Memories of Christian Buxhofer
The former editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Bündner Tagblatt, Christian Buxhofer, died unexpectedly on Sunday night at the age of 52. By Hanspeter Lebrument
Christian Buxhofer has played an important role in the media landscape in Graubünden over the last few decades. At the time when Christoph Blocher was publisher of the "Bündner Tagblatt", in the mid-1980s, he was appointed editor-in-chief. It was thanks to him that he gave the second daily newspaper a voice and profile.
My memories of Christian Buxhofer go back to the nineties. Back then, we decided to set up a three-title system in Graubünden. Bündner Zeitung, Bündner Tagblatt and La Quotidiana under one publishing house. This team of architects needed journalists who could give shape and content to such a vision, which was being pursued for the first time in Switzerland. It would have been easy to remove the old, competing forces from this project and entrust new ones with the task of the future. However, it turned out that personalities such as Christian Buxhofer were ideally suited to bring their own voice and direction to the large ensemble. Together with his crew, he has made the Bündner Tagblatt an important voice within an important media company.
As an analyst, together with his counterpart Andrea Masüger, he built up two independent German-language newspapers. He succeeded in creating a local and regional voice, organizing a variety of information and incorporating a new heavyweight commentary section into the Bündner Tagblatt.
Christian Buxhofer was a conciliatory, good conversationalist who always remained true to his desire to have his own newspaper and his own voice. He was very familiar with the history of his newspaper, which had grown out of the Catholic-Conservative tradition and is the oldest title in Graubünden. He continued to develop this legacy and adapted it to changing circumstances in the best possible way.
I will always remember this time of building up the three-title system with personalities like Christian Buxhofer. His early death has deeply affected us all. The employees of Südostschweiz Medien and I, as publisher, offer my heartfelt condolences to his wife Angela and his family.
Hanspeter Lebrument, Publisher and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Südostschweiz Medien
