Hartmeier's salutary coup de grâce
The new editor-in-chief of the Tagi is streamlining and optimizing his management team
The new editor-in-chief of the Tages-Anzeiger is streamlining and optimizing his management teamBy Oliver Classen Just one month in office as editor-in-chief and already the first bang has been made: Peter Hartmeier wants to ensure more content accents and efficiency at the Tages-Anzeiger with his fast-paced reform of the management structure. Key functions are assigned to the Blue Bund and the two news directors.
Giving the editorial water head a drainage system without letting a lot of know-how flow away: this is how the successor to Philipp Löpfe, who was visibly under a lot of creative tension and recently had five deputies of equal status around him, describes his small personnel palace revolution. Instead of an entire team of substitutes, he now has "two nimble right-hand men" in Daniela Decurtins and Roland Schlumpf, who will "selectively relieve and supplement" him in his day-to-day planning (Schlumpf) and journalistic (Decurtins) work.
Old heads, but no old habits in the new organizational chart
However, the more important change at the highest editorial level is likely to be the appointment of Rita Flubacher and Hanspeter Bürgin, who are particularly close to Hartmeier, to the position of head of news - Bürgin is returning to the Tages-Anzeiger from the Aargauer Zeitung, where he last worked as a correspondent in Berlin. The former company spokesman hopes that this functional differentiation will "significantly increase our reaction speed" and improve the networking of overarching topics such as clone babies or the World Economic Forum. The traditional departmental structure is not up for discussion, but stronger topic-oriented cooperation between the individual alliances is at the top of the reform agenda.
According to Hartmeier, age and gender played no role in the castling process. However, he is "very, very happy" about the comparatively respectable proportion of women. Nevertheless, it is noticeable that those in their mid-thirties (with the exception of Decurtins) have been relegated to the second tier of department heads. Even if they, like the head of the Blauer Bund, Peter Haerle, continue to hold key positions: The generational change heralded by former editor-in-chief Roger de Weck in 1992 - who was also less than 40 years old at the time - has been put on ice for the time being. Incidentally, under de Weck, the Zürich-Bund, which Hartmeier had stylized as the key department with the city and region (including the
Züritipps, which is published as a city magazine) are already under one flag. Hartmeier does not claim that his ideas are new: "Most of them already existed on paper; my job is now to implement and realize them."
The next central item on the agenda in the Tagi editor-in-chief's ambitious catalog of changes - following the revision of the sixth (society) edition at the beginning of March - will be the visual and content-related accentuation of
of the various broadsheets. Not least in view of the upcoming in-house tabloid competition called Express. Hartmeier sees his departmental showcases as a "means of differentiation from the free papers that must be consciously maintained and used".
The professional optimist has time for more surprises
Although Hartmeier does not confirm that the conversion of ZürichExpress into Express, which has been announced for spring, will put him under additional pressure, his emphasis that the Tamedia publishing family and the company management attach great importance to personnel continuity, regardless of the sales trend, speaks volumes. Ultimately, it means nothing other than that the editor-in-chief's chair, which Hartmeier has securely filled for the time being, could quickly become an ejector seat again if circulation does not stabilize. Until then, however, the professional optimist will probably still have some time for further surprise coups - organizational ones, but hopefully also journalistic ones such as the security number at the turn of the year or the current North Korea series.
Giving the editorial water head a drainage system without letting a lot of know-how flow away: this is how the successor to Philipp Löpfe, who was visibly under a lot of creative tension and recently had five deputies of equal status around him, describes his small personnel palace revolution. Instead of an entire team of substitutes, he now has "two nimble right-hand men" in Daniela Decurtins and Roland Schlumpf, who will "selectively relieve and supplement" him in his day-to-day planning (Schlumpf) and journalistic (Decurtins) work.
Old heads, but no old habits in the new organizational chart
However, the more important change at the highest editorial level is likely to be the appointment of Rita Flubacher and Hanspeter Bürgin, who are particularly close to Hartmeier, to the position of head of news - Bürgin is returning to the Tages-Anzeiger from the Aargauer Zeitung, where he last worked as a correspondent in Berlin. The former company spokesman hopes that this functional differentiation will "significantly increase our reaction speed" and improve the networking of overarching topics such as clone babies or the World Economic Forum. The traditional departmental structure is not up for discussion, but stronger topic-oriented cooperation between the individual alliances is at the top of the reform agenda.
According to Hartmeier, age and gender played no role in the castling process. However, he is "very, very happy" about the comparatively respectable proportion of women. Nevertheless, it is noticeable that those in their mid-thirties (with the exception of Decurtins) have been relegated to the second tier of department heads. Even if they, like the head of the Blauer Bund, Peter Haerle, continue to hold key positions: The generational change heralded by former editor-in-chief Roger de Weck in 1992 - who was also less than 40 years old at the time - has been put on ice for the time being. Incidentally, under de Weck, the Zürich-Bund, which Hartmeier had stylized as the key department with the city and region (including the
Züritipps, which is published as a city magazine) are already under one flag. Hartmeier does not claim that his ideas are new: "Most of them already existed on paper; my job is now to implement and realize them."
The next central item on the agenda in the Tagi editor-in-chief's ambitious catalog of changes - following the revision of the sixth (society) edition at the beginning of March - will be the visual and content-related accentuation of
of the various broadsheets. Not least in view of the upcoming in-house tabloid competition called Express. Hartmeier sees his departmental showcases as a "means of differentiation from the free papers that must be consciously maintained and used".
The professional optimist has time for more surprises
Although Hartmeier does not confirm that the conversion of ZürichExpress into Express, which has been announced for spring, will put him under additional pressure, his emphasis that the Tamedia publishing family and the company management attach great importance to personnel continuity, regardless of the sales trend, speaks volumes. Ultimately, it means nothing other than that the editor-in-chief's chair, which Hartmeier has securely filled for the time being, could quickly become an ejector seat again if circulation does not stabilize. Until then, however, the professional optimist will probably still have some time for further surprise coups - organizational ones, but hopefully also journalistic ones such as the security number at the turn of the year or the current North Korea series.
