ZAt the start of the “Digital Life Design” (DLD) conference organized by Hubert Burda Media, the Munich media group is without a CEO. Martin Weiss will be leaving Burda because his “outlook on the direction and steps in the further development of the group is no longer the same as that of the board of directors,” the family company announced.
Only two years ago, the 56-year-old Weiss succeeded Paul-Bernhard Kallen, who took over the chairmanship of the board of directors as a close confidant of patriarch Hubert Burda. The only surprise about Weiss's departure after such a short time was the announcement before the start of the DLD. Otherwise things were very bad for the manager early on. The former McKinsey consultant made mistakes during his time in office, and in the end, as those around Burda say, it was one mistake too many.
Hubert Burda, now 83 years old, is said to have been increasingly concerned about the future of the media empire he had built with magazines such as “Focus” and “Bunte” as well as online portals such as Holidaycheck and Xing. Confidants report a meeting of the Assembly Council shortly before Christmas, in which Kallen simply had the “strategy” agenda item that Weiss had to present deleted. According to reports, the decision to prematurely dismiss the CEO had already been made.
“Never understood that Burda is also a publisher”
In the official Burda announcement, Kallen thanked his successor for his “always highly committed and successful work for the Hubert Burda Media Group”. And Weiss said of his more than eight years at Burda that he was pleased that he was “able to actively shape the change at Hubert Burda Media for a successful future.” Weiss' responsibilities will be taken over by the existing four-member board. The overall management of the group remains on the board of directors of Hubert Burda Media SE.
“Weiss never understood that Burda was also a publishing house,” says a manager close to the family business, which began as a printing company in 1903, then became a magazine publisher and is now an international media and technology company. Another says that Weiss failed because of the inertia at the publishing house, especially his colleague on the board Philipp Welte, with whom he was at odds.
Expensive bad investments
But it was precisely in the technology and investment area, which Weiss was responsible for for years, that he made costly mistakes. The professional network Xing, for example, which now operates as New Work, is becoming increasingly less important compared to its competitor Linkedin. The number of active users is falling, and Weiss has been unable to stop the downward trend. Although he increased Burda's stake in New Work, the value of the investment shrank by two-thirds during his time as chairman of the digital company's supervisory board. On Thursday, New Work also announced a complete renovation – whereupon the share price fell by another 20 percent.
As soon as he took office, a stake in Southeast Asia that Weiss highly valued, the fashion platform Zilingo, caused a high need for write-downs on the balance sheet of the company, which had its origins in the last century in the pattern magazine “Burda Moden”. Something like this weighs heavily in a media company where it is important to secure journalistic content through a functioning digital business. What happens next is an open question. We hear from those around the group that the board of directors wants to look for a successor to Weiss. In addition to Kallen, the publisher Hubert Burda, his two children Elisabeth Furtwängler and Jacob Burda and the former board member Andreas Rittstieg sit on the committee.
#Martin #Weiss #leave #Burda #early
