Burda Media Realigns Its Organisation

Burda Media is launching a comprehensive transformation, aligning the organisation with the demands of a media landscape increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence. Over the next 12 to 18 months, the company aims to become leaner, more agile and more effective. At the heart of the reorganisation are strong brands, direct customer relationships and the consistent use of AI. The organisational changes affect the German publishing business, the international companies and the associated support functions. 

“We are consistently aligning Burda Media with the capabilities that will define future success. This will lay the foundations for securing our economic strength over the long term and regaining greater scope for innovation and sustainable growth,” says Elisabeth Varn, Member of the Executive Board responsible for Burda Media Germany. Lydia Rullkötter, Member of the Executive Board and CFO, adds: “In times of transformation, clarity and close collaboration are essential. That is why we must align our support functions even more rigorously with the needs of the operating businesses and streamline them consistently.” 

BurdaVerlag and BurdaForward to Form the Basis for an Integrated Media Company 

In the German publishing business, Burda Media, under the leadership of Elisabeth Varn, is merging BurdaVerlag and BurdaForward. The aim is an integrated media house in which brands are managed under one roof, silos are dismantled and competencies are pooled. This creates a new joint company; neither of the two existing organisations is taking over the other. The future organisation combines entrepreneurially run brand worlds with strong central functions. The brand worlds comprise: 

• Focus: Focus online, Focus Magazin and Focus Plus are pooled into a standalone brand world. 

• Lifestyle: Bunte Print and Bunte.de are brought together in the lifestyle segment, which is also home to the luxury brands (e.g. Instyle, Harper's Bazaar, Elle) as well as the Freundin brand. 

• Women & Entertainment encompasses all weeklies, entertainment-focused women's magazines, as well as Superillu and Guter Rat. 

• Screens: here, the programme media (e.g. Cinema and TV Spielfilm) are pooled across print and digital. 

• Further standalone brand pillars: Garden & Living, Food, Health and Chip remain unchanged. Nothing changes for the subsidiary Blue Ocean Entertainment. 

Going forward, the cross-functional units will pool competencies available to all brands. These include overarching responsibility for digital products, revenue streams, artificial intelligence, print production, product-related technologies, finance and transformation. 

New Management Board for the German media business 

As part of the reorganisation, key leadership roles are being newly created or pooled across the company: 

• Stefan Ottlitz takes on the role of Chief Digital Officer with immediate effect, along with brand responsibility for Focus. He will become Managing Director of BurdaForward and BurdaVerlag Publishing, managing the Focus offerings under one roof. Stefan Ottlitz was most recently Managing Director at "Spiegel", where — as previously at "Süddeutsche Zeitung" — he successfully integrated print and digital 

• Manuela Kampp-Wirtz, CEO Burda Hearst Publishing and General Manager BurdaVerlag, is responsible for the lifestyle segment, including the integration of Bunte and Bunte.de

• Sven Dams takes on the role of Chief Product Officer (CPO), with overarching responsibility for the synergetic production of print products, as well as the brand worlds Women & Entertainment, Screens, Garden & Living and Food

• Thomas Koelzer becomes overarching Chief Technology Officer (CTO), while also remaining responsible for the Chip brand world. His remit will in future encompass the product-related production systems for print and digital

• Rebecca Gottwald becomes Chief AI Officer. Her role is to create the conditions for us to consistently harness our potential in the field of AI and, together with a central team of experts, develop brand-specific AI solutions. The team will continue to build out networks and strategic partnerships in the AI sector in a targeted way

• Wiebke Meeder joins Burda Media from Handelsblatt Media Group as Chief Revenue Officer with effect from 1 October. She will pool responsibility for all revenue streams, in particular advertising sales and circulation revenue, take over the management of the BCN, and — together with Kerstin Gajewi — the management of Consumer Sales & Services (distribution). She will also be responsible for the Facts division, which will continue to be led by Andrea Bönicke as Managing Director (including the seal-of-approval business)

• Florian Buck, previously CFO of BurdaVerlag, takes on the role of CFO with overarching responsibility for the finance function. 

As part of the reorganisation, Daniel Steil, Managing Director of BurdaForward (further information here), as well as Martin Weese, Chief Digital Officer (further information here), Matthias Frei, Brand Director News, and Elfi Langefeld, Chief Product Officer Lifestyle (further information here), from BurdaVerlag, will leave the company. 

In addition to Elisabeth Varn, Manuela Kampp-Wirtz and Stefan Ottlitz, Sven Dams and Thomas Koelzer will also become Managing Directors of BurdaVerlag Publishing GmbH. Thomas Koelzer will also remain Managing Director of BurdaForward GmbH. 

International operations to receive greater local responsibility 

The management of international media activities is also being realigned. Going forward, Burda Media will place greater emphasis on entrepreneurial responsibility within individual countries, local development and market-driven decision-making. 

As part of the strategic realignment, Burda International Holding will discontinue its cross-country strategic and operational activities and will in future be run purely as a financial holding company. Marie Stephan will take over as its sole Managing Director. The CEOs of the companies in Poland, the Czech Republic and France, as well as of Burda Create, will report to her going forward. The British media house Immediate, led by CEO Sean Cornwell, will continue to be governed by a board, the chair of which will be taken over by Lydia Rullkötter. Duncan Tickell, Co-Managing Director of Burda International Holding, will be leaving Burda Media. 

Support functions to be aligned with the needs of the businesses 

The transformation also affects the IT and HR functions, which fall under Lydia Rullkötter's responsibility. The aim is closer integration with the core business, simpler interfaces and clear responsibilities. Rainer Nock, Managing Director of Burda Services, will additionally take over as Managing Director of Burda IT. As part of this, Felix Kalkum will be leaving the company. 

The HR function is also being more closely aligned with the demands of the transformation. Jana Plischke will take up the position of Director Corporate HR with effect from 1 August. She has more than 20 years of experience in the strategic management of HR and business functions and in supporting transformations, and previously worked at Lieferando and Enpal, most recently serving as Senior Vice President People at Razor Group.

"In our new leadership team for Burda Media, we are pooling all the competencies we need for our fresh start. I am looking forward to shaping the future of Burda Media together with this team."

Elisabeth Varn, member of the Executive Board

On the departing executives, she adds: "Elfi has shaped our luxury and lifestyle segment as an exceptional brand-builder, Daniel has made BurdaForward one of the most successful digital publishers, Martin has consolidated our digital business, fundamentally realigned it and strengthened it sustainably, and Matthias has developed Bunte, Focus, SuperIllu and Guter Rat very successfully. For all of this, I am deeply grateful to them." 

"We are creating clear structures, greater local responsibility within our international media companies, and closer integration of support functions with the operational business. I would like to thank Duncan Tickell and Felix Kalkum for their contribution to developing our international operations and our IT organisation; I wish Rainer Nock great success in his additional responsibilities, and Jana Plischke an excellent start at Burda."

Lydia Rullkötter, member of the Executive Board