsregister A, Neue Pressegesellschaft, HRA 2005
    File
  • Historischer Abrduck, Neue Pressegesellschaft, HRA 2005
    File
  • Konzernabschluss 2023, Neue Pressegesellschaft, HRA 2005
    File