We have to say goodbye
It is our solemn journalistic duty to inform the readers of our Werbewoche portal of the death of our editor-in-chief, Pierre C. Meier.
We remain deeply saddened in the editorial office and still can't put the news into context. Pierre C. Meier was torn from life by a stroke at the age of 66. He was still full of plans for his future. His agenda is full of appointments with people who will never be able to meet him again. It is very quiet in the editorial office.
A shock for his relatives, to whom we express our deepest condolences.
PCM, as he is known, was editor-in-chief of Media Trend Journal for twelve years and editor-in-chief of Werbewoche for ten years. During a transitional phase, he also managed Medien&Medizin Verlag MMV in Zurich. Pierre was a fundamentally kind person and boss; sometimes gnarled and a little rough around the edges, yet always a gentleman of the old school, courteous, urbane, with Latin charm. No wonder the south of France was his true home.
Pierre was a media man through and through. He started out in the advertising industry, where he worked for 20 years in a wide variety of areas, including running the legendary BSSM agency together with Theophil Butz. Those were the days when print titles were swimming in advertising. Later, when he switched to his dream job as a journalist, he had to describe the major changes that the industry was undergoing and often suffering through; the moaning about the digital transformation and the partial freezing of decision-makers who seemed overwhelmed by the developments. This has always preoccupied him and in many of his columns, including his last one two weeks ago, he called for people to have the courage to try something new.
Pierre was a positive person who drove developments forward. At the beginning of 2003, he undertook a thorough relaunch of Werbewoche and developed it into a modern communication tool. His brainchild, the "Advertiser of the Year" award, became the most important Swiss industry award, and whoever held the coveted Egon in their hands had made it to the Swiss advertising Olympus. His perfect network of contacts, his personal contacts, his openness and spontaneity opened the floodgates for him. If there was a Swiss "Mister Media", then it was Pierre C. Meier.
Wherever he turned up with his camera, be it at an advertising event, a premiere or a publishers' conference, all was immediately right with the world. People knew that when PCM was there, nothing could go wrong.
Pierre, we will all miss you very, very much.
Publisher and editors of Werbewoche
