Popularity is unnecessary, respect is enough
It is not a leader’s job to be popular. It is enough for them to be respected. And the respect that Martin Kall has earned during his ten years in the Swiss publishing industry was expressed—even by those who do not like him—upon the announcement of his resignation. Guest commentary by Karl Lüönd, freelance journalist and author.
Martin Kall came to Ringier in Switzerland in 1996 via a headhunter. He had served his apprenticeship as a publishing manager at the Bertelsmann Group, the "Aargauer", so to speak, among German publishers: down-to-earth, cost-conscious, very profitable and thriving in many niches. Kall took over Ringier's eastern business, which had been built up with enormous power but was in a chaotic state. He brought order and structure to it and took the decisive step forward. In Hungary, he was able to take over the majority of the leading daily newspaper from Gruner & Jahr because the Bertelsmann Group had opted for RTL and, according to Hungarian law, was not allowed to have both: Newspapers and TV stations. Kall then cleaned up Ringier's eastern business with an iron broom and made it profitable. He concentrated the business on tabloids, sports newspapers and women's magazines and set up the system in such a way that successful publication types could be multiplied. He uncompromisingly defended the cost leadership of his properties - a prerequisite for rapid distribution and a driver for the necessary investments in sales.
After Tamedia poached him, he lived his Prussian values internally: Order and cost discipline. Externally, he spelled out the term "competition" on a new scale to the competition. With financial strength behind him, he expanded Tamedia's position by shifting the emphasis ever more clearly to the two areas that were causing the traditional daily newspaper the most problems: Online and free newspapers. Martin Kall's great quality was negotiation. The representatives of Swiss Post blessed the day as he announced his resignation from the presidency of the publishers' association and the negotiating mandate for the postal tariffs passed into other hands. Kall had a ready-made "Plan B" in his pocket - an alternative delivery organization for the publishers, which never materialized.
His masterpiece was the takeover of 20 Minuten. He not only built up a threatening backdrop with the rival project Express - he also really got this paper ready for launch. Just as the editorial team and publisher were celebrating the launch party, the terrified financial investors who owned 20 Minuten at the time buckled under fear of a years-long war of attrition and sold the paper to him. The fact that 20 Minuten was at times one of the most profitable newspaper titles in the world was also due to Martin Kall's rigorous cost management. And when the .ch project began to nibble at the same cake, father Kall got back in with the big spoon and sealed off the market with news - until .ch ran out of steam.
Contrary to the expectations of the industry, he got on well with the capable lawyer and banker Pietro Supino, who became the new Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tamedia. The two realized the strategic "Plan B": Having missed out on entering the international business long before their time - in the crucial years of 1989/90, when Ringier founded Cash in the Czech Republic - Tamedia wanted to at least become a frontrunner in the overcrowded Swiss market. Espace Medien (Bern) and Edipresse (Lausanne) were taken over. The regionalization of the Tages-Anzeiger failed due to the disregarded "soft factors" - and in the end, thanks to cunning and power, ended with the takeover of the Zurich regional newspapers, thus achieving an important publishing goal: control over advertising rates in Switzerland's largest economic area.
Martin Kall proved to be an extremely capable, loyal mercenary with great negotiating skills and a pronounced killer instinct. Rumor has it that his successor, a controller, is cut from similar cloth.
