“Austria’s Journalist” – published like kress by the media specialist publisher Oberauer – honors Roland Weißmann as “Media Manager of the Year”. “The general director of the ORF skillfully steers the country’s largest media company through the shoals between politics and competition,” is how “Austria’s Journalist” explains this year’s election.
10 points that speak for Roland Weißmann
1. Due to his equal personal experience as a journalist, in the finance department and with TV production, he has an exceptional, holistic understanding of the company.
2. While the party political attacks and competitive campaigns in public became more and more massive, he laid important foundations for future competitiveness in the house.
3. The development of the “ORF 2030” corporate strategy as a participatory project involving half of the workforce sends a strong signal of the great trust in our own staff.
4. By replacing the editorial statute created in 1976 with a long overdue, contemporary new version, he set the course for co-determination, especially for journalists, right from the start.
5. During the negotiations on the new ORF law, he proved to be a skilled tactician behind the scenes. In consultation with publishers and private broadcasters, he achieved the best possible for ORF.
6. The Code of Ethics provides a guideline that limits secondary activities that get out of control. This is also an instrument against the two-class society in the company.
7. The simultaneous publication of the legally required transparency report with the code of ethics was a communicative coup: internal question of justice versus external pillory.
8. The public personnel affairs – from Schrom to Ziegler – were survived without major damage to the house. The newly installed, independent, instruction-free compliance office helps with this.
9. Cooperation despite competition became concrete through ORF’s participation in the streamer Joyn and
Participation in the radio player. The relationship with publishers is also slowly easing again.
10. The austerity package of around 320 million euros announced in 2023 is hardly noticed by the public, but is being implemented unobtrusively. Annual savings of 80 million are planned by 2026.
The award is given annually to a manager in Austrian media management who, through their work, promotes the foundation for journalism and at the same time makes an important contribution to society. “Good journalism absolutely needs good management – especially now in these challenging times. We want to make that clear with this award and at the same time appreciate the work of an exceptional media manager,” explains “Journalist:in” publisher Georg Taitl.
To person
The 56-year-old comes from Upper Austria and studied journalism and history in Vienna. He completed traineeships at newspapers and wrote his diploma thesis “Journalistic forms of representation in Austrian print media: a comparison between prevailing doctrine and practice”. In 1995, the year it was published, he started as a journalist in the ORF regional studio for Lower Austria, moved to Ö3 in 1998 when the private radio stations were launched nationwide, to the central radio news department in 2000 and returned to St. Pölten in 2003 as head of Radio Lower Austria and later head of “Lower Austria today “. In 2010 he moved to office manager in the ORF finance department, and in 2012 to head producer and TV finance director. He has been General Director since 2022
The winners so far
2003: Horst Pirker, Styria
2004: Harald Knabl, “NÖN”
2005: Eva Dichand, “Today”
2006: Oliver Voigt, News-Verlag
2007: Wolfgang Vyslozil, APA
2008: –
2009: Reinhold Gmeinbauer, “Press”
2010: Horst Pirker, Styria
2011: Gerlinde Hinterleitner, standard.at
2012: Rudolf A. Cuturi, “OÖN”
2013: Markus Breitenecker, Puls 4
2014: Peter Kropsch, APA
2015: Alexander Wrabetz, ORF
2016: Gerhard Riedler, Mediaprint, “Kronen Zeitung”
2017: Markus Breitenecker, Puls 4
2018: Clemens Pig, APA
2019: Gerold Riedmann, “UN”
2020: Markus Mair, Styria
2021: Herwig Langanger, Rainer Nowak, “Die Presse”
2022: Gerhard Valeskini, „Kronen Zeitung“
2023: Maximilian Dasch, “Salzburger Nachrichten”
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