Blick Group relies on Christian Dorer

In connection with the reorganization of the management team in the newsroom, Christian Dorer will not become Editor-in-Chief of SonntagsBlick, as announced in August, but Editor-in-Chief of the entire Blick Group. The function will be newly created. Reporting to him will be Felix Bingesser, Editor-in-Chief Sports of the Blick Group, Katia Murmann, new Editor-in-Chief Digital (Blick.ch, Blickamabend.ch) as of February 1, 2017, and also Gieri Cavelty, the new Editor-in-Chief of SonntagsBlick.

Iris Mayer and Peter Röthlisberger, now co-chief editors of Blick-Desk, have decided to leave the Blick Group. Peter Röthlisberger is leaving with immediate effect. The timing of Iris Mayer's departure is still being clarified. Mayer and Röthlisberger had jointly headed the Blick desk since February 1, 2016.

Peter Röthlisberger has held several management positions at Ringier since 2004. He was Head of Business at Schweizer Illustrierte, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of SonntagsBlick, and Editor-in-Chief of Blick am Abend. Before joining the Blick Group newsroom, Iris Mayer was head of news at the German press agency dpa in Berlin for five years.

Christian Dorer graduated from the Ringier School of Journalism in 2000, then worked as business editor for Blick, from 2002 to 2007 as federal house correspondent for Blick and SonntagsBlick, and from 2007 to 2009 as deputy editor-in-chief of SonntagsBlick. In February 2009, the 41-year-old took over as editor-in-chief of the Aargauer Zeitung / az Nordwestschweiz. In addition, he hosts the show TalkTäglich on Tele M1 and has also been president of the Conference of Swiss Editors-in-Chief since 2014.

The new Editor-in-Chief of SonntagsBlick will be Gieri Cavelty, currently Head of Information and Communication and a member of the Executive Board at the State Secretariat for Migration. The 40-year-old studied history at the University of Zurich. He first worked as a cultural journalist, then as editor of the Federal Parliament, including for the Tages-Anzeiger. From 2009 to 2011, he headed the domestic department of the Aargauer Zeitung, and later was a page editor, head of the national mantle and deputy editor-in-chief at the same newspaper. Cavelty will also take up his new position on February 1, 2017.

Katia Murmann has been working in the newsroom of the Blick Group in Zurich since June 2013 and is now interim editor-in-chief of SonntagsBlick. The 35-year-old began her journalistic career in 2005 as a reporter at Blick and has worked in between at the then Sunday newspaper Der Sonntag in Baden and as Head of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Head of Focus at the SonntagsZeitung in Zurich.

Marc Walder, CEO Ringier: "With Christian Dorer as Editor-in-Chief with overall responsibility for all Blick Group titles, we now have a clear management structure in the newsroom that meets today's requirements. And with Gieri Cavelty, we have succeeded in gaining an accomplished and extremely committed journalist to head SonntagsBlick."

Michael Ludewig, currently Managing Editor of the Blick Group and Head of the Photo, Layout, Production and Administration departments, will join the team of Alexander Theobald, Chief Operating Officer and interim Managing Director of the Blick Group. Christian Dorer is now directly responsible for the management of all departments.

In the course of the reorganization and streamlining of structures, six layoffs also had to be made, according to the statement. Three journalists and three positions in the production departments are affected. At the same time, several new positions with different, more digital job profiles will be created in the coming weeks.