At Migros Magazine, the journalistic hierarchies are being tamped down

In the content area of "Migros Medien", no stone is left unturned. According to research by Advertisingweek.ch the head of the communications department of the Federation of Migros Cooperatives (MGB), Sarah Kreienbühl, has made another major change. The Migros Magazine (MM) no longer has an editorial director as of April 1, 2019. The previous incumbent, Yvonne Samaritani, was therefore relieved of this function. The 34-year-old has been in the post for less than a year.

But Samaritani doesn't want to talk about a dismissal, they are simply reorganizing: "We are forming a newsroom in the Communications & Media Directorate in order to strengthen our strategic topics of food, health & beauty, family, society & Migros and to work together on the various media titles and online channels. Accordingly, there will no longer be any editorial heads in the future, but instead topic managers and channel managers," explains the Bernese.

Yvonne Samaritani, who worked for Xing Switzerland before Migros, and Women in Business will be in charge of the new "Family" department at MGB with immediate effect. "We will supply the media titles and the online channels with portraits, interviews, reports and lots of service topics." A total of four female employees still report to the ex-editorial director. Her goal, however, is also to develop new platforms for family topics; after all, the topic is deeply anchored in the entire Migros universe. 

Whether she is not frustrated in the face of the demotion, wants to Advertisingweek.ch know. Until March 31, the journalist was also responsible for the "Society and Family" department, which has now been split up. Samaritani was thus stripped of a total of three-quarters of her responsibilities. "Leadership work, further development of a strategic topic, channel-specific preparation of stories and, of course, designing good content: I am definitely in the right place in the topic responsibility," is Samaritani's response.

That the Migros Magazine with three million readers in German- and French-speaking Switzerland is increasingly becoming a marketing tool for Migros due to the pressure to cut costs, has been on the horizon for a while. The longtime journalistic head of the Migros MagazineHans Schneeberger, was still allowed to call himself "Editor-in-Chief" during his almost 14-year tenure. As of January 1, 2018, the Migros media house restructured itself and Yvonne Samaritani was only granted the title "Editorial Director (Werbewoche.ch reported). Now the journalistic hierarchy has been disposed of altogether.

With Samaritani, former Watson man Franz Ermel also started at the orange giant - one step higher. Until now, Ermel was Head of Content for all Migros editorial departments, which included the two Migros magazines as well as Vivai, Migusto and Impulse. Ermel's area of responsibility has also been greatly reduced with the current round of reorganization. The former head of content is now only responsible for the two Migros magazines (German and French). And the former editorial director of the Migros MagazineSteve Gaspoz, is now still the editor of the French-language edition. Until a new editor is found for "Migros Magazin," Franz Ermel will also take over the role of German-language editor on an interim basis. Thomas Brügger has been appointed as the new head of content. Ermel was thus replaced by Brügger.

Was the head of management, Sarah Kreienbühl, perhaps not satisfied with the performance of those who were demoted? No one was demoted and no one was dissatisfied with the work of others, says MGB spokesman Patrick Stöpper to Werbewoche.ch: "We are simply continuing our implementation of a newsroom. This includes the consistent division of topics and channels." He says it's important not to think of the organizational chart at Migros Medien as "top down," but rather as a matrix, divided into topics and channels. 

The big change at MGB took place in the fall of 2018 with the merger of the two directorates "Corporate Communications" and "Migros Media". The merger has worked very well, according to the Migros spokesperson. "And we will continue to optimize the organization in detail on an ongoing basis based on our own experience and needs of the target groups."

So the conversion at the MGB on Limmatplatz in Zurich will continue. After last year's sustainability magazine Vivai was discontinued, the Migros Magazine but not the same fate, as Patrick Stöpper emphasizes: "No. Definitely not. However, like other media - such as newspapers - the Migros Magazine continuously develop it in line with readers' needs." Migrosmagazin.ch is also not up for discussion.