Dr. Rainer Esser President's Lecture

Michael Conrad, President of the Berlin School of Creative Leadership and the Art Director’s Club Germany cordially invite you to attend the next President's Lecture featuring:

DATE: Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
TIME: 19:00 - 21:00
LOCATION: Berlin School of Creative Leadership
ADDRESS: Franklinstrasse 15, 10587 Berlin

Drinks and hors d'oeuvres will be served following the lecture. RSVP: Seating is limited. To secure space at this event please send your name and email address by August 4th to: rsvp@berlin-school.com

About the Lecture
By the mid-90s Germany's highly-respected weekly newspaper, DIE ZEIT, had lost much of its relevance in the market. “Old auntie”, as it was called, could not keep up with the colour and excitement of private TV and the Internet. Now such problems are compounded by a difficult economic environment, decreasing advertising sales in the print market and the rise of smartphones, social media, etc.

Despite all that, DIE ZEIT is not an endangered species like many other weekly publications. Indeed, it is now highly successful among Germany´s biggest weekly Newspapers, with a circulation of 500.000 and *growing* advertising sales.

In addition to its core weekly print product, DIE ZEIT has developed a place to go for quality journalism and rich media in the Internet: ZEIT ONLINE. It also has successful Magazines, Editions, a wide range of high level events and conferences, a corporate publishing unit and continuous thoughts about new chances to grow.

So how did DIE ZEIT manage this? How does it grow in spite of crisis? And how does it lead its organization to defy the negative trends in the print-based news industry?

These questions will be answered by its publisher, Dr. Rainer Esser.

About Dr. Rainer Esser
Since 1999, Dr. Esser has been the General Manager of ZEIT Verlag. Preceding this, from 1995–99 he was General Manager of Main Post Publishing House and prior to this, from 1992–95 the General Manager of Spotlight Publishing House and Publisher of the Magazines Spotlight, écoute, ECOS and adesso. From 1989–92, he held the position of Editor in Chief of Business Law Europe and Tax Letter Europe and ran two legal news services being published in five languages at Bertelsmann International in Munich. Between 1987–89, Dr. Esser was a Lawyer in the international law offices Nörr, Stiefenhofer & Lutz in Munich and Stegemann, Sieveking & Lutteroth in Hamburg.

His academic history includes an Education as Editor at Deutsche Journalistenschule (German Journalists School) in Munich (1986–87) and a PhD in International Law at the University of Regensburg.