Glass palace revolution

Commentary Tamedia's departure from magazine printing and the upmarket magazine Du signal an internal cultural change, writes Oliver Classen With the radical overhaul that Martin Kall has prescribed for Tamedia's magazine division, the CEO is achieving two milestones in his uncompromising restructuring plan. Firstly, by gradually discontinuing magazine printing, he is finally fulfilling the company's promise of "Content for People" and consistently focusing the Zurich-based media company on content. Kall's demand for more attractive internal printing conditions had already hit a brick wall with his former employer Michael Ringier, whom he also served as head of magazines. On the other hand, the Bertelsmann-trained CEO is continuing to trim Tamedia, which has been listed on the stock exchange for almost three years, for profitability. The most prominent victim of the most recent fitness campaign is the prestigious, permanently loss-making Du, to which the culture-loving publishing family was particularly emotionally attached. With last week's bombshell, their previous idealistic-commercial mixed calculation has now finally landed in the dustbin of media history.
The fact that the arch-pragmatist Kall managed to persuade his new patron Hans Heinrich Coninx to abruptly turn away from patronage after only 15 months in office sheds a glaring light on the influence of the German CEO, which has long since extended far beyond the operational side. And points to a real cultural change at Tamedia. Instead of - as before - relying on board member Iwan Rickenbacher in cases of doubt and fate,
Coninx now seems to be relying entirely on his chief strategist Kall.
After magazines, he wants to take on the newspaper sector in the fourth quarter. Which could mean bad news for the magazine as the last reserve of profitability. But perhaps the cash cow Tages-Anzeiger will also be sent on a slimming diet.
Oliver Classen, Editor