The Austrian antitrust authorities did not take over the Funke media group until Friday the Grotkamp family approved. A comprehensive restructuring of the company has now begun there. On Monday, Funke announced in Essen that Andrea Glock, Simone Kasik, Christoph Rüth, Bianca Pohlmann and Jochen Beckmann would form the new Funke management team. A so-called Executive Board, as the highest decision-making body, is to ensure interdisciplinary cooperation in the media group, among other things.
The Austrian antitrust authorities had to approve the purchase of all shares in the Funke Mediengruppe by the Grotkamp family because of Funke’s activities in Austria’s print sector. The chairwoman of the supervisory board, Julia Becker, emphasized: “We do not want to and must not lose any time and immediately start implementing a plan that we have worked out over the past few months with the help of numerous experts.”
In the next two years, “a division structure with a lean holding company will be built up in a multi-stage process,” the media company’s announcement said. The Funke media group includes the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ), that Hamburger Abendblatt and the Berliner Morgenpost. A central editorial office in Berlin has been contributing national content since 2015.