EqualVoice brings Nobel Peace Prize winner onto the Advisory Board

Ringier's EqualVoice initiative has gained two outstanding personalities for its Advisory Board: Tawakkol Karman, Nobel Peace Prize winner, journalist and human rights activist from Yemen, and Chris Keller, General Manager Europe Central at Amazon Web Services (AWS), will strengthen the initiative's national and international work in the future.

In 2011, Tawakkol Karman was the first woman from the Arab world to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize - for her non-violent commitment to women's safety and their right to full participation in peace processes. As a leading figure of the Arab Spring, the journalist became internationally known. She founded the organization "Women Journalists Without Chains", led protests against the authoritarian regime in her home country and was imprisoned and persecuted for her commitment. To this day, she stands for the conviction that democracy, freedom of expression and the full participation of women in society are universal values. From summer 2026, Tawakkol Karman will join the international EqualVoice Advisory Board.

As General Manager Europe Central at AWS, Chris Keller is responsible for business in over 30 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Previously, as General Manager Switzerland & Austria, he headed the country organizations in Switzerland and Austria. With his international leadership responsibilities and his focus on technology, scaling and cultural change, he brings an additional strategic perspective to the National Advisory Board of EqualVoice.

Dr. Annabella Bassler, Group CFO of Ringier and initiator of EqualVoice: "Tawakkol Karman embodies exactly what EqualVoice stands for: Attitude, courage and the conviction that visibility is a core democratic issue. And with Chris Keller, we are gaining a leader who shapes transformation and responsibility on a global level. Both will greatly enrich our international work in terms of content and strategy."

Measurable progress through changes in editorial practice

At the heart of EqualVoice is the EqualVoice Factor, a semantic algorithm that measures the presence of women and men in editorial content. The evaluations for the second half of 2025 show that The initiative is having a measurable impact in Switzerland and internationally. Continuous measurement is changing editorial routines.

This clearly shows that visibility is less a question of format than a question of editorial attitude. Titles that consistently focus on proximity, relevance and relevance to life not only achieve a high impact in terms of content, but also a more balanced presence of women and men. The EqualVoice Factor thus makes visible how journalistic priorities are shifting - away from pure information logic and towards more meaningful and people-oriented storytelling.

Switzerland: Significantly higher visibility - new benchmarks 2025

In Switzerland, almost all Ringier Media Switzerland titles were able to increase their teaser and body visibility in 2025 compared to 2024, both in print and online. The development was particularly strong for GaultMillau, which increased by 16.1 percentage points online. The overall average body score is now 36.8% (print) and 33% (online). LandLiebe sets a clear internal benchmark here with 52% (print).

New peak values were also achieved for headline visibility, the teaser score: LandLiebe is clearly in the lead with 66%, followed by Glückspost Print (49%), the Beobachter (43%) and Schweizer Illustrierte (43% online / 39% print). The prominent placement of female voices is increasingly becoming the editorial standard. Blick has an online teaser score of 27% (print: 23%) and thus remains at a solid level.

International: progress with clear differences

The EqualVoice factor is also having an impact in the international markets. Poland is particularly strong: With an average of 50 percent in the body score, 52.3 percent in the headlines and 54.7 percent in the images, Ringier Axel Springer Polska's portfolio achieves a high, balanced level - especially in the areas of health, lifestyle and family.

Serbia is also in the top group with teaser and image scores of around 55% each. In Slovakia, a good basis has been achieved with solid average values, with recognizable development potential at the same time. A consistent pattern can be seen across all markets: high EqualVoice scores are achieved where relevance is created through proximity, classification and identification.