07.11.2024

ADVANT Beiten Advises the Publishing Group Herder Verlag on Acquisition of History Magazines from Roularta Media Group

Press Releases

Freiburg, 7 November 2024 – The international law firm ADVANT Beiten has provided comprehensive legal advice to Verlag Herder GmbH, a publishing group headquartered in Freiburg, Germany, on the takeover of the business unit "History Magazines" from Roularta Media Group. The parties have agreed not to disclose the transaction volume.

Roularta Media Group N.V., founded in 1954, is a listed media company domiciled in Roeselare, Belgium. Roularta Media Deutschland publishes magazines targeting women and over-50s, fiscal and financial advice magazines as well as the history magazine G/Geschichte. The company employs a total of some 1,200 staff members.

With the acquisition, Herder expands its history segment, taking over the renowned history titles "G/Geschichte" and "G/Geschichte Portait". At the same time, the publishing house enhances the synergy between the magazine and book segments. History is a highly promising area for the publishing house. With the newly won titles and alongside the history titles and magazines of wbg, Herder is now able to serve the history market very comprehensively. Only in January 2024, Herder ‑ also assisted by ADVANT Beiten ‑ took over essential parts of the publishing house Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft (wbg), already then expanding its presence on the historical specialist book and the special interest magazine markets.

In 2023, the publishing house celebrated its 225^th anniversary of its first Herder book of 1798. Today Herder publishes around 350 titles per year and is responsible for more than a dozen magazines. The books focus on politics & history, society, theology, religion, education and lifestyle. The publisher is Manuel Herder in the sixth generation; the publishing house is managed by the two managing directors Simon Biallowons and Philipp Lindinger.

Our team led by Dr Barbara Mayer has advised the publishing group Herder and the publishing family for many years, most recently on a number of acquisitions serving to boost digitalisation within the traditional publishing group.