"The relevance of a media brand must remain"
Marc Walder, CEO of Ringier, presented the Ringier Annual Report 2023 at the annual Speak event at Cinema Corso and shared insights into the company’s strategy as well as his views on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on society and the media industry.
In his speech at the Speak event, Marc Walder emphasized that the biggest fear in relation to artificial intelligence (AI) is the flood of artificially generated content, including propaganda, manipulation and fake news. This development carries the risk that people may have difficulty distinguishing between real and fake content, especially in times of democratic elections. Nevertheless, he sees hope for the media industry in how we can learn to deal intelligently with AI. AI can support journalists without replacing them and offers opportunities for more efficient and intelligent research.
During the subsequent background discussion with journalists at Ringier Medienhaus, Walder shared insights into the opportunities and challenges facing the media industry and Ringier itself. Walder mentioned, for example, the ancillary copyright, which has not yet been passed and is intended to protect media professionals from the misuse of their content. He also mentioned two significant transactions: The acquisition of Sociedade Vicra Desportiva SA with A Bola (newspaper, digital and TV) and AutoFoco magazine, and the purchase of all shares in Ringier Axel Springer Schweiz AG (RASCH), whose media titles are now managed under the umbrella of "Ringier Medien Schweiz". Walder also emphasized the importance of the relevance of media brands in order to remain relevant in a changing digital landscape.
Business figures also showed that Ringier continues to occupy a strong position in the digital sector, with its share of the operating result rising to 83 percent. Although revenue declined slightly, EBITDA of 105.5 million was achieved with a margin of just over 11 percent, which corresponds to good profitability.
In a separate video interview with m&k advertisingweek.ch Walder provided insights into specific applications of AI, including a chat function for real estate searches and efficiency improvements in media production. One upcoming project is the Blick chatbot in collaboration with Google, which will enable users to ask questions and receive multimedia answers.
Finally, he announced a positive development at Blick: For the first time, losses from the print business were offset by digital subscriptions, which is an optimistic outlook for the future of the media industry. Blick also seems to be making its CEO happy in other respects. In 2023, the online platform recorded over 1.3 million daily users and industry-wide peak values for average session duration.
