The oasis is calling
As head of the magazine publishing division at AZ Medien, Irene Frei aims to expand the company’s market position and boost circulation figures.
As Head of Magazine Publishing at AZ Medien, Irene Frei wants to expand the company's market position and get circulation "boiling. Otherwise you get into a routine and become "sluggish and blind to the business". Irene Frei has never run this risk. The new Head of Magazine Publishing at the AZ Medien Group has worked as a "temporary manager" for many years in her professional life. She likes the fact that you have to approach new challenges in different ways, but can still discover parallels in the solution.at AZ Medien, Irene Frei has taken on a permanent role. But only on the outside. Within her tasks, she finds plenty of opportunities for variety in this up-and-coming publishing house. In addition to the booming magazine Kochen with a circulation of around 88,000 copies, her portfolio also includes the special interest titles Natürlich and Fit for Life as well as the five well-positioned trade journals MegaLink Precision, Elektrotechnik, hk Gebäudetechnik, technica and Batitech.
With all these magazines, the publishing director also has to "focus on two completely different markets", each of which she has to address with different marketing strategies.
It was precisely this kind of dynamic that Irene Frei was looking for when she decided to undergo in-depth career counseling at the age of 30. There, "a marketing profile clearly emerged with a strong leadership component," says Frei, summarizing the result.
Before her career change into the publishing industry - which she had "somehow already dreamed of as a childhood bookworm" - Irene Frei worked as a commercial manager in an international general contracting company after completing commercial school and several years of management training. In Switzerland, she "managed the commercial side" of projects in what was then the Eastern Bloc. Emigrating to Moscow and helping to shape the success of an expanding construction company there would have been a tempting alternative before she decided to move to Aarau.
She began her career in publishing as a project manager at Tages-Anzeiger Verlag, now Tamedia. The SonntagsZeitung had just been launched there, and Frei was able to help market the advertising space, evaluate research and implement decision-making principles for publishing management, editorial staff and the advertising market. After two years, she applied for a job at Ringier, where she was given the opportunity to manage the national and international marketing service.
Because she really wanted to manage a profit center, she moved to Weka Verlag in 1993 and became a member of the management board for the first time. In a turnaround situation, she "restructured Baufach-Verlag with a small team". The next challenge awaited her at Limmatdruck. Frei was given a year to develop Migros' original PR tool, Saison-Küche, into an independent and now well-established publishing house. Then she flew off into the desert.
A journey that was to become more than just a vacation adventure. For the first time in her life, she traveled through the Sahara with a rucksack and sleeping bag and without a shower for 14 days in a caravan. The endless expanse and the feeling of her own smallness once again triggered completely new thoughts. "As a manager who works in different companies with their different cultures, employees, strategies and goals, I experience the concentration on the essentials in the desert."
Since this first trip to the desert, she has felt "like a nomad". She not only goes back to the desert regularly. She now also knows why she derives the most professional satisfaction from "nomadic wandering" through various tasks. She always wants to apply the lessons she learns from one project to new ones. As a temporary manager and management consultant, she has supported many SMEs since 1998 and also helped to set up the key account management of a full-service agency for international TV campaigns.
Irene Frei spent the last three years working for the Haufe Media Group in Freiburg im Breisgau. She managed its Swiss subsidiary and rebranded the publishing house for electronic specialist information in segments ranging from corporate management to marketing and sales as Haufe BusinessMedia. She eventually merged this company with its competitor Weka.
Back in 2002, Frei played a key role in setting up the magazine Kochen as project manager. This was one of the main reasons why she was eventually brought back to AZ Medien by a headhunter to take over from interim manager Ueli Eckstein.
Now Irene Frei wants to "grow sustainably" together with the AZ Media Group.
Andreas Panzeri
With all these magazines, the publishing director also has to "focus on two completely different markets", each of which she has to address with different marketing strategies.
It was precisely this kind of dynamic that Irene Frei was looking for when she decided to undergo in-depth career counseling at the age of 30. There, "a marketing profile clearly emerged with a strong leadership component," says Frei, summarizing the result.
Before her career change into the publishing industry - which she had "somehow already dreamed of as a childhood bookworm" - Irene Frei worked as a commercial manager in an international general contracting company after completing commercial school and several years of management training. In Switzerland, she "managed the commercial side" of projects in what was then the Eastern Bloc. Emigrating to Moscow and helping to shape the success of an expanding construction company there would have been a tempting alternative before she decided to move to Aarau.
She began her career in publishing as a project manager at Tages-Anzeiger Verlag, now Tamedia. The SonntagsZeitung had just been launched there, and Frei was able to help market the advertising space, evaluate research and implement decision-making principles for publishing management, editorial staff and the advertising market. After two years, she applied for a job at Ringier, where she was given the opportunity to manage the national and international marketing service.
Because she really wanted to manage a profit center, she moved to Weka Verlag in 1993 and became a member of the management board for the first time. In a turnaround situation, she "restructured Baufach-Verlag with a small team". The next challenge awaited her at Limmatdruck. Frei was given a year to develop Migros' original PR tool, Saison-Küche, into an independent and now well-established publishing house. Then she flew off into the desert.
A journey that was to become more than just a vacation adventure. For the first time in her life, she traveled through the Sahara with a rucksack and sleeping bag and without a shower for 14 days in a caravan. The endless expanse and the feeling of her own smallness once again triggered completely new thoughts. "As a manager who works in different companies with their different cultures, employees, strategies and goals, I experience the concentration on the essentials in the desert."
Since this first trip to the desert, she has felt "like a nomad". She not only goes back to the desert regularly. She now also knows why she derives the most professional satisfaction from "nomadic wandering" through various tasks. She always wants to apply the lessons she learns from one project to new ones. As a temporary manager and management consultant, she has supported many SMEs since 1998 and also helped to set up the key account management of a full-service agency for international TV campaigns.
Irene Frei spent the last three years working for the Haufe Media Group in Freiburg im Breisgau. She managed its Swiss subsidiary and rebranded the publishing house for electronic specialist information in segments ranging from corporate management to marketing and sales as Haufe BusinessMedia. She eventually merged this company with its competitor Weka.
Back in 2002, Frei played a key role in setting up the magazine Kochen as project manager. This was one of the main reasons why she was eventually brought back to AZ Medien by a headhunter to take over from interim manager Ueli Eckstein.
Now Irene Frei wants to "grow sustainably" together with the AZ Media Group.
Andreas Panzeri
