Florian von Heintze, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the German newspaper BILD, is joining the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy (CCLP) as a 2014-2015 visiting fellow.
While based at CCLP, Heintze will lead a series of programs examining media coverage of global events from different international perspectives. This conversation series will be presented in partnership with the Pacific Council on International Policy.
“Florian is a highly regarded newsroom innovator who helps lead one of Europe’s top-selling newspapers,” said Geoffrey Cowan, USC University Professor and CCLP director. “He brings a broad global perspective to CCLP and I am delighted to have him join our distinguished roster of fellows.”
“I am very honored,” said von Heintze. “I am looking forward to attending Center events, participating in the development of new programs and particularly taking part in your lunch discussions on the various ways international media covers the same story.”
Published by German media group Axel Springer SE, BILD has more than 11 million daily readers. Von Heintze joined BILD as Deputy Editor-in-Chief in 2004, building on his extensive experience managing magazines and newspapers. At BILD, he focuses on both editorial content as well as strategic partnerships, working with advertisers and public institutions including Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, the German AAA, and various schools and museums.
Born into a family of journalists, von Heintze founded a student newspaper at his high school in Hamburg, Germany. He started his professional career in 1981 as news and political editor for BZ, the largest newspaper in then-divided Berlin. He later became special reporter for the Sunday paper BILD am Sonntag, and in 1987 he became a foreign correspondent in New York City, covering the USA and Canada for all Springer publications in Germany.
After the reunification, von Heintze moved back to Germany and worked as political correspondent for BILD in the former capital Bonn. He then joined BURDA publishing in Munich to become Deputy Editor-in-Chief of BUNTE, Germany’s leading people magazine.
At the age of 34 von Heintze was announced Editor-in-Chief ofTVneu, a newly founded weekly TV-magazine published by Springer out of Hamburg. He doubled the circulation within a year to more than a million and later took over two more of Springer’s TV-magazines, becoming the company’s first “multiple” Editor-in-Chief.
Because of the rapidly growing BILD.de, the online-edition of BILD with 15 million unique users and 300 million visits per month, von Heintze is spending the next several months in Los Angeles to get deeper insights into social and digital media.