There was a time when using a bottle of Moët & Chandon to celebrate the 26-year-old Daniel Meininger's founding of his new publication in 1903 would have been highly controversial. The previous year had been marked by the "Meteor Affair" - it was also known as the "Champagne War" - between Germany and France. A clever Moët representative had bribed the shipyard owner to ensured that Meteor, the German Kaiser's private yacht was christened with his company's Champagnd instead of Söhnlein Rheingold Sekt that the emperor had ordered.,
This controversy led to a lawsuit worth millions that was still a live issue in 1903 when Meininger's Das Weinblatt, or The Wine News, made its first appearance. It was a time when the wine and sparkling wine market was even more competitive than it is today; the impacts of unregulated industrialisation and capitalism had created an anarchic market that was at its wildes in the period leading up to World War I.
Pillar of commitment
The founding of Meininger Verlag, or Meininger Publishing, was in large part, driven by a legal case, where a prominent estate owner and wine merchant was accused of adulterating his wines. The leading industry magazine of that time ignored the story because of the position and reputation of the man in the dock.
For a committed journalist like Daniel Meininger, this was unacceptable. While employed at a local newspaper, he forged ties with winemakers and proposed offering them a voice in its pages. When his idea was rejected, he launched Das Weinblatt as the official journal of the Association of Palatinate Wine Producers. He reported critically and passionately and was not deterred from covering stories involving important members of the indusatry.
What became Meininger Verlag soon expanded into other magazines. However, the rise of the Nazis heralded a grim period for the family business. Daniel Meininger and his son, Herbert, who had joined the company in 1930, were seen as nuisances by the regime. Many of their titles were banned, forcibly sold, or shut down. The flagship Das Weinblatt was forcibly merged with other titles in 1943 and was completely shut down about a year later.
A new beginning
In 1948, the company was granted permission to relaunch its remaining titles, including Das Weinblatt, and 1971 saw its amalgamation with another leading title, Deutsche Weinzeitung, the German Wine Magazine. Four years later, the resulting Allgemeine Deutsche Weinzeitung, or General German Wine Magazine was rebranded to become the snappier Weinwirtschaft or Wine Business.
By 1977, Peter Meininger took over complete ownership of the publishing house, subsequently buying the other half of what had been a joint venture. The 1990s signaled a generational shift in leadership within the company. Peter Meininger's children – Christoph, Stefan, and Andrea – all joined the business. However, tragedy struck in 1992 when Stefan, the eldest, was tragically killed in a car accident shortly after joining the family business. Since 2001, the company has been managed by Andrea and Christoph Meininger, in collaboration with their father, Peter.
In 1992, Peter Meininger also played a pivotal role in the launch of ProWein, which worked closely with Meininger Publishing in its formative years. In 2001, Christoph and Andrea Meininger created the MUNDUS VINI wine competition.
Since then, MUNDUS VINI has become a benchmark competition and one of the largest in the world, attracting top wine experts from Asia, Africa, Australia, and America to taste wines twice a year from across the globe in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse, the birthplace of the publishing firm.
Platform of the industry
At Meininger Verlag, the wine industry and its trends and developments are covered by the a range of publications - WEINWIRTSCHAFT, Der deutsche Weinbau, Meiningers Weinwelt and Meiningers Sommelier - from many angles, and for an audience of producers, distributors, experts, sommeliers and consumers.
Founded in 2006, MEININGER'S INTERNATIONAL (formerly Meininger's Wine Business International) is the English-language publication that constantly reviews the wine market from a global perspective, addressessing and reaching key decision makers in the international industry. In its weekly newsletter, MEININGER'S INTERNATIONAL reports on what’s happening around the world from Sweden to Texas and delivers a hefty serving of analysis and thought-provoking opinion.
Together with WEINWIRTSCHAFT, it also plays a central role in the company's concept of an exchange platform. One of the most important occasions for this is Meininger's International Wine Conference, which takes place the day before ProWein. At the subsequent Meininger Awards ceremony, the Who's Who of the international wine industry meets to network and exchange ideas.
Digital content strategy
One of the mayor challenges for any business is keeping abreast with technology. Meininger Verlag has naturally considerably developed its the digital offering with both increasing quantities of high quality paid and free content, such as MEININGER'S INTERNATIONAL
The company is currently expanding the area of paid content, in the confidence that digital subscriptions are now as relevant to many people as ones to printed magazines.
In 2022, Frank Apfel, a specialist in the development of TV platforms and digital concepts, joined the company as Managing Director.
