Fritz's network benefits BaZ
The Vice Chairman of the PubliGroupe Board of Directors, Fritz M. Schuhmacher, also became Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Basler Mediengruppe
PubliGroupe's Vice Chairman Fritz M. Schuhmacher also became Vice Chairman of the Basel Media GroupBy Markus Knöpfli Fritz M. Schuhmacher, the new number two at the Basel Media Group (BMG), has a little-known but widely ramified media network. The publisher of the Basler Zeitung (BaZ), Matthias Hagemann, wants to use this network even more in the future. That is why he has appointed the advocate as Vice Chairman of the Board of BMG.
When the BMG Board of Directors appointed former Board member Fritz M. Schuhmacher as Vice Chairman at the end of March, it did so at the personal request of publisher Matthias Hagemann. Previously, BMG's Board of Directors had no Vice Chairman at all; the position had to be created specifically.
A BoD position only "ad personam
Hagemann also expressly stated in his motion that the new post is only "ad personam Fritz Schuhmacher". Should Schuhmacher ever resign from his post, the chair of the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors in the company of the Hagemann family can not only remain unoccupied, but also be vacated again completely.
But why did the 38-year-old publisher Hagemann want the 54-year-old shoemaker at his side? One of the reasons given by the publisher in his application was this: Last fall, when he parted company with the previous board delegate Peter Sigrist and restructured the group management, Schuhmacher had stood by him loyally and with advice and action. In addition, Schuhmacher was a "proven expert on the Swiss media, excellently networked in northwestern Switzerland and beyond, and a cosmopolitan Basler.
A man for almost all media cases
Schuhmacher is indeed networked, widely ramified, and above all internationally. He sits on around 40 boards of directors and more than ten foundation boards, represents several hundred million francs of accumulated capital, and pulls the strings at the important Basel media.
As PubliGroupe's Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, he also represents the interests of the National-Zeitung and Basler Nachrichten AG (Verlag Basler Zeitung) - also as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. PubliGroupe holds 37 percent of BaZ, the Hagemann family 63 percent. Schuhmacher also claims a seat on the board of directors of Jean Frey AG (Weltwoche, Bilanz, Beobachter), which belongs to BMG.
In addition, as a representative of the Basel Chamber of Commerce, the Basel Federation of Economic Affairs and the Basel Trade Association, he brings the interests of Basel's business community to the 35-member board of trustees of the Cable Network Foundation, the sponsor of Tele Basel. The unwieldy entity has a six-member committee, of which Schuhmacher is also a member - together with Basilisk co-owner Hansruedi Ledermann.
Intertwined holdings lead to television
Since 1983, the lawyer and notary with a doctorate in law, together with his partner Konrad Annasohn, has been a delegate to the Board of Directors and, since 1998, a majority shareholder of Internationale Treuhand AG (ITAG), which holds a 20 percent stake in LH-Holding in Basel.
"LH" stands for (Hansruedi) Ledermann and (Christian) Heeb, the owners of Radio Basilisk, who also each own 30 percent of LH. The remaining 20 percent is held by BaZ. The Chairman of the Board of LH is Schuhmacher, the other members are Annasohn, Heeb, Ledermann - and Matthias Hagemann himself.
This is no coincidence, because LH is the second most important media holding company in the Basel media pie after BMG: it includes Medag, which handles advertising sales for Basilisk and Tele Basel. At Medag, Schuhmacher is in turn Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ledermann Board Delegate.
This is explosive if only because Tele Basel was deliberately given a foundation as a sponsor from the start of broadcasting so that local television would not also end up in the BaZ pot. But thanks to Medag, Hagemann, Ledermann and Schuhmacher at least control Tele Basel's advertising revenue.
In other words, if local TV ever gets too cheeky, it can simply be reined in this way. As long as this is not necessary, however, BaZ and Basilisk will feast on the 20 percent commission for each spot sold to Tele Basel. By the way: Schuhmacher is also chairman of the board of Metro Media, in which Medag and BaZ, among others, each have a 25 percent stake. Metro Media once dreamed of setting up a screen text for Tele Basel, but is currently inactive.
Media czar? Schuhmacher doesn't want to know anything about that
However, he himself describes it as "singular nonsense" that Schuhmacher is supposed to be the personified BaZ monopoly or the Basel media czar. He is quite simply open to many areas, but knows that media also function according to economic constraints.
Since he prefers one high-quality medium to several weak ones, he takes the view "that you have to find cooperations in Basel. Incidentally, I'm only married to my wife," emphasizes the father of four.
Although he, too, sees "the elements of power and control" in so many board mandates, he does not rule out "the possibility that he, too, will have even more interdependencies. But it has never happened that he has influenced an editorial contribution at BaZ, for example.
He also has one goal above all: "I want to bring together multi-faceted people and technical synergies in different areas. After all, not everyone has to make the same failures on the Internet," he says.
Transparency is there if you look for it
To the accusation that he could control Tele Basel's advertising market, he counters that "to the best of my knowledge and belief" he has never exerted any influence in this regard either. And then he refers to "idealistic and social values": "It would be bad if diversity of opinion were to suffer, but it doesn't; BaZ is a very diverse newspaper and it is confronted with many critical observers. Incidentally, the young are using the Internet."
Nor does BMG know any corporate journalism. "Why then does BaZ write so little about Tele Basel?" he cites as proof. The only thing is: If the only newspaper hardly writes about the other media in the same place, it doesn't have to expose the personnel links of its own publishing house.
Schuhmacher, who seems affable and spontaneous, counters this with two things: "Transparency is available if you only look for it, for example in the form of directories of boards of directors, the Internet, search engines and much more." Secondly, as a lecturer in media policy, law and economics at the University of Basel, he shows his students "openly and unvarnishedly" the (own) media interconnections.
But BaZ itself doesn't, which is probably why many people in the city on the Rhine bend know Schuhmacher as a colonel in the Swiss army, as president of the ACS Basel section, or as "Homo Politicus," but they hardly notice his media connections. When the BaZ published its only major portrait of Schuhmacher two years ago, his interconnections in the media pie were covered on just seven lines. The fact that he is also the Consul General of Monaco, on the other hand, was spread out in detail on 21 lines: That is Basel transparency.
When the BMG Board of Directors appointed former Board member Fritz M. Schuhmacher as Vice Chairman at the end of March, it did so at the personal request of publisher Matthias Hagemann. Previously, BMG's Board of Directors had no Vice Chairman at all; the position had to be created specifically.
A BoD position only "ad personam
Hagemann also expressly stated in his motion that the new post is only "ad personam Fritz Schuhmacher". Should Schuhmacher ever resign from his post, the chair of the Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors in the company of the Hagemann family can not only remain unoccupied, but also be vacated again completely.
But why did the 38-year-old publisher Hagemann want the 54-year-old shoemaker at his side? One of the reasons given by the publisher in his application was this: Last fall, when he parted company with the previous board delegate Peter Sigrist and restructured the group management, Schuhmacher had stood by him loyally and with advice and action. In addition, Schuhmacher was a "proven expert on the Swiss media, excellently networked in northwestern Switzerland and beyond, and a cosmopolitan Basler.
A man for almost all media cases
Schuhmacher is indeed networked, widely ramified, and above all internationally. He sits on around 40 boards of directors and more than ten foundation boards, represents several hundred million francs of accumulated capital, and pulls the strings at the important Basel media.
As PubliGroupe's Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, he also represents the interests of the National-Zeitung and Basler Nachrichten AG (Verlag Basler Zeitung) - also as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors. PubliGroupe holds 37 percent of BaZ, the Hagemann family 63 percent. Schuhmacher also claims a seat on the board of directors of Jean Frey AG (Weltwoche, Bilanz, Beobachter), which belongs to BMG.
In addition, as a representative of the Basel Chamber of Commerce, the Basel Federation of Economic Affairs and the Basel Trade Association, he brings the interests of Basel's business community to the 35-member board of trustees of the Cable Network Foundation, the sponsor of Tele Basel. The unwieldy entity has a six-member committee, of which Schuhmacher is also a member - together with Basilisk co-owner Hansruedi Ledermann.
Intertwined holdings lead to television
Since 1983, the lawyer and notary with a doctorate in law, together with his partner Konrad Annasohn, has been a delegate to the Board of Directors and, since 1998, a majority shareholder of Internationale Treuhand AG (ITAG), which holds a 20 percent stake in LH-Holding in Basel.
"LH" stands for (Hansruedi) Ledermann and (Christian) Heeb, the owners of Radio Basilisk, who also each own 30 percent of LH. The remaining 20 percent is held by BaZ. The Chairman of the Board of LH is Schuhmacher, the other members are Annasohn, Heeb, Ledermann - and Matthias Hagemann himself.
This is no coincidence, because LH is the second most important media holding company in the Basel media pie after BMG: it includes Medag, which handles advertising sales for Basilisk and Tele Basel. At Medag, Schuhmacher is in turn Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ledermann Board Delegate.
This is explosive if only because Tele Basel was deliberately given a foundation as a sponsor from the start of broadcasting so that local television would not also end up in the BaZ pot. But thanks to Medag, Hagemann, Ledermann and Schuhmacher at least control Tele Basel's advertising revenue.
In other words, if local TV ever gets too cheeky, it can simply be reined in this way. As long as this is not necessary, however, BaZ and Basilisk will feast on the 20 percent commission for each spot sold to Tele Basel. By the way: Schuhmacher is also chairman of the board of Metro Media, in which Medag and BaZ, among others, each have a 25 percent stake. Metro Media once dreamed of setting up a screen text for Tele Basel, but is currently inactive.
Media czar? Schuhmacher doesn't want to know anything about that
However, he himself describes it as "singular nonsense" that Schuhmacher is supposed to be the personified BaZ monopoly or the Basel media czar. He is quite simply open to many areas, but knows that media also function according to economic constraints.
Since he prefers one high-quality medium to several weak ones, he takes the view "that you have to find cooperations in Basel. Incidentally, I'm only married to my wife," emphasizes the father of four.
Although he, too, sees "the elements of power and control" in so many board mandates, he does not rule out "the possibility that he, too, will have even more interdependencies. But it has never happened that he has influenced an editorial contribution at BaZ, for example.
He also has one goal above all: "I want to bring together multi-faceted people and technical synergies in different areas. After all, not everyone has to make the same failures on the Internet," he says.
Transparency is there if you look for it
To the accusation that he could control Tele Basel's advertising market, he counters that "to the best of my knowledge and belief" he has never exerted any influence in this regard either. And then he refers to "idealistic and social values": "It would be bad if diversity of opinion were to suffer, but it doesn't; BaZ is a very diverse newspaper and it is confronted with many critical observers. Incidentally, the young are using the Internet."
Nor does BMG know any corporate journalism. "Why then does BaZ write so little about Tele Basel?" he cites as proof. The only thing is: If the only newspaper hardly writes about the other media in the same place, it doesn't have to expose the personnel links of its own publishing house.
Schuhmacher, who seems affable and spontaneous, counters this with two things: "Transparency is available if you only look for it, for example in the form of directories of boards of directors, the Internet, search engines and much more." Secondly, as a lecturer in media policy, law and economics at the University of Basel, he shows his students "openly and unvarnishedly" the (own) media interconnections.
But BaZ itself doesn't, which is probably why many people in the city on the Rhine bend know Schuhmacher as a colonel in the Swiss army, as president of the ACS Basel section, or as "Homo Politicus," but they hardly notice his media connections. When the BaZ published its only major portrait of Schuhmacher two years ago, his interconnections in the media pie were covered on just seven lines. The fact that he is also the Consul General of Monaco, on the other hand, was spread out in detail on 21 lines: That is Basel transparency.
