Axel Springer, a German media conglomerate, will buy US politico site Politico and its subsidiary operations for one billion dollars in a deal announced Thursday morning, CNN reports.
Politico and Axel Springer were jointly operating a European political site, so the integration of Politico’s operations was a natural progression. Politico currently employs about 500 journalists in its American and European operations, as well as its new Protocol website.
Politico’s current owner, Robert Allbritton, said he decided to sell because “it 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.”
Allbritton will continue on as the publisher of Politico operations, and the editorial leadership of the sites will continue in place.