Gerhard Schröder's (Extremely) Short Retirement
November 24, 2005
Ringier Publishing is known for the screaming headlines and scandalous scoops of its prominent Swiss and eastern European tabloid titles.
On Thursday, chief Michael Ringier dropped a PR bombshell of his own. Beginning Jan. 1, Gerhard Schröder will act as a consultant to their international political division. The former chancellor had been 'former' for all of one day, following the parliamentary election of rival Angela Merkel on Monday to the chancellery.
Instead of getting back to his lawyerly roots or writing his autobiography, as he had promised, Schröder accepted his good friend's job opening.
"He will be available to me and other employees," Ringier said at a press conference.
The door-opener
The company is the biggest media house in Switzerland and one of the most active on the eastern European market. It has 6,000 employees spread equally in Switzerland and eastern Europe. In addition to the best-selling tabloid titles Blick and Sonntagsblick, the company publishes papers and magazines in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Serbia.
Schröder and Ringier have been good friends for some time, and the chancellor spoke at the Swiss publishers' annual meeting last year. Ringier said that Schröder's political experience would enrich the house and help "open doors."
He couldn't say what Schröder would be doing, only that the work relationship will "somehow develop" itself.
"You don't work out a contract over a 40-hour week with a person like that," Ringier said.