RTL Deutschland gets new finance and HR managers

Ingrid Heisserer (left), Xenia Meuser

New top managers for RTL Germany.

(Photo: L’Oréal)

Dusseldorf The media company RTL Germany is continuing to restructure its board of directors. After co-boss Stephan Schäfer was relieved of his duties in mid-August and Bertelsmann boss Thomas Rabe stepped in for a transitional period, RTL presented a new chief financial officer and a new head of human resources on Monday.

Ingrid Heisserer will be Chief Financial Officer of RTL Germany from December. The 49-year-old comes from the cosmetics manufacturer L’Oréal. Most recently she was CFO for Germany and Austria. Xenia Meuser, 46, takes over the human resources department of RTL. Meuser will take up her new position at the end of October. She comes from the Xing parent company New Work.

The two managers switch to RTL at a time of upheaval. Since the beginning of the year, the Cologne TV group and the Hamburg publishing house Gruner+ Jahr have been combined under the RTL brand. Both companies belong to the Gütersloh media group Bertelsmann.

Even the integration of a dozen editors-in-chief and 1,500 journalists is not easy. In addition, there are the current crises: As a result of the Ukraine war, high inflation and an impending economic slowdown, the European RTL Group recently cut its annual outlook and is now expecting lower profits and sales. RTL Germany is the largest business unit of the RTL Group.

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At the same time, RTL is investing a lot of money in building its new streaming platform RTL +, formerly: TV Now. She wants to compete with global players like Disney or Netflix at the local level. The platform should be profitable by 2026. At this point, RTL wants to invest EUR 600 million a year in the streaming business, compared to EUR 209 million last year.

RTL app is delayed

The changes in the board could be related to problems with the RTL streaming service. In addition to films and series, RTL also wants to offer content such as podcasts, audio books, music, digital books as well as online magazines and digital newspaper articles, for example from Stern or Geo from Gruner + Jahr, in its app. The integration should take place by summer 2022, it was said when the app was presented last winter. So far, however, there is only a music portfolio in the app.

The project is technically quite demanding, Bertelsmann boss Rabe had already admitted to the Handelsblatt in the spring. RTL + should start “in the course of the year”, according to Rabe at the time. RTL + has seen significant user growth, most recently 3.8 million subscribers.

Demanding tasks for new managers

So the new CFO Heisserer shouldn’t be allowed to complain about too little work: despite the bleak prospects, she has to invest and at the same time watch over the costs. Her 20 years of experience will stand her in good stead. Since the turn of the millennium, she has worked at L’Oréal in numerous management positions in the finance department of the French consumer goods group.

The business economist and lawyer began her career in 1996 at Steelcase, an American manufacturer of office furniture. The manager succeeds Alexander Glatz, who will leave the company at the end of August – “on the best of terms”, as the press release conveys.

RTL logo

As a result of the Ukraine war, high inflation and an impending economic slowdown, the European RTL Group recently cut its outlook.

(Photo: dpa)

Heisserer’s new board colleague, Meuser, will be under no less scrutiny. In the course of the merger of the two media houses, important personnel decisions have to be made. The post of head of HR was vacant at RTL for a long time. Predecessor Julia Reuter left the company at the end of April at her own request “to take on new tasks”, as they say.

Meuser started her career in 1998 in Human Resources at Tchibo after studying business administration. She then moved to the Otto Group, has worked at New Work since 2013 and built up the international human resources department at the Hamburg headquarters.

Bertelsmann CEO Thomas Rabe commented on the new additions: “RTL Group is continuing on its course of making the group’s top management broader and more diverse.”

Bertelsmann boss Rabe takes more action at RTL

The recent change in the board of directors of the media company is by no means the only one. Almost two weeks ago, the company had separated from its previous co-managing director Schäfer, who was responsible for the content of RTL +. The manager was released from his duties after less than a year, but remains employed as a consultant at RTL. Schäfer used to be the head of Gruner + Jahr and, together with Matthias Dang, who comes from RTL, formed an equal dual leadership.

Bertelsmann boss Rabe justified this with “some major challenges” that RTL is facing. He himself has taken over Schäfer’s tasks on an interim basis and thus has a triple role: Rabe is head of RTL Germany, the RTL Group and the mother Bertelsmann.

Most recently, with the long-standing RTL man Andreas Fischer, a manager has also moved into the management board, who takes care of the operative business as COO.

More: RTL boss Schäfer has to go – Bertelsmann CEO Rabe now has a triple role

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