VSM gets new president

Hanspeter Lebrument, publisher of Somedia, is retiring as President of the Swiss Media Association. He celebrated his 75th birthday in June this year. "I took over the presidency of the publishers' association from Hans Heinrich Coninx 13 years ago, and I am delighted to be able to hand it over to a successor now. The most important thing for me was that I was able to convince Pietro Supino to take over this office," says Lebrument.

The Executive Committee of the Swiss Media Association unanimously proposes to the members the current Vice President Pietro Supino, publisher of Tamedia, as his successor. Peter Wanner, publisher of AZ Medien, is to become the new Vice President.

Hanspeter Lebrument thus ends his long, extremely active and formative involvement in the Swiss Media Association. Lebrument's presidency included the creation of a legal basis for indirect press promotion and the ban on online advertising for SRG.

Pietro Supino has been a member of the Presidium since 2008 and Vice President of the Swiss Media Association since 2010. "A diverse media offering is central to a direct democracy like Switzerland," says Pietro Supino. "Good framework conditions for private media, be they trade magazines, national dailies or news apps, are therefore in all our interests. As I already did as Vice President, I will continue to work for this and for media freedom."

The Presidium is also to be supplemented with two representatives of the medium-sized and smaller media houses. Beat Lauber, who serves on the boards of Meier + Cie. in Schaffhausen, the Mengis Group in Visp and the Zürichsee Medien Group, and Andrea Masüger, CEO of Somedia, are proposed for election. The elections will take place during the General Assembly on September 22 in Lucerne.