Russmedia

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Russmedia

logo
legal form GmbH
founding July 10, 1991
Seat Schwarzach , AustriaAustriaAustria 
management Eugen Russ , managing director
Number of employees 1,500 (488 in Vorarlberg) (2013)
sales 120 million euros (2012)
Branch Media company
Website www.russmedia.com

Russmedia headquarters in Schwarzach

Russmedia ( Vorarlberger Medienhaus until 2012 ) is an international media company. The roots are in a local book printer and a publishing house in Bregenz , Vorarlberg . Russmedia acts as an umbrella brand under which various media are published. The company's headquarters are in Schwarzach . Further locations are in Vienna (Austria), Germany, Hungary, Romania and Great Britain. According to its own information, the company employed around 1,500 people internationally in various business areas at 28 locations in 2013.

history

The first half of the 20th century

On July 14, 1919, Eugen Russ (1877–1962) acquired the printing company and with it the publishing house of the Vorarlberger Landeszeitung, the predecessor of the Vorarlberger Nachrichten . In 1929, the company moved to Bregenz Kirchstrasse, where Eugen Ruß had the former Rose Inn converted into a printing house. After the newspaper was banned by the National Socialists in 1938 , the first independent edition of the Vorarlberger Nachrichten appeared on November 16, 1945. The Ruß printing house was again an editor and publisher. In addition to Eugen Russ, his son Toni Russ was also the company's editor-in-chief.

1950 to 1980

In 1954, Eugen Russ bought the first two-color press. Construction of the offset printing plant in Lochau began six years later . Eugen Ruß died on August 27, 1962, leaving behind the largest graphic company in Vorarlberg. His son, Toni Russ, takes over the management of the company. After 7 years at the helm, he dies and his wife Rosa Russ becomes the publisher, his brother-in-law Richard Kempf becomes commercial director. The following year the Toni Russ Prize was awarded for the first time .

1980s

After Eugen A. Russ, son of Toni Russ, had already worked for the company for two years, he became managing director and editor-in-chief of Vorarlberger Nachrichten in 1983. After 65 years with one brand, a second was added in 1984 with the purchase of the weekly newspaper "Wann & Wo". A lot also happened technologically during this time. In 1987 the Vorarlberger Nachrichten was the first daily newspaper to be produced by desktop publishing and the first newspaper in Europe to use infographics. In 1988 the printing process was switched to offset printing and in 1992 the computer-to-plate technology was implemented as the world's first newspaper printer .

1990s

In 1990 a third brand was added with the NEUE Vorarlberger Tageszeitung . From 1993 the newspapers were produced on the new Geoman No. 1 printing machine. With this machine, the VN is produced as the first four-color daily newspaper in the world. A completely new business area was added in 1995. The company becomes a provider and portal operator and in the same year the first regionally oriented news portal VOL.AT goes online. Two years later, broadband internet and cable TV are added, which the company offers to Vorarlberg customers. In 1998 Russmedia started in the radio sector, with Antenne Vorarlberg the first national private radio station went on air in Vorarlberg. Outside Austria, the company operates in Hungary and Romania with a sister company (Inform Media), from which 100% of the shares will be taken over from 1998. Inform Media's portfolio initially comprised print media and now also includes online portals.

2000s

A large number of online portals are being added in Hungary and Romania. In 2003 Inform Media expanded increasingly in Romania - a new newspaper was launched, two were bought and an offset printing plant was built and put into operation. In 2005, the first step into Germany was taken with the purchase of the southern German Quoka publishing house based in Lampertheim . In 2006, Vorarlberger Nachrichten was named “Newspaper of the Year 2006” at the 59th World Newspaper Congress in Moscow . In Vorarlberg there are several online portals on the subjects of jobs, real estate and cars.

From 2010

With VOLmobil, the company succeeds in becoming the first regional provider to enter the mobile communications business. In the same year, the VOL.AT News Portal app appears as the first German-language news app. One year later, the Vorarlberger Nachrichten is offered as an e-paper for the iPad . Another step towards internationalization is the takeover of the world's largest online marketplace for rental items - erento.com - in 2011. In the same year, the first issue of the regional society magazine “Die Vorarlbergerin” appears. In 2012 Russmedia Digital becomes the first sales partner of Google AdWords in Austria.

Business fields media - print and online

Austria

The core product of Russmedia is the daily Vorarlberger Nachrichten. After buying up the competing print media Wann & Wo and Neue Vorarlberger Tageszeitung in the 1980s, several print media belong to Russmedia.

In addition, the online area is continuously being expanded and expanded. Portals in Austria are the leading regional news portal Vorarlberg Online (VOL.at) in Vorarlberg , other news portals such as Vienna Online (vienna.at) and Austria.com. In addition, topic-specific portals belong to Russmedia, such as laendleimmo.at, laendlejob.at and laendleauto.at in Vorarlberg.

In 2016, as part of the Digital News Initiative (DNI), a promising publishing project of Russmedia was financed by Google , which is based on the behavioral economic knowledge of the Zurich economics professor Ernst Fehr and the consulting knowledge of the business and management consultancy FehrAdvice & Partners.

The antenna Vorarlberg station was established in the private radio sector.

Germany

In Germany, Russmedia is exclusively active in the online sector and operates a large number of online marketplaces. The largest are Quoka and erento , others are mascus, pferde.de and traumhochzeiten.com.

Hungary / Romania

Several print and online products are operated in Hungary and Romania. In principle, functioning business models in Austria are also used in Hungary and Romania. A total of 6 daily newspapers (e.g. Jurnal Bihorean), 2 free newspapers and 19 weekly newspapers (e.g. Vasárnapi Kelet) and over 60 online portals (e.g. alompar.hu) belong to the portfolio.

Great Britain

In 2012 Russmedia opened its first office (portal erento) in Great Britain.

Russmedia operates a large number of online and print products across Europe. In 2013 there were a total of 8 daily newspapers, 80 weekly newspapers and over 100 online portals.

Further business areas

With the private telephone provider VOLmobil and 1036 hello! Russmedia also offers a range of telecommunications services. As Internet providers the brand belongs to high speed Internet. This also offers call center services. The company's bookstore “Das Buch” also exists in the Dornbirn Exhibition Park.

Business environment

The media company's strong market power cannot be overlooked: all Vorarlberg daily newspapers, various Vorarlberg-centered online offers as well as radio ( Antenne Vorarlberg ) give Russmedia the reputation of being a Vorarlberg-wide monopoly .

Individual references / sources

  1. ^ "VM" Vorarlberger Medienhaus Gesellschaft mbH, Schwarzach, Vorarlberg - FirmenABC.at . FirmenABC.at. Retrieved October 7, 2008.
  2. Austria's largest media company: ORF reached billion in sales. In: derStandard.at. June 6, 2014, accessed December 22, 2015 .
  3. - ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wko.at
  4. New umbrella brand: Vorarlberger Medienhaus becomes Russmedia. (PDF; 723 kB) (No longer available online.) Russmedia, October 18, 2012, archived from the original on April 30, 2013 ; Retrieved December 19, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.russmedia.com
  5. ^ History. (No longer available online.) Russmedia, 2012, archived from the original on June 14, 2015 ; Retrieved June 18, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.russmedia.com
  6. Website of the Digital News Initiative ( Memento of the original from November 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.digitalnewsinitiative.com archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
  7. [1] VOL.AT project is supported by Google.
  8. [2] VOL.AT researches the future of digital journalism.
  9. Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.digitalnewsinitiative.com archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. DNI Innovation Fund: successful applicants for round two announced !.
  10. ^ Anna-Maria Wallner: Eugen Russ: "A scandal almost like in Hungary". DiePresse.com , February 12, 2011, accessed on January 23, 2015 .

Web links

Commons : Russmedia  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes


Coordinates: 47 ° 26 '23.4 "  N , 9 ° 45' 21.6"  E