This affects almost all professionals – sooner or later you change jobs. The thing that can be particularly memorable for many is the farewell message. Gabor Steingart, until recently co-editor of Handelsblatt, has written a special copy of a farewell letter. I am glad that this letter found its way to the public, because I had high expectations of it. They were not disappointed. It is fun to read the farewell email, because I think it is a very motivating and optimistic appeal to continue on the path we have chosen. The sincere thanks to all companions shows greatness.
kress.de has published the letter. Here it is.
(for the sake of simplicity I copied it from kress.de )
Dear colleagues,
At some point, we all have to say goodbye to our company. Today it’s my turn. Everyone talks about disruption, I live it – even if not entirely voluntarily. But our publisher, my longtime partner Dieter von Holtzbrinck, made that deal with himself. As a 5 percent shareholder, one is obliged to be brave in such cases.
When we look back today on these almost eight years together in the Handelsblatt Media Group, we should do so with pride and gratitude. Our collective effort has paid off.
The transformation from an old-style printing and publishing house to a modern media company is not complete, but it is well underway. The new headquarters is the symbol of this transformation, which I have always experienced as the transformation of people as well.
I am thinking of our once well-behaved documentalists, who founded the Handelsblatt Research Institute with incredible verve and entrepreneurial spirit and are now making a highly profitable contribution. Thank you Bert Rürup for this great development work!
I am thinking of the many writing journalists from WirtschaftsWoche and Handelsblatt who have discovered live journalism on stage as a new form of expression for themselves.
I’m thinking of the once very traditional sales teams that now bring a creativity to the two business clubs of the house that they probably didn’t know they had in them themselves in the past.
I think of the hundreds of new employees over the past few years who are planning high-profile conferences and events and building the apps for the digital age.
But I am also thinking of the international colleagues of Handelsblatt Global Edition, who give Germany’s major business newspaper weight and voice in the Anglo-Saxon language region in the age of globalization.
In a nutshell, the company is back on track for success. We are growing. We are hiring. We invest. I would have liked to continue this course with you. I presented the management’s plans for this to the publisher. My departure does not change the need for a powerful digital strategy for the two major titles. Nostalgia, as we have often enough discovered together, is not a business model.
I am not leaving without thanking my colleagues Frank Dopheide, Ingo Rieper and Gerrit Schumann, but also Andrea Wasmuth, Annemarie Brems, Pascal Gerckens, Ines Alexander, Kerstin Jaumann and Christian Herp for the mostly exhausting, always friendly and finally so successful cooperation. You guys are great! As friends and as colleagues!
I would also like to thank the editors-in-chief and publishers of our company, first and foremost Miriam Meckel, Sven Afhüppe, Thomas Tuma, Beat Balzli and Andreas Kluth, but also our principal and my faithful companion Peter Brors and the new digital heads – Sebastian Matthes and Lutz Knappmann – for their commitment and inspiration. I will miss your journalistic passion and our stimulating debates.
My thanks also go to the elected representatives of the workforce. Our works councils have shown themselves to be critical employee representatives, but very clearly oriented toward the common good. The transformation would not have been conceivable without them. I would like to personally thank Waltraud Wittfeld, Elke Gerfertz, Martina Held, Axel Hings and Hans Eschbach for their many years of trust.
Finally, I am also indebted to my long-time partner and sponsor Dieter von Holtzbrinck. It was his idea to appoint me editor-in-chief and eventually publisher, chairman of the board and shareholder. We have harmonized wonderfully over the years, whereby the division of labor was clear: On the one hand, the often impetuous, twenty years younger journalist, who above all placed the opportunities of transformation at the center of his strategy. Opposite him was the experienced and at the same time far-sighted publisher who carefully weighed up the risks. Both did our media group good.
What alienated us in the final chord was his handling of freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the matter of Martin Schulz. Dismissal and ban from the house: This certainly did no service to editorial independence. Freedom is always the freedom of the dissenter. For me, this sentence by Rosa Luxemburg describes the basic understanding of a liberal publicist and is therefore non-negotiable.
However, we should also look on the bright side: The editors-in-chief, publishers and managing directors of the house have shown themselves to be people with attitude in the hour of conflict. In their letter to Dieter von Holtzbrinck, they speak of a “devastating sign for the journalistic independence, the further economic development and the corporate culture of the company.” This straightforwardness impressed me. The company may have lost its boss, but not its pride.
It’s not about me now. It is about the dignity of the company and respect for the other opinion. And it’s about the future of this media group, which as of tomorrow you will have to take into your own hands more powerfully than ever before. The future is what you make of it. You are the Handelsblatt Media Group.
And perhaps my departure will also offer opportunities for your own development. As you know, if you’re always the center of attention, you’re always in everyone’s way. So take advantage of the opportunities that this wonderful company offers you.
If you miss me, there is no need to worry. Because I miss you too. Very much so!
Sincerely greets you
Your Gabor Steingart
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