From Mumbrella a couple of days ago:
Bauer Media’s new CEO Paul Dykzeul doesn’t care if people think he’s a “prick”. Instead, he says he’s passionate, knows what he is doing, and is here to change the business model.
The former Bauer New Zealand CEO, who joined the Australian arm in late June after the abrupt departure of Nick Chan, tells Mumbrella he hasn’t come to Australia to “manage the status quo”, but instead intends to implement change and “future-proof” the business.
“This business is not in trouble, it’s just having some difficulties, and this is an adjustment process, and it’s going to make the business a hell of a lot better as a result of the adjustments we are making,” he says.
The comments follow Bauer Media’s first major changes under the new CEO last Friday – which included a reshuffle to the publisher’s executive line-up and the closure of custom publishing arm, BauerWorks.
It came the same week Bauer Media was told to pay Australian celebrity Rebel Wilson $4.5m in damages, and German executive and interim CEO prior to Chan, Andreas Schoo left the business.
While Dykzeul admits Friday’s announcement – which sees the removal of two publishers and the promotion of Fiorella di Santo – would lead to some redundancies, making the business more “viable long term” is his focus.
“I’m not here to manage the status quo, I’m here to change things, and that’s what I’ve been pretty successful at over the years and that’s why I am here,” he says.
“I don’t care what people say about me, I know what I’m doing, I know what I want to do, I am very passionate about it, and I’m very single-minded about it.
Click on the link to read more, including about the departure of the well known to newsagents 17 year Bauer (and ACP) veteran Eugene Varricchio.
He says he’s not there to manage the status quo , yet he claims the business is not in trouble ???
He will need more than good luck to fix Bauer’s dwindling circulation numbers
Whilst he is making his business more viable, I wonder if he will consider changes that will do the same for his retail partners.
Without that, the status quo remains.
The whole article includes this: “Magazines and newspapers have a great future, they have a very important social future, but for both newspaper and magazine companies, the model under which they operate doesn’t work anymore.
Certainly not a shy, retiring type … maybe what they need.