The Girardet family

Logo of The Girardet family

The Girardet family descends from French Huguenot immigrants who fled France in the 17th or 18th century and initially settled in Brandenburg. Wilhelm Girardet (1838-1918), after completing an apprenticeship in bookbinding and traveling through Europe, came to Essen, where he founded the bookbindery "Graphische Betriebe W. Girardet" in 1865 and the daily newspaper "General-Anzeiger für Elberfeld-Barmen" (Wuppertal) in 1887.


Girardet subsequently founded additional General-Anzeiger newspapers in various German cities (Leipzig, Chemnitz, Düsseldorf, Krefeld, Duisburg, and Hamburg). In Zurich, he founded the "Tages-Anzeiger," which remains one of the most influential newspapers in German-speaking Switzerland. In 1905, editor Otto Coninx married publisher's daughter Berta Girardet (1884-1966), and Wilhelm Girardet transferred the newspaper to his son-in-law. Coninx subsequently founded the entrepreneurial family that today holds a controlling stake in Swiss media conglomerate TX Group AG. Coninx and Girardet together appear on lists of the world's most powerful families.


In 1973, the Wuppertal General-Anzeiger was merged with those from Düsseldorf and Krefeld under the umbrella title "Westdeutsche Zeitung," which remains the profitable foundation of the Girardet press group, despite the "Westdeutsche Zeitung" suffering from significant circulation decline. The consequences: while approximately 300 journalists worked for WZ in 2009, the number of editorial staff was reduced to just 50 by 2014 (confirmed as of 2020 in taz). Content for WZ local editions, including even local news for Düsseldorf as of 2020, was sourced from Rheinische Post. In November 2021, political and business content was also outsourced and has since been supplied from the Berlin bureau of Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.


In 1976, publishing house W. Girardet established initial cooperation agreements with Rheinische Post in printing and distribution, later expanding to IT, administrative services, and advertising publications. Girardet also became a shareholder and today holds 8.5% of Rheinische Post Mediengruppe.

Media Outlets

Facts

Other Media Outlets

Print

  • Westdeutsche Zeitung 
  • Engelbert
  • Remscheider General-Anzeiger
  • RGA am Sonntag
  • Solinger Tageblatt 
  • Wermelskirchener General-Anzeiger 

Advertising newspaper

  • www.duesseldorfer-anzeiger.de
  • www.lokal-anzeiger-erkrath.de
  • www.schaufenster-mettmann.de
  • www.extra-tipp-am-sonntag.de

Radio

  • Antenne Düsseldorf
  • NE-WS 89.4 
  • NOXX
  • NRW1
  • Radio 90,1
  • Radio Berg
  • Radio Neandertal
  • radio NRW
  • Radio RSG 
  • Welle Niederrhein
Other Media Related Businesses

Publisher of advertising sheets and printing services

  • Druck + Verlag Josef Wegener GmbH (100)
  • Panorama Anzeigenblatt GmbH (50):
  • City Anzeigenblatt GmbH
  • Report Anzeigenblatt GmbH


Radio Broadcasting

  • Pressefunk Krefeld-Viersen GmbH & Co. KG (57)
Affiliated Interests Family & Friends
  • Otto Coninx
    "Otto Coninx-Girardet (1871-1956) was a German-Swiss engineer and publisher. After studying mining engineering at the universities of Jena and Berlin, he married Berta Girardet in 1905, the daughter of German publisher Wilhelm Girardet. In 1906, his father-in-law appointed him publishing director of Tages-Anzeiger in Zurich. Following Wilhelm Girardet's death in 1918, Otto Coninx-Girardet gradually assumed control of the company Girardet, Walz & Co. AG. In 1926, the company was registered as a Swiss corporation and Coninx himself obtained Swiss citizenship. The company operated from 1933 onwards as Tages-Anzeiger für Stadt und Kanton Zürich AG. Under his leadership, the company expanded beyond the daily newspaper. In 1927, it established Regina Verlag and acquired publishing rights to magazines such as Das Schweizer Heim and later Schweizer Familie. Switzerland's neutrality during the Second World War benefited the newspaper, whose circulation exceeded 100,000 copies in the early 1940s and reached approximately 125,000 copies by 1950. Following his death in 1956, his son Otto Coninx-Wettstein assumed management of the family company. The Coninx family maintains control today over TX Group AG (formerly Tamedia AG), one of Switzerland's largest media companies."
Data Publicly Available
ownership data is easily available from other sources, e. g. public registries etc.
Headlines
Meta Data

The information comes primarily from publicly available registers and media reports. Some of the information may therefore be out of date.

Sources
Documents (PDF)
  • Liste der Gesellschafter der Rheinische Post Mediengruppe GmbH
    File