Tamedia: New regional media division for German-speaking Switzerland
Starting in July 2013, the Tamedia media group will merge the Espace Media and Medien Zürich divisions into a new division, Regional Media German-Speaking Switzerland, under the leadership of Ueli Eckstein. Beginning in 2013, Marcel Kohler will also join Tamedia’s executive management as head of the new 20 Minuten division.
Ueli Eckstein will manage the division from Bern. Within the division, the daily newspapers BZ Berner Zeitung, BZ Langenthaler Tagblatt, Der Bund, Tages-Anzeiger, Zürcher Unterländer and Zürichsee-Zeitung as well as the shareholdings BO Berner Oberländer, TT Thuner Tagblatt, Der Landbote and Zürcher Oberländer will benefit from an exchange of experience and synergies. The merger of the two divisions, which have separated from their radio and TV activities in recent months, will also enable savings to be made at management level, Tamedia said in a press release. The editors-in-chief of the daily newspapers will continue to report directly to the company management, as will the publishing directors. In journalistic matters, the editors-in-chief will continue to report directly to the publisher Pietro Supino.
Ueli Eckstein joined the Tamedia media group in 2009 as Head of Espace Media. In the last three years, he has been responsible for the implementation of the collaboration between the Bund and Tages-Anzeiger, the sale of Capital FM and TeleBärn and the forthcoming integration of the BZ Langenthaler Tagblatt into the Berner Zeitung group. He was previously deputy CEO at AZ Medien.
The current Head of Media Zurich, Rolf Bollmann, will reach his normal retirement age in July 2013 and will then continue to work for Tamedia on a mandate basis. He has been a member of the Management Board since 2005 and was previously the founding managing director of the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten.
The commuter newspapers of 20 Minuten in German-speaking Switzerland, French-speaking Switzerland, Ticino and Luxembourg, the people magazine Friday and all digital offerings of 20 Minuten Online, Tilllate.com and Lessentiel.lu will become an independent division as of January 1, 2013. The creation of the new division reflects the importance of 20 Minuten within the Tamedia media group, according to the Tamedia press release. The division will be headed by the current Managing Director Marcel Kohler, who will also become a member of Tamedia's Management Board.
Marcel Kohler has headed the 20 Minuten media network since 2006. Over the past six years, Marcel Kohler has made a significant contribution to the development of the commuter newspapers 20 minutes and 20 minuti and to strengthening the digital offerings of 20 Minuten Online. As a board member of Edita, he was also involved in the launch of the commuter newspaper L'essentiel in Luxembourg. Prior to this, he worked for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung and the Publicitas subsidiary NZZ Media for almost 20 years.
