Ringier

Ringi­er AG is the largest internationally op­erating Swiss me­dia compa­ny, produc­ing over 120 newspapers and mag­a­zines.

Ringier AG is the largest internationally op­erating Swiss me­dia compa­ny, produc­ing over 120 newspapers and mag­a­zines. It also runs print­ing plants, sev­eral ra­dio and TV stations and well over 80 web and mobile platforms with a worldwide staff of approxi­mately 8,000 employees. With its 180-year history, Ringi­er stands for a pio­neering spirit and individuality as well as independence, freedom of ex­pres­sion and diversity of information. The compa­ny’s hallmarks are ex­cel­lence in prod­ucts, journalis­tic quality and exceptional entertain­ment. Founded in Switzer­land in 1833, Ringi­er has been fam­ily run for five generations. Located in the heart of Zurich, the Pressehaus on Dufourstrasse has served as Ringier AG headquarters since 1978. More than 1,000 employees visit this location every day. In 1833 Johann Rudolf Ringi­er pur­chased a print­ing works fa­cility 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. It was Switzer­land's most successful people mag­a­zine and remains so to this day. In 1959 Ringi­er took the Swiss public by surprise launch­ing the country's first tabloid, Blick. The concept of the publication’s style prompted vio­lent con­tro­ver­sy among readers but proved very successful. Ringi­er first ven­tured into the televi­sion busi­ness in 1984, founding the local TV programming compa­ny, Züriv­i­sion. In 1987, Ringi­er expanded abroad for the first time, to Asia. The compa­ny's first activ­ities in East­ern Eu­rope took place in 1990. Al­though the Inter­net only began gain­ing mo­mentum as a mass medium to­wards the end of the 1990s, Ringi­er rec­ognized its po­tential as early as 1996, and began to con­quer the electron­ic me­dia with the Blick On­line and CASH On­line websites. Ringi­er adopted a corporate strategy based on three ar­eas of busi­ness: pub­lish­ing, dig­ital busi­ness and entertain­ment in 2009. Launch­ing a joint ven­ture unique to the compa­ny’s history in 2010, Ringi­er partnered with German pub­lish­er Axel Springer to found Ringi­er Axel Springer Me­dia AG to boost busi­ness in Central Eu­rope.