Heise (officially ''Heise Gruppe'') is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

media conglomerate A media conglomerate, media group, or media institution is a company that owns numerous companies involved in mass media enterprises, such as music, television, radio, publishing, motion pictures, theme parks, or the Internet. According to the ...

headquartered in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

. It was founded in 1949 by Heinz Heise and is still

family-owned A family business is a commercial organization in which decision-making is influenced by multiple generations of a family, related by blood or marriage or adoption, who has both the ability to influence the vision of the business and the willingn ...

. Its core business is directory media as well as general-interest and specialist media from the fields of computer technology, information technology and network culture. Another focus of its business activities is portals for price and product comparisons.

History

In 1949, founded the publishing house named after him in

-Badenstedt. The company's first product was an address book for the town of

Bünde Bünde (Low German ''Buine'') is a town in the Herford district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Bünde is situated between Osnabrück (west), Hannover (east) and Bielefeld (south). Waterways The town is crossed from west to east ...

, later joined by the telephone directory for

Einbeck Einbeck (; Eastphalian: ''Aimbeck'') is a town in the district Northeim, in southern Lower Saxony, Germany, on the German Timber-Frame Road. History Prehistory The area of the current city of Einbeck is inhabited since prehistoric times. Vario ...

. Gradually, other cities and regions were added to the product range. In addition, Heise expanded the program to include non-fiction topics, such as manuals on law. By 1960, sales had risen to over one million marks. In 1972, Heinz Heise handed over the management of the company to his son . Under his leadership, a magazine for electronics and technology topics, was created. The first issue of the computer magazine

c't ''c't'' – ' (''Magazine for Computer Technology'') is a German computer magazine, published by the Heinz Heise, Heinz Heise publishing house. file:Ct jubilaeum 30 turm.jpg, The 5.71 meter high tower from the 587 published c't editions up to t ...

appeared in 1983, followed by the professional magazine iX in 1988. Both publications are still around today. Later, the IT sector was further expanded with the acquisition of the Heidelberg-based Dpunkt Verlag. After the fall of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

, Heise expanded into the states of the former

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

. In 1992, the company took over the long-established publishing house in Rostock. Having previously invested in regional radio stations, Heise participated in the founding of , a private radio station in Lower Saxony, in year 2000. Additionally, Heise invested in digital business models with partner publishers: and appeared online for the first time. The news portal ''heise.de'' was created and supplemented by

Telepolis ''Telepolis'' is a German Internet magazine, published by the Heinz Heise Verlag since the beginning of 1996. It was founded by journalists Armin Medosch and Florian Rötzer and deals with privacy, science, culture, internet-related and gen ...

and other channels. The MIT magazine

Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...

, whose German-language version has been published by Heise since 2003, was widely recognized. In recent years, price comparison portals have taken on greater importance at Heise. The company has stakes in ''billiger.de'', ''guenstiger.de'' and '' geizhals.at''.

Publications

Heise publishes ''Das Örtliche'' and ''Das Telefonbuch'' as well as the Gelbe Seiten in joint editorial and publishing partnership with Deutsche Tele Medien. The media are published in printed form, as a web application and for mobile devices. In addition to a simple entry, Heise offers small and medium-sized companies a wide range of

online marketing Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...

services. The IT news portal ''heise.de'' is leading in German-speaking countries. It also includes the media brands c't, iX, Make, Mac & i, Technology Review, TechStage and Telepolis. The company uses the brands both online and for magazines, as well as for events, especially congresses, conferences, seminars and workshops, including ''Heise Adacemy''.

Notes and references

External links

* {{Authority control Companies established in 1949 Companies based in Hanover Mass media in Hanover Publishing companies of Germany