Background and career
Hubert Burda (born 9 February 1940) is a German billionaire publisher. He is the owner, publisher and general partner of Hubert Burda Media, a global media company of more than 600 media products, including websites, print magazines and other brands. It operates in 20 countries, predominantly in Germany and the UK. Its brands include Focus, Bunte and Radio Times. Burda is chairman of the conference Digital Life Design (DLD), which takes place annually in January in Munich. As of July 2025, Forbes estimates his net worth at $4 billion.
Burda is the youngest son of the publishing couple Franz and Aenne Burda, alongside his older brothers Franz and Frieder. As a sixth-form pupil he took painting lessons daily and hoped to become a painter, against his father's wishes. His father permitted him to study art history only on condition that he wait until after the age of 25 to begin. Burda attended LMU Munich, where he studied art history with Hans Sedlmayr, as well as archaeology and sociology. He earned his doctorate in art history before the age of 26; his dissertation was titled Die Ruine in Hubert Robert's Pictures. After several traineeships in US advertising agencies and publishers, Burda worked until 1974 as publishing director of the Burda magazine Bild und Funk. As an independent project, in 1969 he founded the magazine m - The Magazine For Men.
Burda assumed the role of sole shareholder and CEO of Burda Holding in 1987. In 1988, he recruited the editorial director of Bild-Zeitung, Günter Prinz, from Springer-Verlag. In addition to the program magazine Super TV, Burda also established SUPERillu, the magazine with the largest circulation in what was then East Germany, launching six weeks before German reunification. In 1993, Burda collaborated with Helmut Markwort to develop the news magazine Focus, a rival to Der Spiegel. In 1999, Burda renamed the holding company to Hubert Burda Media. Under his father the firm's revenues were split broadly equally between printing and publishing, but under Hubert the firm significantly expanded its digital and international operations, including joint ventures with Hachette, Microsoft and Rizzoli and international expansion into countries such as Singapore, Thailand, India, Russia.
In 2018, Hubert Burda Media employed 12,369 staff and achieved revenues of €2.66 billion in its four divisions (Digital Brands National, Media Brands National, Media Brands International and Print). Burda's German publishing arm generated over €650million, reaching approximately three-quarters of the German population. The firm's international division recorded a turnover of €413 million.
As of July 2025, Forbes estimated Burda's net worth at US$4 billion. He is the third richest publisher in Germany, after Friede Springer and Elisabeth Mohn.
Burda stepped down as CEO in 2010. He has given Burda Media shares to his two children; Elisabeth and Jacob each now hold 37.4% of the company, leaving him with 25.1%.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
