Ringier AG is a family owned Swiss media company over 175 years old. It is one of the largest media corporations in Switzerland. Based in Zürich, Ringier publishes several newspapers and magazines in both German, French, Czech, Romanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Chinese and Vietnamese. It has a yearly income of approximately 1.5 billion CHF with profits around 62.2 million and over 8,000 employees.
History of Ringier AG
In 1833, Johan Rudolf Ringier, the son of a pastor, bought a print shop in Zofingen where he produced, among other things, official ordinances, teaching curriculums, regulations and printed “Roggwiler Chronik”. The first newspaper he published was «Zofinger Wochenblatt». The local printing enterprise quickly became a national newspaper publishing company.
In 1911 Schweizer Illustrierte Zeitung appeared for the first time, initially produced by letterpress. About ten years later, «I’llustré», the magazine’s French language counterpart was launched in the western part of the country.
In the late 1950s, 1959,«Blick» was the first tabloid to be published in Switzerland, followed in 1969 by «SonntagsBlick», the first and most widely read Sunday paper in Switzerland today.
Other new publications and acquisitions in Switzerland followed before Ringier’s expansion into Asia in 1988 and into Eastern Europe in 1992. Initial milestones of a company turning into a multinational had been set.
In 1996, Blick Online first appeared on the Internet. Television, radio stations and other important online platforms were added later.
The Swiss publisher of print products has grown into an international provider of multimedia platforms.
Ringier AG Leaders
Michael Ringier, Ringier AG Publisher
Michael Ringier is the owner and publisher of Ringier Holding AG. A staunch supporter of principled journalism and the arts, Mr. Ringier has helped lead the Ringier Group into television, radio and now the Internet over the last three decades.
Christian Unger, Ringier AG CEO
Christian Unger began his career at Bertelsmann Group of Germany where he acquired extensive experience in the print media over a period of twelve years. Starting in 2002, as CEO of Bertelsmann China, Unger established a number of joint ventures in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong with a total of 1,900 employees. Mr. Unger moved to London in 2007 to join Tradus plc. as CEO heading the e-commerce enterprise and its various online auction platforms and e-commerce portals in twelve countries.
Gerhard Schroder, Ringier AG Adviser
Gerhard Schröder (Social Democratic Party of Germany), the former German Chancellor, works as an adviser for international political affairs for Michael Ringier since January 2006. Mr. Schroeder regularly travels to Vietnam to support Ringier operations, as well as to participate in economic, social and cultural activities.
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Board of Directors:
The owners of the company are Evelyn Lingg-Ringier, Annette Ringier and Michael Ringier.
- Michael Ringier, Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Dr. Uli Sigg, Vice-Chairman. Honorary member of the China-Switzerland Chamber of Commerce, which he founded in 1980, he served as ambassador in China as well.
- Oscar Frei, President of Infront Sports & Media AG in Zug, the international sports marketing company that handles the broadcasting of the FIFA World Cup and employs more than 80 people and has additional offices in Kreuzlingen (Switzerland, Ipswich (United Kingdom) and Helsinki (Finland).
- Jan O. Froshaug, Ex-Director of the Scandinavian media group Egmont, also active in Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, etc.
- Dr. Hans-Olaf Henkel, Ex-President of the German Federation of Industry (BDI), President of IBM Europe and presently a Member of numerous Supervisory Boards, such as IBM Deutschland, AUDI AG and Continental AG, as well as co-founder of the German-Japan Initiative, for which he was highly awarded by the Japanese Government and other organizations. He is also Chairman of the Board of Deutsche Industriebank AG (IKB) and took on a Visiting Professorship at the University of Mannheim, Germany. He is also Senator of the “Max-Planck-Gesellschaft”, as well as of the “Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz”, two leading institutions promoting scientific research in Germany . He received the Cicero-Rednerpreis Prize 2001.
- Martin Werfeli, Member of the Board and former CEO Ringier AG
- Christiane zu Salm, Member of the Board
