The media group Axel Springer wants to close the printing site in Ahrensburg near Hamburg in the coming year. The Verdi union criticizes this.

The media group Axel Springer is planning to close its printing site in Ahrensburg near Hamburg. The company confirmed this in Berlin on Tuesday at the request of the German Press Agency. The Verdi union had previously announced the plans and criticized them.

The print shop takes care of regional and partial editions of Bild, Bild am Sonntag, Die Welt and Welt am Sonntag. The brands belong to Springer. In addition, according to the information, the Hamburger Abendblatt, which belongs to the Funke media group, and partial editions of the Suddeutsche Zeitung are printed there.

Springer wants to distribute printed partial editions to its own printers in Berlin-Spandau and Essen-Kettwig. As a reason for the planned end in Ahrensburg, the group called a “non-existent economic perspective”. This is primarily due to a special situation caused by a dependency on the supply technology of another printing site in Ahrensburg. It belongs to the Bertelsmann Group, which intends to close it at the end of January 2024.

According to Springer, an alternative energy supply is not sustainable due to the print sector, which has been declining for years. The group also referred to its strategy of saying goodbye to the printed newspaper business in the future and wanting to become a purely digital company.

Verdi criticized that Springer had not done anything to ensure a self-sufficient energy supply at the site.