Ringier Group

Overview

Swiss-based Ringier is a European newspaper, magazine and book publisher with major printing interests. It has around 3849 employees. Its main Swiss competitor is the larger Edipresse; globally it faces competition from Quebecor.

The group

Ringier is Switzerland's largest publishing house. Sales in the year 2000 were around 1,018 million Swiss Francs (€666 million) with over 4,900 employees employed in Switzerland and other locations.

Its portfolio includes the country's highest selling daily and Sunday newspapers (Blick, SonntagsBlick, Cash, Dimanche.ch and Il caffé). It publishes a range of business newspapers and mass-circulation magazines such as Schweizer Illustrierte, 11, Tele, GlücksPost, Edelweiss and L’illustré. It has a multimedia and television program arm.

In the late 1980s it moved into Central and Eastern Europe, where it now publishes around 20 newspapers and magazines in Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary (often as a market leader in the tabloid sector). Its Hungarian operations feature joint ventures with Axel Springer and Heinrich Bauer.

After an unsuccessful move into North America (its operations were sold to World Color Press, later absorbed by Quebecor, in 1996) it has transferred much of its printing activity from the EU to the Far East. Its joint venture with TPL in Hong Kong prints around 50 newspaper and magazine titles, including The Economist and Newsweek. In China it publishes the inflight magazine for the Civil Aviation Authority of China, with a circulation of some 320,000. Ringier also operates as an advertising agency for Chinese publications.