Responsibility is part of our identity

As one of the four Bertelsmann Essentials, corporate citizenship has always been deeply rooted both in Bertelsmann’s corporate culture and in our business.

When we talk about "corporate responsibility,” we are talking about something that goes beyond pure social responsibility in the narrow sense of the word. Bertelsmann sees itself as a part of society, and a partner to society. We seek to take effective and responsible long-term action – especially wherever our value creation overlaps with the interests and expectations of our stakeholders: in our business environment, towards our employees, in the community and in our treatment of the environment. Our corporate responsibility strategy is closely aligned with our corporate structure: We practice decentralized, local involvement, systematically staying close to our value chain and the media and services business.

The particular responsibility of a media company

We are well aware of the special responsibility incumbent on us as a media company. The media play an important role in society: they are both an economic and a cultural good, and they feed into public opinion-building. We see our job as contributing to a diverse media landscape by providing a wide variety of creative entertainment and information offerings. This mandate, too, is included in the Bertelsmann Essentials, our core principles: “We promote artistic freedom and freedom of thought, the protection of democracy and human rights, and the respect of traditions and cultural values. Consequently, the content we provide reflects a wide range of viewpoints and opinions.”

The following pages will tell you more about the ideas and principles that shape our understanding of corporate responsibility and guide our efforts.