Würzburg, May 25, 2007
The three leading media companies in the Würzburg region are taking an unusual approach to meet the major challenges of a rapidly changing industry even better: they are currently founding the Würzburg Media Academy (WüMA), which is to be established and expanded over the next few years to become the central training and further education company for Vogel Business Medien, Mediengruppe Main-Post and Robert Krick Verlag.
"We are giving up our own small allotments in favor of a large-scale variety of offers for our young talent," explained Claus Wüstenhagen, CEO of Vogel Business Medien, at the founding press conference at his company on Friday. The merger of the three media companies offers WüMA graduates the opportunity to get to know an unusually broad product portfolio in the media business. From specialist media to daily newspapers, from printing to nationally active IT services, from directory media to books, from local media logistics service providers to internationally active magazine publishers, the range of activities in the three companies extends to the future diversity of the training content.
At the same time, by pooling financial and logistical resources, it will be possible to offer significantly improved training that is always geared towards the needs of the industry. The curricula will be continuously developed in coordination with the Würzburg-Schweinfurt Chamber of Industry and Commerce.
As outlined at the press conference, the Würzburg media companies are thus equipping themselves for future competition on the labor market. The joint, extremely broad-based activity is intended to keep Würzburg an attractive location for qualified employees in comparison to the major German cities.
It was announced on Friday that the Würzburg Media Academy will not only serve the training and further education of the company's own junior staff, but will also be offered to external customers. The printing companies Stürtz and Vogel-Druck were also involved in the preliminary talks on the concept. According to their managing directors, they want to use the WüMA's offerings as a supplement to their own in-house training and also make themselves available as partners for qualification measures.
WüMA will start work in late summer with the recruitment and training of trainees. From next year, the company will gradually take over training on behalf of the three founding partners.
Information on the shareholders of the Würzburger Medien-Akademie:
a.) The Main-Post media group with a total of around 900 employees publishes five daily newspaper titles with a paid circulation of 145,000 copies and a weekly newspaper, seven advertising papers and various magazines in Mainfranken. The company, which is part of the Georg von Holtzbrinck publishing group (Stuttgart), is also active in the online, mail logistics, addressed delivery, direct distribution, customer service, offset printing and pre-press sectors.
b.) The Krick family of companies, based in Eibelstadt, is active throughout Germany with 450 office and field staff. Krick offers local information services in print, on the Internet and on mobile devices. Lexika Verlag provides more knowledge with its specialist publications on choosing a career and studying. The portfolio of the corporate family is rounded off by iWelt AG's customized solutions for communication and information technology with a focus on software development and Internet service providing.
c.) The Vogel Medien Group, Würzburg, is one of the leading international media companies in the specialist publishing and special interest sector. With its industry-oriented offering, it provides decision-makers and ambitious users with information of high value. The core of its business is formed by the specialist media activities of Vogel Business Medien in the industry, automotive & mobility, information technology, home entertainment, legal/economics/taxes and foreign trade segments. A cross-media, comprehensive portfolio in print, online and face-to-face is at the heart of the B2B information provider. The activities of the Vogel Medien Group and its subsidiaries are concentrated in Europe and Asia. In Germany alone, around 650 employees at the main sites in Würzburg and Munich develop and produce over 50 magazines with a total annual circulation of more than 20 million copies.
If you have any questions, please contact
Günter Schürger
Managing Director
Würzburger Medien-Akademie GmbH i.G.
Max-Planck-Str. 7/9
97064 Würzburg
Phone +49 (0)931 418-2699
Fax +49 (0)931 418-2421
mailto: guenter_schuerger@vogel-medien.de
www.medienakademie.de
