Christian Fricke named MD of Bauer Xcel Media

Bauer Media has appointed Christian Fricke as managing director of Bauer Xcel Media as it prepares for the next period of growth.

Fricke has more than ten years’ experience in senior management roles including leadership positions in both digital and print businesses, and heading up Bauer Xcel’s German operation.

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Nick Chan, CEO of Bauer Media said: “I’m delighted Christian has joined us to guide the business and drive growth. He has extensive experience of our multi-platform strategy and successfully oversaw a period of significant expansion at Bauer Xcel in Germany. That experience will prove invaluable as we continue to evolve to meet the needs of both consumers and advertisers.”

Fricke joins from Walt-Disney-backed start-up Playbuzz, a publisher network for interactive content formats, where as managing director for central Europe he was responsible for building its operations across seven countries in the region as well as being on the global management team.

Bauer CEO Nick Chan

During Fricke’s seven years at Bauer Media Germany he commenced as investment manager for all non-print subsidiaries where he managed M&A activity, moving onto publishing director for a portfolio of 10 print magazines with responsibilities for day-to-day operations including editorial, sales, strategy and marketing.

In 2012 Fricke was promoted to managing director of Bauer Xcel Media and charged with running all digital activities for the group. In that time, he oversaw significant revenue growth, tripled audience traffic and increased the team up to 100 people, moving the business into profitability. He began his career as a senior consultant for Roland Berger specialising in strategy for newspaper and digital publishers.

Fricke added: “Bauer Xcel ANZ has had an incredible start and I’m thrilled to help shape its future growth together with Nick and the digital team. We are in a strong position to leverage our digital-focused operation that caters for the fast innovation cycles of digital publishing based on Bauer Media’s leading brand portfolio.”

He starts in the role on August 1.