Reorganization of Ringier Switzerland
Marc Walder has appointed Michael Voss as the new Chief Operations Officer (COO). Blick Editor-in-Chief Ralph Grosse-Bley will become chair of the editorial board in the newsroom. And Blick.ch Editor-in-Chief Rolf Cavalli will head all digital channels of the Blick Group.
Ringier is reorganizing its Switzerland and Germany division: Due to the consistent expansion and diversification of its business activities, Ringier Switzerland has grown strongly over the past three years, the company wrote in a statement on Wednesday. CEO Marc Walder had been confronted with an increasing amount of operational tasks, more and more direct reporting lines and a large number of board mandates. In order to continue to have sufficient capacity for strategic issues and the journalistic management of the individual newspapers and magazines, Walder is appointing a Chief Operations Officer COO who will report directly to him, effective April 1, 2011.
Michael Voss has been Head of Corporate Development and Strategy for Ringier Switzerland and Germany since January 11, 2010. In this role, he has already been responsible for Ringier Germany, Ringier Print Adligenswil, Services, Cash.ch and Business Development, including all major cross-divisional projects. New additions include the Digital Business division, coordination of IT Switzerland, and board mandates in the new joint venture Infront Ringier and at the Ringier subsidiaryPrevion.
After studying business administration, the 41-year-old has worked in management positions at various national and international subsidiaries of Gruner+Jahr (G+J) and the Spiegel Group since 1994. Among others, he was Managing Director of G+J Wirtschaftspresse, Börse Online Verlagsgesellschaft, Expres-Group in Bucharest, Daphne Communications in Athens and Manager Magazin Verlagsgesellschaft in Hamburg.
New responsibilities also in the newsroom
As part of this reorganization and following the successful implementation of the Blick Group newsroom, Marc Walder is now relinquishing its management and adjusting the responsibilities in the newsroom. The 51-year-old Blick Editor-in-Chief Ralph Grosse-Bley is appointed Chairman of the Editors-in-Chief of the Blick Group in addition to his current function. The individual editors-in-chief will continue to be fully responsible for their titles.
Blick.ch Editor-in-Chief Rolf Cavalli will become head of all digital channels of the Blick Group in addition to his current role; the 42-year-old is responsible for all app, mobile and moving image projects in the newsroom.
(Image Grosse-Bley: Keystone)
