Ringier

Ringier Group

Type	Stock Corporation
Industry	Media
Founded	1833
Headquarters	Zürich, Switzerland
Key people	Michael Ringier, Chairman Marc Walder, CEO since 5.4.2012
Revenue	CHF 1296 million (2011)
Employees	8000 (2011)
Website	Ringier's Corporate Website

Ringier AG is the largest international operating media company in Switzerland, founded in 1833 in Zofingen and based in Zürich. It publishes over 120 newspapers, magazines in German, French, Chinese, Vietnamese, Hungarian, Romanian and English and operates several e-commerce platforms.^[1] It has a yearly income of approximately 1.2 billion CHF and over 8,000 employees in more than seven countries.

The owners of the company are Evelyn Lingg-Ringier, Annette Ringier and Michael Ringier.^[2] On April 5, 2012, Marc Walder was appointed as the new CEO of Ringier AG.

The Board of Director is made up of:^[3]

• Michael Ringier, Chairman of the Board of Directors
• Dr. Uli Sigg, Vice-Chairman. Honorary member of the China-Switzerland Chamber of Commerce, which he founded in 1980. He was an ambassador in China as well.
• Jan O. Froshaug, Ex-Director of the Scandinavian media group Egmont, also active in Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, etc.
• Robin Lingg, Member of the Board
• Dr. Hans-Olaf Henkel, Ex-President of the German Federation of Industry (BDI), President of IBM Europe and presently a Member of numerous Supervisory Boards, such as IBM Deutschland, AUDI AG and Continental AG, as well as co-founder of the German-Japan Initiative, for which he was highly awarded by the Japanese Government and other organizations. He is also Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Industriebank AG (IKB) and took on a Visiting Professorship at the University of Mannheim, Germany. He is also Senator of the "Max-Planck-Gesellschaft", as well as of the "Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz", two leading institutions promoting scientific research in Germany . He received the Cicero-Rednerpreis Prize 2001.
• Martin Werfeli, Member of the Board and former CEO Ringier AG
• Christiane zu Salm, Member of the Board
• Claudio Cisullo, Member of the Board

Activities

Ringier is an international operating media enterprise with an integrated and diversified value added chain and has a portfolio of around 300 media products, information services, online platforms and choices within the entertainment sector.

The world-wide activities of Ringier involve in particular:

• The classical main business of information transfer in newspapers and magazines, extended by digital and mobile platforms. The printing plants in various countries also belong to the main business.
• The digital business, mainly internet based and mobile e-commerce-services like shopping webpage’s or grouponing-services and car-, housing- or job-plattforms.
• The entertainment sector includes all activities around television, radio, events and amusement-services (such as ticketing).

History

In 1833 Johann Rudolf Ringi­er pur­chased a print­ing works fa­cility in the Swiss town of Zofingen and began by print­ing regional gazettes and school curri­cu­lums. The small workshop soon evolved into a national newspaper-pub­lish­ing house. Schweizer Illus­tri­erte was first pub­lished in 1911 us­ing letter­press. It was Switzer­land's most successful people mag­a­zine and remains so to this day. In 1959 Ringi­er took the Swiss public by surprise launch­ing the country's first tabloid, Blick.^[4] The concept of the publication’s style prompted vio­lent con­tro­ver­sy among readers but proved very successful. Ringi­er first ven­tured into the televi­sion busi­ness in 1984, founding the local TV programming compa­ny, Züriv­i­sion. In 1987, Ringi­er expanded abroad for the first time, to Asia. The compa­ny's first activ­ities in East­ern Eu­rope took place in 1990. Al­though the Inter­net only began gain­ing mo­mentum as a mass medium to­wards the end of the 1990s, Ringi­er rec­ognized its po­tential as early as 1996, and began to con­quer the electron­ic me­dia with the Blick On­line and CASH On­line websites. Launch­ing a joint ven­ture unique to the compa­ny’s history in 2010, Ringi­er partnered with German pub­lish­er Axel Springer to found Ringi­er Axel Springer Me­dia AG to boost busi­ness in Central Eu­rope.^[5]

Ringier Axel Springer Media AG

In 2010, Ringier and the German publishing company Axel Springer launched the joint venture Ringier Axel Springer Media AG, focusing on Central Europe and incorporating their existing business in the Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia and Slovakia. Each partner owns a 50 percent stake in the new company. Ringier Axel Springer Media AG has a combined output of over 70 print publications and more than 60 online products.^[6]

Publications

Digital

Marketplaces

• anibis.ch
• jobs.ch
• ImmoScout24
• JobScout24
• AutoScout24
• MotoScout24
• Scout24

eCommerce

• cash.ch
• Pixobello24
• QUALIPET
• Geschenkidee.ch
• DeinDeal

References

1. ↑ Ringier Portfolio
2. ↑ de:Michael Ringier Michael Ringier
3. ↑ "Ringier AG, an international media enterprise.". Retrieved 2007-08-22. 
4. ↑ Blick
5. ↑ The history of the Ringier AG
6. ↑

External links

• Ringier Group website
  • Ringier Switzerland
  • Ringier Romania
  • Ringier Hungary
  • Ringier China
  • Ringier Viet Nam

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