Hübner's Who is Who

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Hübner's Who is Who is a series of personal encyclopedias from the former company Who is Who Verlag für Personenenzyklopädien AG , based in Zug , Switzerland . Marketing was carried out by sales representatives in ten other countries: Austria , Germany , Poland , Slovakia , the Czech Republic , Hungary , Russia , Turkey , Romania and Greece .

Development and way of working

In 1978 the first edition of the Who is Who in Austria biographical collection was published with approx. 6000 entries. In order to keep up with the increasing number of new additions, a sales representative network was set up in 1984. The marketing took place in the form of personal interviews, during which various additional services were sold, which represented the core business of the publisher. In 1989, Who is Who appeared for the first time in the Federal Republic of Germany . In 2002 the works Who is Who w Polsce and Who is ...? Were published in Poland and the Czech Republic . (v České republice) . The following year, the publishing program was expanded to include Who is Who Magyarországon and Who is Who v Slovenskej republike to Hungary and Slovakia . In 2005 the publisher published biographical collections in Russia , Romania , Greece and Turkey for the first time .

People whose names the publisher researched in generally accessible address and telephone books were included. The potential candidates were visited by a sales representative (later often also by a non-publishing person from the marketing industry). All data were collected in face-to-face interviews and should be sent to the persons included at three-year intervals for correction and updating.

In 2016 the company was liquidated following bankruptcy proceedings .

criticism

Several magazines and institutions such as the specialist organ information media for libraries , the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the Stiftung Warentest expressed criticism of the personal encyclopedia. Your reservations related to the incomprehensible admission criteria and dubious business methods. Ultimately, the publisher would have used the reputation of the term Who is Who , which cannot be protected under trademark law, and the associated associations to market its completely differently oriented lexicon. In particular, the publisher would have confused it with the celebrity lexicon Who is who? accepted. Another point of criticism was that during the interviews to include the short biography in the print version of the work, the purchase of the book would have been advertised. The link between the encyclopedia and an offered "club membership" would also have remained unclear. Likewise, be it in practice, "interviews" with companies and people, etc. a. from the telemarketing industry, who worked exclusively on a commission basis on the sale of the book (from approx. € 400 per volume).

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Reinhold Rühl: The business with vanity , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung , June 21, 2008.
  2. ↑ Entry in the commercial register 2016, accessed on January 28, 2017
  3. ^ Critical analysis of the Huebner's Who is Who Personal Encyclopedia