What happened
According to Similarweb data for October 2026, several German online media brands owned by Ippen Digital experienced significant traffic declines. Ruhr 24 dropped 30.7%, Frankfurter Rundschau 30.1%, and Merkur.de 17.5%, the latter falling to 45.42 million visits, its lowest in 13 months. The losses are attributed to heavy reliance on Google traffic. Meanwhile, public broadcasters like ZDFheute, NDR, MDR, and Tagesschau also saw declines, reversing gains from September's state elections. Bild, ntv, and t-online remained at the top. Overall, 46 of the top 100 sites saw year-on-year declines, but a general negative impact from AI tools like ChatGPT is not yet evident. Some sites like Berliner Kurier grew significantly.
Key facts & figures
- ·Ruhr 24 lost 30.7% of its traffic in October 2026.
- ·Frankfurter Rundschau lost 30.1% of visits.
- ·Merkur.de dropped 17.5% to 45.42 million visits, its lowest in 13 months.
- ·Public broadcasters ZDFheute, NDR, MDR, and Tagesschau also saw significant declines.
- ·46 of the top 100 German online media sites had year-on-year traffic declines.
Why it matters — our perspective
October's traffic drops across major German regional and national news portals show how volatile search- and Discover-dependent reach has become in the DACH publisher market. Publishers that rely on high-volume open-exchange display impressions face immediate revenue compression; resilient monetization increasingly depends on direct programmatic curation, authenticated first-party cohorts, and high-impact video/CTV extensions.
Key questions for investors and operators
When evaluating transactions, technology stacks, or commercial partnerships in this space, we recommend looking closely at three questions:
Companies & platforms involved
Ippen Digital is the parent company of Merkur.de, Frankfurter Rundschau, and Ruhr 24, which all saw significant traffic declines in October 2026.
Similarweb provided the traffic data for the Top 100 ranking; the data is based on estimates and multiple sources.
MEEDIA publishes the Top 100 ranking based on Similarweb data.