1833 headquarters z rich switzerland key people michael ringier chairman marc walder ceo since 2012 revenue chf 946 million 2015 number of employees 6 544 2015 website ringier.com ringier ag is an internationally active modern media group in switzerland with an integrated and diversified value creation chain . founded in 1833 in zofingen and based in z rich . the current strategy is based not only on media but also on e commerce and entertainment . it has a yearly income of approximately 940 million chf and over 6 500 employees in sixteen countries . citation needed contents 1 activities 2 publications 3 entertainment 3.1 tv 3.2 radio 3.3 events 3.4 services 4 digital 4.1 marketplaces 4.2 internet 5 ringier school of journalism 6 printing plants 7 other activities 8 history 9 joint venture with axel springer in eastern europe 10 joint venture with axel springer in switzerland 11 ringier deutschland gmbh 12 documentation 13 literature 14 weblinks 15 references 16 external links activities edit the world wide activities of ringier include information in print and digital publications with strong media . the digital business mainly internet based and mobile e commerce services like shopping webpage s or online marketplaces . the entertainment sector includes all activities around television radio events and amusement services such as ticketing . publications edit in switzerland in german blick blick am abend and sonntags blick bolero cash online wirtschafts und finanzplattform gl ckspost landliebe tv t glich schweizer illustrierte si style in switzerland in french l hebdo l illustr tv8 le temps montres passion in switzerland in italian il caff eastern europe africa and asia together with the german publishing company axel springer ringier launched in 2010 the joint venture ringier axel springer media ag . the joint venture is in hungary poland serbia and slovakia acitv . in china vietnam ghana senegal nigeria kenia uganda tansania and myanmar ringier publishes different media on and offline . entertainment edit radio stations tv shows events ticketing and marketing services . ringier entertainment is closely linked to the media world plays popular music produces tv shows and organises and hosts major lifestyle and sporting events . tv edit ringier has a share of the swiss programming of sat .1 and produces lifestyle tv formats like energy tv or landliebe tv . radio edit the portfolio includes the two private radio stations energy zurich and energy bern where ringier and the nrj group both take shares in . in addition to this ringier holds a minority shareholding in energy basel . events edit ringier organizes the music festival moon and stars in locarno as well as radio energy s event formats energy stars for free energy live session energy fashion night energy air . services edit the group participates in several marketing and consulting services in the entertainment and events sector . infrontringier sports marketing agency i.a. swiss football league swiss ice hockey cup tour de suisse swiss indoors basel b2run ticketcorner marketing and sales of events digital edit ringier digital is the fastest growing business unit of ringier ag . its portfolio includes the leading swiss online marketplaces and e commerce platforms . marketplaces edit the leading online marketplaces in switzerland belong to the portfolio of ringier . scout24 which includes the brands autoscout24 motoscout24 immoscout24 and jobscout24 and jobcloud are the market leaders in the online classified ad market for cars real estate jobs and personal ads . since spring 2016 schweizerische mobiliar holds 50 % of shares in scout24 switzerland ag . ringier however still consolidates the company . internet edit with various e cmmerce platforms like deindeal.ch and geschenkidee.ch ringier is well positioned . in cooperation with bank zweiplus ringier manages the platform cash.ch . ringier school of journalism edit in 1974 hans ringier founded the first journalism school in switzerland . 2 since then many of today s prominent media creators have learned the journalistic trade at the jou schu . even publisher michael ringier and ringier s ceo marc walder attended the in house school . 3 the journalism school is operated by the hans ringier foundation . the president of the foundation board is frank a. meyer . hannes britschgi heads up the ringier school of journalism . 4 printing plants edit essential to the main business of the company are several printing plants in switzerland zofingen and adligenswil . the printing plantin zofingen was founded in 1833 and has since then been integrated into swissprinters . 5 since 1975 ringier print in adligenswil prints internal and external newspapers . 6 other activities edit ringier holds a minority shareholding in sat . 1 schweiz ag in smd schweizer mediendatenbank and in schober direct media ag . 7 history edit in 1833 johann rudolf ringier purchased a printing plant in the swiss town of zofingen and began by printing regional gazettes and school curriculums . the small workshop soon evolved into a national newspaper publishing house . schweizer illustrierte was first published in 1911 using letterpress . 8 it was switzerland s most successful people magazine and remains so to this day . ten years later the equivalent for french speaking switzerland l illustr was launched . between 1948 and 1994 ringier published comic stories of ringgi and zofi . in 1959 ringier took the swiss public by surprise launching the country s first tabloid blick . 2 with sonntagsblick appeared the first sunday paper in 1969 on the market . in 1974 hans ringier founded the first journalism school in switzerland . in 1977 schweizerische allgemeine volkszeitung became gl ckspost . 9 the ringier pressehaus in zurich seefeld was opened in 1978 . in the 1970 s the swiss ringier ag acquired the munich publisher heering verlag and changed the name to ringier deutschland gmbh ringier germany . the publishing house primarily focused on photography for books and magazines . ringier germany employed around 100 people and published eight monthly magazines plus special editions e.g. globo kundenmagazin bmw fotomagazin . in 2001 ringier germany closed its doors . in 2004 ringier publishing gmbh in berlin launched the magazine cicero and thus returned to the german market . 10 the printing plant times ringier in hongkong was founded and opened in 1987 . in 1989 and 1990 business began in czech republic and romania . the programmes cash tv spotlights motorshow and gesundheit sprechstunde launched in 1993 two years before the show pressetv was first broadcast . citation needed in the same year activities in bulgaria poland hungary and vietnam started . however the activities in poland and bulgaria stopped after three years . citation needed in 1999 ringier acquired a 50 % share in the tv channel sat .1 schweiz . citation needed in 2001 ringier sold half the shares of betty bossi to coop . on may 15 2006 the company launched heute switzerland s first free evening newspaper . blick am abend replaced heute on june 2 2008 . in june 2007 the publication of the economic journal cash was stopped after 18 years . on december 21 2012 coop acquired the remaining 50 % shares of betty bossi from ringier . on november 24 2005 chairman michael ringier announced that former german chancellor gerhard schr der will advise the company in important matters starting january 2006 . in 2009 ringier transferred its physical picture archive to the aargau state archive . in 2010 the editorial offices of blick sonntagsblick blick am abend and blick.ch together with web tv were joined together to form the largest and most modern newsroom in the country . 11 the gradual expansion into the growth markets in africa in 2011 focused primarily on digital services . 12 at the beginning of 2012 ringier founded a joint venture with bank zweiplus under the existing umbrella brand cash which offers online finance and economic information online financial services and online banking . the entire direct client business of bank zweiplus was outsourced into this company . 13 together with zurich publishing house tamedia ringier acquiredthe jobs.ch holding ag from the us associated company tiger global management . in october 2012 the competition commission gave its approval for the acquisition of the largest job platform in switzerland . 14 in july 2014 ringier 15 announced the sale of 49 % shares of the subsidiary scout24 switzerland ag to the american investor kkr . this partnership was the first of its kind in the 180 year company history of ringier . by spring 2016 schweizerische mobiliar took over the shares of kkr and since then holds 50 % of the scout24 switzerland ag . 16 ringier still consolidates the company . joint venture with axel springer in eastern europe edit on march 23 2010 ringier and the german media company axel springer announced their intention to form a joint venture headquartered in zurich both companies hold 50 % . the joint venture is called ringier axel springer media ag . axel springer ag paid a contribution in cash of around eur 50 million and paid eur 125 million to compensate ringier . the purpose of the joint venture is to combine all activities in eastern europe of the two companies inside one holding . axel springer ag brought the business of its subsidiaries in poland czech republic and hungary while ringier brought its business in serbia slovakia czech republic and hungary . ringier and axel springer together own over 100 print titles 34 newspapers 73 magazines and more than 70 online platforms and established themselves as one of the biggest media companies in the eastern europe market march 2010 . overall the joint venture is the market leader in tabloids and one of the largest provider of magazines . mark dekan is currently the ceo of ringier axel springer media ag . 17 chairman of the board is ralph b chi president of axel springer international . 18 19 20 in 2002 it was rumoured that axel springer ag was planning an acquisition of ringier ag . 21 in july 2007 springer acquired the german tv programme guides tele tv4 and tv2 from ringier through the subsidiary company jean frey ag . 22 joint venture with axel springer in switzerland edit on january 1 2016 the swiss joint venture ringier axel springer schweiz ag was founded together with axel springer . 23 the media company s remit includes both companies entire magazine portfolios in switzerland as well as the le temps and handelszeitung newspapers . it employs around 600 people and is located in zurich . ringier deutschland gmbh edit the two premium titles cicero and monopol have changed hands cicero editor in chief christoph schwennicke and deputy dditor in chief alexander marguier took over the two high end products on may 1 2016 as part of a management buyout . 24 on april 4 2016 the joint sales and marketing organisation from ringier swisscom and srg began operations under the name admeira . 25 the project was first launched on august 17 2015 and marc walder was among its initiators . 26 the venture s objective of keeping more digital advertising funds in switzerland was met with criticism from competitors which led to ringier s immediate withdrawal from the swiss media association on august 20 2015 just three days after the launch was announced . 27 documentation edit christian kolbe spuren der zeit 175 jahre ringier patriarchen presse und profit . in dok schweizer fernsehen 5 . mai 2008 . 28 literature edit karl l nd ringier bei den leuten . die bewegte geschichte eines ungew hnlichen familienunternehmens . nzz libro z rich 2008 isbn 978 3 03823 400 5 . peter meier thomas h usler zwischen masse markt und macht . das medienunternehmen ringier im wandel 1833 2008 . chronos z rich februar 2010 isbn 978 3 0340 0952 2 . weblinks edit schweizer website von ringier internationale website von ringier ringier in german french and italian in the online historical dictionary of switzerland