Wilfried F. Rimensberger

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wilfried F. Rimensberger 1953 in Weinfelden, Switzerland) is a notable Swiss journalist, magazine editor and entrepreneurial international communications specialist. He has also production credits on a variety of international music albums, TV and stage productions.

He is a citizen of Weinfelden in Switzerland, finished his secondary school education in Berg (TG) and achieved the Swiss National Laboratory Diploma in 1972. At the age of 17 he was already writing for Switzerland's larges youth magazine 'Jugendwoche' (140000 copies monthly) and his series "Jung und behindert" (Young and disadvantaged) was highly regarded. He became editor of the Swiss Laboratory Journal at the age of 19 and President of the Zurich Laborant Association. Soon Switzerland's largest publishing house Ringier employed him first as a journalist and than editor at a weekly glossy magazine, where during a state visit of the Spanish King he was singled out by Queen Sophia and personally introduced to the King of Spain and gained an exclusive audience. Soon he was asked to join Switzerland's largest daily newspaper BLICK where he became entertainment and media editor. He became highly regarded for his exclusive interviews - some of them were world exclusives with names like Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, the Dalai Lama. He also came up with several news scoops in other fields.

He also became engaged in support for opening up the Swiss Government's radio and TV monopoly, and regularly wrote headline news on the Swiss National Broadcaster. Rimensberger spent also time in Hamburg gaining experiences at Germany's largest daily newspaper BILD Zeitung and the weekly news magazine STERN. In 1982 he moved to London working as a UK correspondent for various Ringier publications, regularly contributing also to Switzerland's largest cable network Radio Rediffusion (London Calling) and Swiss Radio and TV as a reporter and presenter. To that he later added interview and music program contributions for Germany's ZDF (SchülerExpess) and ARD (Montreuz Jazz Festival).

In 1984 he became London-based chief editor of the monthly German music magazine MusikSzene and also invented the marquee brand concept of Metal Hammer as a multi-lingual monthly rock music publication that went on to become the world's largest music publication in the late 1980s. At that time it was published in 11 different languages and reached a monthly circulation of over 1 million. Rimensberger instigated MetalHammer awards, TV and Radio shows, recordings and tours and become the promotor of the Loreley Metalhammer Festival with 30000 visitors. After launching the international UK edition as its publisher and first editor Rimensberger sold the business and copyrights to his German publishing partner Jürgen Wigginghaus und became a consultant to MTV Europe where he was instrumental to get the music video station access to the cable networks in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He also became manager and co-producer of Tom Galley's seminal Phenomena rock music project. Rimensberger developed Galley's project into a globally credible multi-media superstar concept, arranged for an international recording and publishing contract with BMG/RCA International and got a string of world class musicians involved. Additionally, he became co-producer of the Phenomena feature movie 'DreamRunner' involving such names as Sean Connery, Antony Furst and Eddi Kidd. But weeks before the beginning of the shoot the financial deal of executive producer Raymond Homer collapsed and a disagreement between the record company and Tom Galley led to RCA and Rimensberger walking out on Phenomena but he remained in the music management business by looking after certain European music projects of Stiletto Entertainment Los Angeles. He also introduced Nina Corti to the UK, promoted a her show at the Royal Albert Hall and filmed it for Channel4 and Swiss TV.

Wilfried F. Rimensberger was also called by ex British Telecom people who started to develop Audiotex services and needed an expert on cross-cultural media projects to develop an international business development strategy. Rimensberger become a European audiotex pioneer developing the ClubCall Audiotex brand with international football clubs like FC Bayern Munich, Manchester United, FC Madrid and direct with FIFA. A string of services involving megastars such as Michael Jackson, TakeThat and Hollywood stars were licensed to ClubCall too. Springer Verlag later bought the brand and related services. Rimensberger extended his music management situation by signing musical star Anna Marie Kaufmann. Her career was on the brink of collapse after an abrupt end to her first ever solo recording contract with Sony Music. Based on his football and media links Rimensberger developed a strategy that led to a new recording contract with Polydor and engagements with earnings of 20000 Euros per performance. Kaufmann quickly became sponsored by brands like Chanel, Bunz, Mercedes, Escada and won several media awards. As executive producer he arranged for the set-up of her CD recordings with producer Bernie Staub and the Vienna Sinfonie Orchestra. He also organised a European Tour of Barry Manilow and became his sourcing producer for the musical and feature film project 'Harmony'.

In visual arts he began to work with various young artists such as Tim Davies and André Wilhelm promoting their art exhibitions and book publications in Switzerland, Germany and England. This includes HELVETIA 2000, the only art exhibition of young artists ever shown at the Swiss House of Parliament in Berne. A court case with former employees and a clash with Anna Marie Kaufmann combined with a declining art market in the mid-late 1990s led to the collapse of the business. And in 2000 Wilfried Rimensberger had to start afresh as publication manager with Highbury House Communications PLC in London, where he developed Europe’s first exclusive publication for regular users and owners of business jets and helicopters. At the end of 2002 he left Highbury House to work on a cross-border financial publication and also on an international pension investment project conceived by a group of business people from the City of London. Since 2000 international business publications such as Deutsche Horizonte, Funds Europe and European Fund Manager magazine have published his articles on cross border, European investment and Corporate Governance issues. He also became the founding Chairman of the Children's Art Academy London; a charity project that provides talented primary school children with artist led, highly focused oil painting courses.