7 ms·

Important and notable while reading this is that the company "Axel Springer" is the owner of the german equivalent (in paper) of Fox News, or for UK people, the

Important and notable while reading this is that the company "Axel Springer" is the owner of the german equivalent (in paper) of Fox News, or for UK people, the Daily Mail. The influence of this is visible at the very start of the article, which is a submarine advertisement for Berlin as a tech location, where Springer has many businesses that look for candidates from a large pool of developers who they then massively underpay.

omnibrain 11y ago
Not to be confused with "Springer Verlag" a big german science publisher.
golergka 11y ago
> Important and notable while reading this is that the company "Axel Springer" is the owner of the german equivalent (in paper) of Fox News, or for UK people, the Daily Mail. I don't know anything about this company and I see no reason not to trust you on that. But since this interview doesnt' ask us to rely on Axel Springer's reputation, or trust it's word on something, how is this relevant?
- creshal 11y ago
  To give context? It was the Axel Springer foundation that awarded the award, made the interview, and "lightly edited" it.
- Mithaldu 11y ago
  Because it is likely that this whole thing wasn't written "because it is interesting" or "contains valuable information", but because it probably fulfills some marketing purpose or other hidden motive. I'm basically saying: If you're gonna read this, bring a big salt shaker. Note for example the praise on Berlin as a tech location. Note how effusive it is. Now consider this: Starting offers for developers with 5 years experience at Idealo (property of Axel Springer) in 2010 were 20000 € per year. I don't know any details for other things mentioned in that interview, but i would expect similar things to be "left out" as well.
  - creshal 11y ago
    Axel Springer publications are also among the most notorious offenders of privacy laws whenever they feel like they're missing a juicy scoop otherwise. Of course they're all chubby with Facebook, especially because it allows them to get high-definition photographs of murder victims, suspects and everyone else they want to bring to the immediate attention of their readers: http://www.bildblog.de/77136/sein-wort-in-ihren-ohren/ http://www.bildblog.de/77136/sein-wort-in-ihren-ohren/
  - kayoone 11y ago
    That sounds strange to me. There are a lot of companies searching for good developers in Berlin, working in Berlin myself as a software developer and knowing plenty of others i can't believe they can find anyone halfway decent who would work for that kind of money because there are simply a lot of better options. Besides that, your point is valid, but aren't any kind of awards always about marketing, new connections, brand recognition etc ?
    - Mithaldu 11y ago
      There's a difference between advertisement and "submarine ad", wherein the second one claims to provide something specific, while just serving to advertise something else.
  - SyneRyder 11y ago
    €20000? Good grief. Even if I wanted to take that job (as an Australian who'd like to work in Berlin), I couldn't because the minimum pay for an EU Blue Card worker is €38688 and that's with the discounted rate for IT-skilled workers. (Otherwise the company has to offer a minimum €49600 for an EU Blue Card to be granted.)
    - Mithaldu 11y ago
      Yeah, i was equally baffled. When i told them 40k would be my absolute minimum they told me "You'd have to work for two then." They were also located in the absolutely cheapest part of Berlin they could be in. If you want to work in Berlin, prepare for a lot of research. It's absolutely possible, however due to the huge population of students, prices can be weird.
- DasIch 11y ago
  To call Axel Springer's reputation bad would describe their reputation as far more positive than it is. There is a famous quote by Max Goldt that describes the stance especially from the political left on the newspaper quite well: > This newspaper [Bild a newspaper Axel Springer is publishing] is a vile institution. It's wrong to read it. Someone who contributes to it is socially unacceptable. It would be wrong to be friendly or even polite to their editors. One has to be as unfriendly to them as is allowed by law. They're bad humans, that do wrong things. It doesn't matter what they're doing, it's that Axel Springer is involved that's the problem and in any discussion that involves enough Germans someone will point it out.
  - creshal 11y ago
    > To call Axel Springer's reputation bad would describe their reputation as far more positive than it is. The communist Baader-Meinhof terrorists bombed three targets: 1. US Army bases, for the Vietnam War. 2. German police offices, for covering up Nazi crimes. 3. Axel Springer buildings, for their newspapers. "Bad reputation" is more than an understatement.
    - fwn 11y ago
      They are rather opinionated. That, however, isn't very respectable in the German (very consensus driven) public sphere. Most German newspapers are very bad on a journalistic/technologic level. Might be caused by the small userbase and the language barrier that shields away international competition.
      - Mithaldu 11y ago
        The problem isn't that their opinionated, it's that they lie. Systematically and remorselessly. http://www.bildblog.de/ http://www.bildblog.de/
        creshal 11y ago
        For example, Peter Lustig: He was the host of Germany's most popular kids TV show for decades. At some point, he made an off-hand derisive comment about the BILD. Quickly, BILD spread a rumour that he secretly hated kids and was only in it for the money, a rumour they kept alive for decades; and which they are now again bringing to the front covers after his death, claiming to "try to uncover the truth". Utterly disgusting and borderline criminal.
- elcapitan 11y ago
  It's a German tradition that whenever somebody mentions the name of that publishing house, all Germans have to jump in and go apeshit :D
  - creshal 11y ago
    And yet somehow it's still the biggest newspaper publisher in Germany. (And hey, at least nobody is blowing up their offices any more.)
    - elcapitan 11y ago
      Abandoning blowing up offices as a form of critique is very progressive, indeed.
    - Mithaldu 11y ago
      It has porn. No seriously. It's the easiest way to have a coffee in the morning in the office and look at some boobs. Most "read" paper on my base when i was in the army.
      - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
        Ok that's pretty soft. Used to be a time a shoulder or ankle was 'porn'. I guess topless beaches are really 'porn beaches'.
      - creshal 11y ago
        Reminds me of a recent comment that "German factories run on tits": https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46ti4d/eli5_why_italy_has_a_lot_of_supercar_status_car/d07xi6s https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46ti4d/e...
  - danielam 11y ago
    It's not just a German problem. Over 80% of Polish media are owned by German media companies and conglomerates and, IIRC, the bulk of it is divided between Axel Springer and Bauer. I think that it doesn't take much of a leap to see the political implications.
binarray2000 11y ago
Also, Business Insider is owned by Axel Springer.
- Mithaldu 11y ago
  The company that owns BILD also owns BI. :D
GCA10 11y ago
Hmmn. These sorts of interviews are always flawed. Either they're done by someone with an agenda, or they're done by someone whose understanding of the subject is so rudimentary that he/she can't yet muster up an agenda. In this case, it's an interesting stroll through Zuckerberg's stated priorities of the moment. We're all free to re-filter the interview as we see fit to adjust for Springer spin and Zuckerberg spin. Getting vexed about the full range of Springer activities at this particular moment seems like a waste of good cortisol.

omnibrain 11y ago

Not to be confused with "Springer Verlag" a big german science publisher.

golergka 11y ago

> Important and notable while reading this is that the company "Axel Springer" is the owner of the german equivalent (in paper) of Fox News, or for UK people, the Daily Mail. I don't know anything about this company and I see no reason not to trust you on that. But since this interview doesnt' ask us to rely on Axel Springer's reputation, or trust it's word on something, how is this relevant?

creshal 11y ago
To give context? It was the Axel Springer foundation that awarded the award, made the interview, and "lightly edited" it.
Mithaldu 11y ago
Because it is likely that this whole thing wasn't written "because it is interesting" or "contains valuable information", but because it probably fulfills some marketing purpose or other hidden motive. I'm basically saying: If you're gonna read this, bring a big salt shaker. Note for example the praise on Berlin as a tech location. Note how effusive it is. Now consider this: Starting offers for developers with 5 years experience at Idealo (property of Axel Springer) in 2010 were 20000 € per year. I don't know any details for other things mentioned in that interview, but i would expect similar things to be "left out" as well.
- creshal 11y ago
  Axel Springer publications are also among the most notorious offenders of privacy laws whenever they feel like they're missing a juicy scoop otherwise. Of course they're all chubby with Facebook, especially because it allows them to get high-definition photographs of murder victims, suspects and everyone else they want to bring to the immediate attention of their readers: http://www.bildblog.de/77136/sein-wort-in-ihren-ohren/ http://www.bildblog.de/77136/sein-wort-in-ihren-ohren/
- kayoone 11y ago
  That sounds strange to me. There are a lot of companies searching for good developers in Berlin, working in Berlin myself as a software developer and knowing plenty of others i can't believe they can find anyone halfway decent who would work for that kind of money because there are simply a lot of better options. Besides that, your point is valid, but aren't any kind of awards always about marketing, new connections, brand recognition etc ?
  - Mithaldu 11y ago
    There's a difference between advertisement and "submarine ad", wherein the second one claims to provide something specific, while just serving to advertise something else.
- SyneRyder 11y ago
  €20000? Good grief. Even if I wanted to take that job (as an Australian who'd like to work in Berlin), I couldn't because the minimum pay for an EU Blue Card worker is €38688 and that's with the discounted rate for IT-skilled workers. (Otherwise the company has to offer a minimum €49600 for an EU Blue Card to be granted.)
  - Mithaldu 11y ago
    Yeah, i was equally baffled. When i told them 40k would be my absolute minimum they told me "You'd have to work for two then." They were also located in the absolutely cheapest part of Berlin they could be in. If you want to work in Berlin, prepare for a lot of research. It's absolutely possible, however due to the huge population of students, prices can be weird.
DasIch 11y ago
To call Axel Springer's reputation bad would describe their reputation as far more positive than it is. There is a famous quote by Max Goldt that describes the stance especially from the political left on the newspaper quite well: > This newspaper [Bild a newspaper Axel Springer is publishing] is a vile institution. It's wrong to read it. Someone who contributes to it is socially unacceptable. It would be wrong to be friendly or even polite to their editors. One has to be as unfriendly to them as is allowed by law. They're bad humans, that do wrong things. It doesn't matter what they're doing, it's that Axel Springer is involved that's the problem and in any discussion that involves enough Germans someone will point it out.
- creshal 11y ago
  > To call Axel Springer's reputation bad would describe their reputation as far more positive than it is. The communist Baader-Meinhof terrorists bombed three targets: 1. US Army bases, for the Vietnam War. 2. German police offices, for covering up Nazi crimes. 3. Axel Springer buildings, for their newspapers. "Bad reputation" is more than an understatement.
  - fwn 11y ago
    They are rather opinionated. That, however, isn't very respectable in the German (very consensus driven) public sphere. Most German newspapers are very bad on a journalistic/technologic level. Might be caused by the small userbase and the language barrier that shields away international competition.
    - Mithaldu 11y ago
      The problem isn't that their opinionated, it's that they lie. Systematically and remorselessly. http://www.bildblog.de/ http://www.bildblog.de/
      - creshal 11y ago
        For example, Peter Lustig: He was the host of Germany's most popular kids TV show for decades. At some point, he made an off-hand derisive comment about the BILD. Quickly, BILD spread a rumour that he secretly hated kids and was only in it for the money, a rumour they kept alive for decades; and which they are now again bringing to the front covers after his death, claiming to "try to uncover the truth". Utterly disgusting and borderline criminal.
elcapitan 11y ago
It's a German tradition that whenever somebody mentions the name of that publishing house, all Germans have to jump in and go apeshit :D
- creshal 11y ago
  And yet somehow it's still the biggest newspaper publisher in Germany. (And hey, at least nobody is blowing up their offices any more.)
  - elcapitan 11y ago
    Abandoning blowing up offices as a form of critique is very progressive, indeed.
  - Mithaldu 11y ago
    It has porn. No seriously. It's the easiest way to have a coffee in the morning in the office and look at some boobs. Most "read" paper on my base when i was in the army.
    - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
      Ok that's pretty soft. Used to be a time a shoulder or ankle was 'porn'. I guess topless beaches are really 'porn beaches'.
    - creshal 11y ago
      Reminds me of a recent comment that "German factories run on tits": https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46ti4d/eli5_why_italy_has_a_lot_of_supercar_status_car/d07xi6s https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/46ti4d/e...
- danielam 11y ago
  It's not just a German problem. Over 80% of Polish media are owned by German media companies and conglomerates and, IIRC, the bulk of it is divided between Axel Springer and Bauer. I think that it doesn't take much of a leap to see the political implications.

binarray2000 11y ago

Also, Business Insider is owned by Axel Springer.

Mithaldu 11y ago
The company that owns BILD also owns BI. :D

GCA10 11y ago

Hmmn. These sorts of interviews are always flawed. Either they're done by someone with an agenda, or they're done by someone whose understanding of the subject is so rudimentary that he/she can't yet muster up an agenda. In this case, it's an interesting stroll through Zuckerberg's stated priorities of the moment. We're all free to re-filter the interview as we see fit to adjust for Springer spin and Zuckerberg spin. Getting vexed about the full range of Springer activities at this particular moment seems like a waste of good cortisol.