Overview
- Burda Media, which announced the changes on Thursday, July 23, 2026, will combine BurdaVerlag and BurdaForward to form a single German media house that groups titles into dedicated 'brand worlds'.
- The company installed a new management board that names Stefan Ottlitz as Chief Digital Officer and Rebecca Gottwald as Chief AI Officer and assigns clear brand responsibilities such as consolidating Focus magazine, Focus Online and Focus Plus.
- Several senior executives have been confirmed to leave the company, including leaders from both BurdaForward and BurdaVerlag, and new hires will take direct operational roles in the reformed publishing unit.
- Burda International Holding will cease cross‑country operational control and become a pure financial holding led by Marie Stephan while local country units gain more entrepreneurial responsibility.
- Support functions such as IT, HR and Finance will be realigned to serve operational teams, the company set a 12–18 month implementation window, and the plan is framed as a response to weak print revenues and the need to build digital and AI‑driven revenue streams.