ÖGB publishing house

Publishing house of the Austrian Trade Union Association
legal form	GmbH
founding	1947
Seat	Vienna , Austria
management	Roman Grandits, Iris Kraßnitzer
Branch	Specialist publisher , book trade , agency , magazine publisher
Website	www.oegbverlag.at

The publishing house of the Austrian Trade Union Federation (also publishing house of the ÖGB or ÖGB-Verlag ) is an Austrian communications company in the “Labor - Law - Social” segment. As a subsidiary it is owned by the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions .

Company structure and fields of activity

The publishing house of the ÖGB defines itself as

"Innovative cross-media communication company that primarily as a solution partner supports the owner system (ÖGB and trade unions), the chambers of labor and employee representatives with its products and services in maintaining and expanding an employee-oriented value system in the world of work and society."

- ÖGB-Verlag : Mission Statement.

After the realignment at the beginning of the 2010s, the company consists of the integrated areas of specialist publishing , specialist bookstore, agency and magazine publishing.

Specialist publisher

In addition to printed works on the subject of “Work - Law - Social Affairs” (around 40 to 50 new publications per year), the specialist publishing division also produces e-books , specialist journals, online databases and multimedia offers (e.g. the Healthy Work Solutions ).

In terms of content, the program of the ÖGB-Verlag ranges from annotated laws and collective agreements , advice literature , publications on national and international labor and social law and economic publications to socio-political series and contemporary history topics.

Specialist bookstore

Sales room of the specialist bookshop of the ÖGB-Verlag

The specialist bookstore of the ÖGB-Verlag is located at Rathausstraße 21 in the 1st district of Vienna , in the immediate vicinity of the main building of the University of Vienna .

In addition to the titles of the ÖGB-Verlag, the bookstore's range also includes the most important publications from other German-language publishers on the subjects of labor and social law, employee protection , everyday work and office organization, politics, ecology and economics, globalization and equity , gender studies , sociology and Psychology and contemporary history. In addition, the specialist bookstore of the ÖGB-Verlag also offers a “political antiquarian bookshop”. The specialist bookstore also looks after the two themed web shops of the ÖGB-Verlag, betterwelt.at and labor-law-social .

In addition to serving as a sales room, the bookstore's premises also serve as an event location for around 25 book presentations, panel discussions and concerts per year.

Agency

The agency of the ÖGB-Verlag is a full-service agency . Their services range from conception and campaign management to cross-media design, text, photography and film production, to web and mobile implementation, social media marketing , online advertising and event management. In 2014, among other things, the agency oversaw the wage tax reduction campaign of the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions.

Magazine publisher

The magazine publisher bundles the services of magazine conception, design, production and distribution in the corporate publishing area. In addition to the membership and service magazines of ÖGB (solidarity), trade unions and ARBÖ (free travel and driver information) , specialist magazines such as Arbeit & Wirtschaft and Das Recht der Arbeit (DRdA) also belong to the magazine publisher's extensive portfolio.

history

1947 - foundation

The publishing house of the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions was founded on September 17, 1947. The first ÖGB activity report formulated the task: "To publish socio-political, economic, general educational and vocational training and promotion publications as cheaply as possible."

The initiative for the establishment came from the then press officer of the ÖGB, Fritz Klenner . Therefore, the technical and organizational support of the ÖGB media - and consequently also the media of the individual trade unions - including the dispatch was also part of the scope of duties from the beginning.

There were good reasons for including specialist literature for vocational education and training in the publishing program: As a result of the war, there was an extreme shortage of skilled workers after 1945 and there was a lack of suitable up-to-date training material. The publication of the series of specialist books should be a contribution to improving the chances of employees in the labor market and thus giving them more self-confidence in representing their interests. Coloring, bleaching and tinting the hair were among the titles as well as commercial arithmetic and the art of speech . Later it was mainly material for technical teaching at vocational schools.

1950s - expansion and publishing association

Gradually the book and brochure production was structured as well as the networking with other companies affiliated with the ÖGB and its publishing house. At first this affected the Gutenberg Book Guild and the Wiener Volksbuchverlag. They were responsible for supplying “good entertainment literature” at “affordable prices”. In 1950, the travel and mail order bookstore of the ÖGB had already started as the central office for the promotion of company libraries. In 1952, the shares in the Vienna branch of the Zurich Europa-Verlag were acquired, which had been founded in 1933 as a publishing house for literature from anti-fascist exile in Switzerland. In order to put an end to the wild growth through the "expansion of the activities of the trade union press and publishing industry", it was merged in a publishing association as early as 1953. At the same time, the company moved to its own building on Rennweg in Vienna's 3rd district . For decades, “Der Rennweg” became the abbreviation for the publishing community, which developed into a modern group.

1960 to mid-1980 - Electronic revolution and acquisition of printing companies

In 1967 the “Center for Electronic Data Processing” was set up for fee accounting, address production and similar organizational tasks. In 1971 the publishing association acquired the Elbemühl printing company, which ultimately resulted in the relocation of the site to Alt-Erlaa in the 23rd district . In addition, however, there was still the “in-house print shop” for smaller, shorter-term productions, such as training scripts for works council members. In 1983, the group defined itself as " public service oriented", but at the same time most of the subsidiaries offered "additional production capacities on the free market ".

1990 until today - restructuring and realignment

In the course of the 1990s, the concept of the parallelism of common economy and pure market orientation could no longer be maintained. With the separation from Europa-Verlag, the socially critical discourse and journalistic food for thought for concepts of a more just society migrated back to the core publishing house, and the Internet made new forms of publication possible. As a consequence, the group was restructured and the ÖGB-Verlag was re-established in 2002.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Mission Statement, website of the ÖGB-Verlag, accessed on December 10, 2015.
↑ Location specialist bookstore, website of the ÖGB-Verlag, accessed on December 10, 2015.
^ Events, website of the ÖGB-Verlag, accessed on December 10, 2015.
Jump up ↑ Jetztschriftenverlag.at: References from the magazine publisher of the ÖGB-Verlag. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
↑ Activity report of the ÖGB 1945–47 .

[1] Mission Statement, website of the ÖGB-Verlag, accessed on December 10, 2015.

[2] Location specialist bookstore, website of the ÖGB-Verlag, accessed on December 10, 2015.

[3] Events, website of the ÖGB-Verlag, accessed on December 10, 2015.

[4] Jump up ↑ Jetztschriftenverlag.at: References from the magazine publisher of the ÖGB-Verlag. Retrieved December 10, 2015.

[5] Activity report of the ÖGB 1945–47 .