Of all 258 publications produced by Hubert Burda Media and its publishing partners, 190 are published abroad. The cornerstone for this international success was laid very early on, ensuring that Hubert Burda Media already had a foot in the door of the eastern European publishing and media market when it was opened up to competition after 1989.

As far back as 1987, the group had already brought BURDA MODEN onto the Soviet market; the very first illustrated periodical from the western world to be sold in the USSR. Consequently, Hubert Burda Media was already highly familiar with the risks and opportunities for growth on the eastern European market. Today, Burda Eastern Europe is the largest publishing house in eastern Europe with subsidiaries in Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro and Kazakhstan. It publishes just under 100 different periodicals.

In March 2003, Burda purchased the Rizzoli France shares in French publishing house Catherine Nemo Holding (Nuit et Jour Editions). In Asia, Hubert Burda Media has been publishing various periodicals together with Rizzoli since 1996 and is also active in South Korea and Thailand.

In 2004, Hubert Burda Media sold its 40% share in RCS Periodici, the newspaper group within the Italian RCS Media Group, to Rizzoli. In exchange, Hubert Burda Media acquired Rizzoli’s 20% share in the Burda Verlag Osteuropa GmbH publishing house in eastern Europe, a 50% share in the newly renamed Burda Verlagsbeteiligungen GmbH, together with the journals produced by publishing group Milchstraße (TV SPIELFILM, CINEMA, FIT FOR FUN, MAX and AMICA) as well as Rizzoli’s 50% share in the joint company Burda RCS International Holding GmbH, renamed Burda Magazines International. With that, Hubert Burda Media acquired a 100% share in all three companies, thus expanding its market position in eastern Europe, France, Turkey and Asia and obtaining greater room to manoeuvre at both the national and international levels, which it intends to use for an assertive strategy over the coming years.

In April 2006, Hubert Burda Media acquires the Colchester-based publishing house Essential Publishing. Essential is a leading independent publisher of consumer, business and contract titles, including the top-selling women’s fortnightly, Real, and Your Home. This latest acquisition complements the UK operation, which launched the weekly Full House in 2005 and exciting new home interest monthly Living & Gardens in February.

International publications on topics related to computers and communication form the core business of Vogel Burda Holding. This publishing group publishes a total of 30 magazines worldwide. Its computer magazine CHIP alone is sold in 16 countries of Europe and Asia.

Information correct as at 30 May 2006