• by Ray Schultz , August 26, 2021

In another major publishing deal, Germany-based publishing group Axel Springer has announced it will acquire U.S. political reporting site Politico and Protocol, the new tech website, from publisher Robert Allbritton.

Terms were not officially disclosed, but The Wall Street Journal is citing sources as saying the deal topped $1 billion. 

The transaction announced Thursday morning also includes the remaining 50% share of PoliticoEurope, the joint venture launched by Politico and Axel Springer in 2014, which is expected to close in Q4, subject to regulatory approval  

Allbritton will continue as publisher of Politico and Protocol. and the editorial and management teams of all three products will remain in place. The brands will continue to operate separately from Axel Spring’s other U.S.-based brands, such as Insider and Morning Brew publications.

Politico was launched 15 years ago, and Protocol last year. Together, they employ more than 500 journalists.  

“Politico's outstanding team has disrupted digital political journalism and set new standards,” states Mathias Döpfner, CEO Axel Springer. “Objective-quality journalism is more important than ever, and we mutually believe in the necessity of editorial independence and nonpartisan reporting.” 

Allbritton states that “it has became steadily more clear that the responsibility to grow the business on a global scale, to better serve the audience and create more opportunities for our employees, might be better advanced by a larger company with a significant global footprint and ambitions than it could be by me as owner of a family business.”