New BCN officially launches as a joint venture between three publishers on September 1

  • Agreement signed on August 04: Burda, Funke and KLAMBT are partners in the marketer Brand Community Network (BCN)

  • Cooperation is groundbreaking for the media industry

  • In its new composition, BCN reaches 89% of people aged 14 and over in Germany with more than 300 media brands

Successful conclusion of contract: The Brand Community Network (BCN) will start the 2024 marketing year as a joint venture on September 1. The shareholders are Hubert Burda Media, Funke and the KLAMBT media group, which has already had its portfolio marketed by BCN as part of a strategic partnership since 2020.

The merger was approved by the German Federal Cartel Office in March and intensive preparations for the launch on the advertising market have been underway since then. The contract to establish the joint venture was signed in Munich on Friday, August 4.

Burda CEO Philipp Welte explains: "We have been working towards this goal for years because we publishers can only assert ourselves as a strong alliance in an advertising market that is now dominated by a few globally active technology groups. This historic step gives the three partners the strength to face the challenges of the dynamically changing media markets on a more stable economic foundation."

Jochen Beckmann, Managing Director of FUNKE Magazines, says: "In our "new BCN" we are pooling the specialist knowledge, technologies, resources and innovative strength of the marketing experts from three important publishing houses and offering our advertising customers a marketing team with an extraordinarily diverse and wide-reaching portfolio. We are delighted that we can now really take off together."

"The titles of the KLAMBT media group have been successfully marketed by BCN for over two and a half years. In addition to the high-reach digital portals and magazines, BCN will also take over the marketing of Delius Klasing's multimedia quality media in the branded goods industry from September," says Kai Rose, publisher of the KLAMBT media group. "The joint venture that has now been agreed combines the expertise of three innovative media groups and confirms their strategic focus on establishing and expanding long-term partnerships with advertisers and their agencies."

The joint venture will be managed by Tobias Conrad, who has been the sole Managing Director of BCN since February 2023. The joint venture offers advertising customers an extraordinarily wide-reaching and diverse offering: with the more than 300 media brands of the three partner publishers, BCN reaches around 63 million people and thus 89% of people aged 14 and over in Germany - in print, digital, video, audio and out-of-home.