Michael Ringier (born 30 March 1949) is a Swiss

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

. He is the Chairman of Swiss media company

Ringier Ringier AG is a media group in Switzerland, founded in 1833 in Zofingen and based in Zürich. The current strategy is based not only on media but also on e-commerce and entertainment. It has a yearly income of approximately 1000 million CHF and ...

Life

Born in

Zofingen Zofingen (french: Zofingue) is a city in the canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It is the capital of the district of Zofingen. Zofingen is a walled city and home of an ancient monastic settlement. History In ancient times Zofingen was a settlem ...

, his parents are Hans and Eva Ringier (born Landolt). Ringier attended the University of St. Gallen from 1970 to 1972. In 1973, he began to work as a journalist for the Münchner

Abendzeitung The Abendzeitung (''"Evening Paper"''), sometimes abbreviated to AZ, is a liberal morning tabloid newspaper from Munich, Germany. A localized edition is published in Nuremberg. The paper is published six days a week; the masthead of the Saturday ...

. After attending courses at a journalism school and editorial stations in his family's media company, Ringier completed a trainee program at Heinrich Bauer Verlag in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

in 1976/77. He then worked for the business editorial staff of the

Stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

and conceived (also for

Gruner + Jahr Gruner + Jahr is a publishing house headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company was founded in 1965 by , , and Gerd Bucerius. From 1969 to 1973, Bertelsmann acquired a majority share in the company and gradually increased it over time. Af ...

) the magazin impulse. In the

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

editorial department, he headed the department of "Business Administration and Business" from 1980 onwards.

Private life

Ringier is married to the law graduate Ellen Ringier (born Lüthy) and has two adopted daughters. Ringier is considered a proven art collector with a collection of more than 4,000 works of contemporary art and lives in a modern villa on

Lake Zurich __NOTOC__ Lake Zurich (Swiss German/ Alemannic: ''Zürisee''; German: ''Zürichsee''; rm, Lai da Turitg) is a lake in Switzerland, extending southeast of the city of Zürich. Depending on the context, Lake Zurich or ''Zürichsee'' can be used t ...

. He likes to spend his holidays in his holiday home in

Engadin The Engadin or Engadine ( rm, ;This is the name in the two Romansh idioms that are spoken in the Engadin, Vallader and Puter, as well as in Sursilvan and Rumantsch Grischun. In Surmiran, the name is ''Nagiadegna'', and in Sutsilvan, it i ...

. Ringier likes to jog and is a passionate tennis and golf player.

Ringier AG

In 1983, he returned to Switzerland, where he took over the responsibility for

New Media New media describes communication technologies that enable or enhance interaction between users as well as interaction between users and content. In the middle of the 1990s, the phrase "new media" became widely used as part of a sales pitch for ...

and the German market in the

AG. In 1985, Michael Ringier was CEO of Ringier AG. In 1991, as Chairman of the Board of Directors, he took over sole responsibility for the company. In 1997, he resigned as Chairman of the Board and took over the operational leadership of Ringier AG, as delegate of the board of directors. He also took over publishing management of the publisher. In 2003, Ringier became Chairman of Ringier Holding AG.

Other activities

Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York (SI) is an independent non-profit contemporary art organization founded in 1986. SI is located at 38 St Marks Pl, the corner of Second Avenue and St Marks Place in the East Village neighborhood of Manhatt ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2016)Nate Freeman (15 September 2016)
Swiss Institute to Move to St. Marks Place in the East Village Next Spring
�''

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American visual-arts magazine, based in New York City. It covers art from ancient to contemporary times. ARTnews is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. It has a readership of 180,000 in 124 countr ...

''.

Literature

Michael Ringier Biography
in the

Munzinger-Archiv Munzinger-Archiv is an encyclopedia created by Ludwig Munzinger in 1913. Ludwig Munzinger Jr. took over Munzinger-Archiv in 1957. References

1913 establishments in Germany German online encyclopedias German-language encyclopedias Germa ...

Ringen um Ringier, Über die Kunst der Digitalisierung in einem Schweizer Medienkonzern
René Lüchinger,

Steidl Steidl is a German-language publisher, an international publisher of photobooks, and a printing company, based in Göttingen, Germany. It was started in 1968 by Gerhard Steidl and is still run by him. Overview The company was started by Gerh ...

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

2019,

External links

Michael Ringier
on the website from Ringier

Article in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from 9 May 2008
Michael Ringier.
Interview

References

{{Authority control Swiss publishers (people) Swiss businesspeople 1949 births Stern (magazine) people University of St. Gallen alumni Living people