About

Under Simon Haug’s guidance the legal department’s responsibilities have been extended to the entire publishing group, including well known titles such as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Frankfurter Rundschau and Frankfurter Neue Presse, as well as all subsidiaries. At the same time, decision processes have been successfully centralised with the result that ‘the entire group is now subject to a unified decision procedure’. Haug has already initiated other projects, among them the significant growth of the knowledge management department. A particular legal challenge in his career has been the take over and integration of insolvent daily newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau. The range of issues he covers is wide and also includes matters such as taking legal action against online book store buch.de in a dispute regarding the commercial use of online reviews, as well as a variety of press and freedom of speech law topics. In his role he also needs to ‘actively defend content’ and set the legal frame work for new projects such as the potential introduction of a pay wall. Haug perceives his role as supporting the publisher in publishing content and marketing its products and he particularly enjoys being part of ‘the digital revolution in media company’. Key for external legal advisors is the ability to ‘realistically evaluate success prospects of proceedings’.