heise
German tech press, center / non-partisan
Background
Heinz Heise founded the Verlag Heinz Heise in Hannover in 1949, initially publishing telephone directories. His son Christian took over management in 1972. The computer magazine c't launched in 1983 and the professional magazine iX in 1988. The news portal heise online (heise.de) went online in 1996 and became one of the most widely read IT news sites in German-speaking countries. In 2002 the company was reorganized into legally independent units under a holding company, and in 2015 it was renamed the Heise Group, with the magazine publisher operating as Heise Medien. The company has stayed family-owned and has not relied on outside investors or state funding. It is known for technical product testing, security reporting (for example, its research on vulnerabilities) and a long record of covering data protection and digital civil rights. It has also faced the usual controversies of online media over ad tracking, paywalls (heise+) and reader-comment moderation. Its orientation is generally pro-consumer, pro-privacy and skeptical of surveillance and big-tech power, rather than aligned with a political party. I did not independently verify the details of its recent coverage of the Trump administration.
Sources
Profile compiled 2026-11-04; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.