Wolfgang Büchner

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Wolfgang Büchner (2012)

Wolfgang Büchner (born July 23, 1966 in Speyer ) is a German journalist and media manager . From September 2013 to December 2014 he was editor-in-chief of the news magazine Der Spiegel in the role of change manager in order to implement a stronger link between print and online. Before that he was editor-in-chief of the Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa) and before that co-editor-in-chief of the news portal Spiegel Online (2008–2009). Between July 2015 and October 2016 he was Managing Director of the Ringier Group's Swiss Blick Group . On January 1, 2017, he became Chief Content Officer at Madsack Mediengruppe as well as editor-in-chief and managing director of its joint editorial team, RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND). On January 1, 2019, Marco Fenske took over the editor-in-chief of the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, Büchner became the development editor-in-chief of RND. On March 15, 2019, the Madsack media group announced that Büchner was leaving the company. Fenske and Hannah Suppa, the previous editor-in-chief of the Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung, have taken over the management of the RND.

Life

The son of a master baker and an administrative employee was already working as a freelancer for the Speyerer Tagespost at the age of 16 . He graduated from high school in 1986 at the Hans-Purrmann-Gymnasium in Speyer. He was trained as an editor in Munich as a scholarship holder of the Institute for the Promotion of Young Journalists founded on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference . He studied political science at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg and the Universität Hamburg , but dropped out to continue his professional career.

He began his professional activity in 1990 with the establishment of the Neue Presse - Express in Halle (Saale) , and he also worked briefly for the Bildzeitung in Magdeburg . From 1992 to 1995 he worked as an editor for the news agency Associated Press in Hamburg , from 1995 to 1998 he reported for Reuters in Bonn as a reporter on the SPD and defense and domestic policy and headed Reuters news production in Frankfurt am Main in the area of ​​markets and Finances. In 1999 he became head of the service of the Financial Times Deutschland, which was being established, and in June 2001 he switched to Spiegel Online as managing editor . In January 2003 he and Rüdiger Ditz became deputy editor-in-chief Mathias Müller von Blumencron . Together with Ditz, he followed Blumencron in May 2008 after Blumencron became editor-in-chief of the magazine Der Spiegel in February 2008 together with Georg Mascolo . In 2009, Büchner moved to dpa, initially as deputy editor-in-chief, to replace Wilm Herlyn on January 1, 2010.

On September 1, 2013, Büchner became editor-in-chief of Spiegel and Spiegel Online . On December 31, 2014, Büchner and the news magazine split up after months of power struggle, some of which had been publicly fought. The internal disputes related both to the Spiegel 3.0 project and to journalistic working methods (editors criticized the fact that the Spiegel title "Stop Putin Now", which was ultimately criticized by the German Press Council, was hastily created in the summer of 2014).

On July 1, 2015, Büchner took over the management of the Ringier Group's Swiss Blick Group .

On January 1, 2017, Büchner moved to Hanover to join the Madsack media group . As “Chief Content Manager” he is supposed to operate the “ digital transformation and media development” of the company. He is also editor-in-chief of RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND), a subsidiary that supplies Madsack media products with content . Thanks to the services of the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, regional newspapers save their editing for the cover pages, i.e. the national section.

Büchner is a member of the Board of Trustees of Reporters Without Borders (as of March 2015) and spokesman for the Premium Publishing group in the Digital Media working group at the Association of German Magazine Publishers (VDZ).

Criticism and controversy

Even before he took up his position as editor-in-chief of Spiegel , he was criticized for the appointment of Nikolaus Blome as deputy editor-in-chief and head of Spiegel's capital office. Büchner justified the inclusion of Blome in a letter to the readers in the Spiegel , in which he promised "that the journalistic attitude of the 'Spiegel' will not change".

The digitization concept "Spiegel 3.0" from Wolfgang Büchner and the publishing director Ove Saffe, which on the one hand is to coordinate and integrate Spiegel and Spiegel Online more closely and on the other hand provides for a new tender for all department head positions and their future joint responsibility for the printing and online areas, came into play the ranks of the main shareholder Arbeiter-KG encountered considerable resistance. 86% of the Spiegel editors asked Spiegel-Employees KG to vote against the plan at the shareholders' meeting, while Spiegel online editors suggested supporting the plan. The meeting finally approved the plan unanimously, but asked Büchner and Saffe to implement the concept "in close cooperation with the editorial offices of" Spiegel "and" Spiegel Online "”.

Awards

In 2010, Büchner was named Journalist of the Year 2010 by Medium Magazin in the Editor-in-Chief of the Year category .

“Wolfgang Büchner has succeeded in giving the dpa new impetus: He sets standards for communication and transparency, for example when dealing with errors openly. He mastered the move to a future-oriented newsroom of the largest German news agency. He succeeded in motivating the team for his ideas of a multimedia, transparent agency as a service provider. "

- medium magazin jury statement 2010 in the category editor-in-chief of the year

In 2012, Büchner was once again voted Journalist of the Year by Medium Magazin in the Editor-in-Chief of the Year category .

“He turned the dpa into a company with multimedia visions and technological innovations, without affecting the core of the brand. At the same time, he showed the best managerial qualities by redefining the agency's service concept both internally and externally and proving himself to be a steadfast and persistent fighter for quality journalism in the news sector. In this way he made dpa fit in a highly competitive market and won over old and new customers. "

- medium magazin jury statement 2012 in the category editor-in-chief of the year

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Büchner leaves the editor-in-chief of SPIEGEL and SPIEGEL ONLINE / Ove Saffe resigns from the management of SPIEGEL-Verlag . In: spiegelgruppe.de .
  2. ↑ Spiegel shareholders meet: Büchner departure is becoming more and more likely . In: meedia .22. September 2014, accessed September 28, 2014.
  3. ↑ On his own behalf: Wolfgang Büchner is the new editor-in-chief of SPIEGEL and SPIEGEL ONLINE In: SPON , accessed on April 29, 2013
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Büchner leaves the Blick Group | ringier.ch . In: ringier.ch . August 10, 2016 ( ringier.ch [accessed September 8, 2017]).
  5. ↑ a b “Pride is not a business model” , tagesanzeiger.ch of December 18, 2015 , accessed on December 19, 2015
  6. ↑ a b Wolfgang Büchner becomes managing director of the Blick Group In: ringier.com .
  7. ↑ MADSACK Mediengruppe realigns editor-in-chief of RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland , madsack.de accessed on March 18, 2019
  8. ↑ MADSACK media group: Hannah Suppa and Marco Fenske continue to rise , madsack.de accessed on March 18, 2019
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Büchner. "That would have been better" , Die Zeit from January 4, 2017, accessed on January 8, 2017
  10. ↑ As Chief Content Officer and RND Editor-in-Chief: Wolfgang Büchner changes from Ringier to Madsack , accessed on January 8, 2017 from kress.de
  11. ↑ Wob, the Builder, A portrait of Wolfgang Büchner by Ralf Geissler , journalist, 10/2011, Online, accessed on April 8, 2013
  12. ^ Press release dpa on the assumption of office of Wolfgang Büchner , dpa , online, accessed on September 20, 2013
  13. ↑ Info Wolfgang Büchner , Berliner Morgenpost of June 26, 2011, online, accessed on April 8, 2013
  14. ↑ kress.de Wolfgang Büchner online, accessed on April 8, 2013
  15. ↑ The power struggle is over. "Spiegel" parted ways with Wolfgang Büchner. In: sueddeutsche.de. December 4, 2014, accessed on April 1, 2015 : “Büchner was in office for a little more than 15 months, and of this short period of time were largely determined by high-profile resolutions by the print editorial team and the works council that this could no longer work with Büchner . Maybe even: never could. If a department head on the day of the expulsion (it is nothing else) says, "It was a misunderstanding from the start", then it shows once again how broken the relationship between the editorial team and the boss was. "
  16. ↑ Now a duo again. In: taz.de. January 13, 2015, accessed April 1, 2015 .
  17. ↑ Cordt Schnibben: “The wrong man at the right time in the wrong place”: Cordt Schnibben's settlement with Wolfgang Büchner. In: meedia.de. December 4, 2014, accessed on April 1, 2015 (wording taken from meedia.de from Cordt Schnibben's Facebook profile): “We got an editor-in-chief who put online and print against each other, who avoided large-scale discussions with editors, who was not noticed as a journalistic inspirer either in print or online, who only devoted 15 minutes to designing the cover of the magazine: This is how “Stop Putin Now!” and ended as a reprimand in front of the press council. And its digital strategy quickly turned out to be a two-way dead end. "
  18. ↑ Imre Grimm: Wolfgang Büchner changes to Madsack . In: Lübecker Nachrichten , 11 August 2016, p. VIII.
  19. ↑ Mediengruppe confirms: Wolfgang Büchner becomes Chief Content Officer at Madsack ›Meedia. August 10, 2016, accessed on December 21, 2016 : “The 50-year-old should be responsible for digital transformation and media development in the newly created position, it said. In addition, Büchner will take over the editor-in-chief of the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND). "
  20. ↑ Anne Fromm: Editor-in-Chief on Change and Diversity: “The local has a future” . In: The daily newspaper: taz . August 26, 2018, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed September 19, 2018]).
  21. ↑ Reporters Without Borders Board of Trustees
  22. ^ Members of AG Premium Publishing ( Memento of April 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), VDZ , online, accessed on April 10, 2013
  23. ↑ Nikolaus Blome becomes deputy editor-in-chief of Spiegel In: SPON , on August 21, 2013, accessed on August 26, 2013
  24. ↑ Mirror: Buchner and Blome vs Mirror employees fill KG or clean in: Berliner Zeitung of 26 August 2013. Retrieved on August 26, 2013
  25. ↑ turi2.de: Büchner writes to the "Spiegel" readers ( memento from September 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), online, accessed on September 21, 2013 at www.turi2.de
  26. ↑ Michael Hanfeld: 225 editors rehearse the uprising , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, August 21, 2014. Accessed August 22, 2014.
  27. ↑ Michael Hanfeld: Partners support Büchner's “Spiegel 3.0” , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of August 22, 2014., online, accessed on August 22, 2014.
  28. ^ Annette Milz : Die Journalisten des Jahres 2010. December 21, 2010, accessed on December 21, 2010 .
  29. ↑ dpa press release: Wolfgang Büchner elected Editor-in-Chief of the Year. December 21, 2010, accessed December 21, 2010 .
  30. ^ Annette Milz : Die Journalisten des Jahres 2012. December 21, 2012, accessed on December 21, 2012 .
  31. ↑ Article medium-magazin: Rolf-Dieter Krause is "Journalist of the Year 2012". December 21, 2012, accessed December 21, 2012 .
personal data
SURNAME Büchner, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist
DATE OF BIRTH July 23, 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Speyer