(Bloomberg) -- Axel Springer SE Chief Executive Officer Mathias Doepfner’s role is being questioned following a report that he failed to respond swiftly to allegations of misconduct at the Bild tabloid and instead sought to investigate the people who voiced the concerns.

The Financial Times, citing a months-long investigation and interviews with more than two dozen people familiar with the Axel Springer probe, said Doepfner knew early on about the sexual advances that former Bild boss Julian Reichelt made toward younger female reporters. Doepfner rallied to protect Reichelt despite repeated allegations of wrongdoing, the newspaper reported.

“If that’s true, the leadership skills of the Springer boss are under question,” Frank Ueberall, who heads Germany’s biggest journalism association DJV, said in a statement. “Mathias Doepfner has to come out with the facts. The allegations against him are very serious.”

Axel Springer said in an emailed response to the FT article that the story “paints a misleading picture of the compliance investigation, the consequences drawn from it, the entire company and its leadership.” KKR & Co., which together with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board control 48.5% of the company, declined to comment, while the Canada Pension Plan didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Doepfner and Friede Springer, the founder’s widow, each own about 22% of the publisher.

Axel Springer in October fired Reichelt, saying he’d failed to “clearly separate personal and professional matters” and lied about his relationships with female colleagues. The ousting was preceded by a New York Times column that detailed Reichelt’s alleged misconduct, including promoting a junior employee with whom he was having a relationship.

Six months earlier, Axel Springer had reinstated Reichelt as Bild’s top editor following a compliance investigation into his conduct by an external law firm. The publisher at the time said the editor had made mistakes, but hadn’t committed any criminal wrongdoing or broken company rules.

READ MORE: Toppled Tabloid King Puts Expansionist German Publisher on Edge

Doepfner, 59, is a key figure in Axel Springer’s transformation from print to digital publisher. He has been on an acquisition drive in recent years, most notably the $1 billion purchase of the Politico news portal, announced last year to cement Springer’s U.S. foothold. 

In late October, following Reichelt’s dismissal, Doepfner vowed he’d push through cultural changes at Bild, asking employees to speak out against misconduct.

“We must be a role model when it comes to modern, respectful, diverse corporate culture,” Doepfner said in a video statement at the time.

The publisher, through subsidiaries like Insider and Politico, competes with Bloomberg News in providing financial and political information. 

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