Gruner + Jahr has founded TERRITORY
Gruner + Jahr has founded a new company called Territory, Europe's largest provider of content-driven communication. With the merger, announced last November, of the corporate content experts G+J Corporate Editors and Medienfabrik, the personal marketing specialists Employour, one of the largest independent media agencies in Germany, Cross Marketing, and trnd, Europe's leading provider of collaborative marketing, a new market leader has arisen in this segment with revenues of over €130 million and around 850 employees.
According to G+J, Territory provides the entire range of content communication services from a single source: from content marketing and sales and trade marketing, to employer branding, internal media and corporate reporting, to word-of-mouth and social media marketing. The new lineup offers far more than just communication services, and encompasses process optimization, marketing, production, sales, and performance measurement.
The new joint company is led by CEO Soheil Dastyari, previously Publishing Director at Gruner + Jahr, in which role he was responsible for various launches such as “Barbara,” “Stern Crime,” “Salon” and “Walden,” as well as for “Stern.” Their respective publishers will take over his tasks from now on. Sandra Harzer-Kux, previously Managing G+J Corporate Editors, and Stefan Postler, previously CEO of Medienfabrik Gütersloh, complete the Territory management board.
“Content Communication is a growth business at Gruner + Jahr as elsewhere. But here especially so: the new company Territory stands for the highest quality and offers all the advantages of a market leader,” says G+J Chief Product Officer Stephan Schäfer. “Nobody from our company could better embody this new beginning than Soheil Dastyari. He has left things very well-ordered in his former position as Publishing Director, and I’d like to sincerely thank him for his accomplishments in this role. Now the next big task awaits Dastyari. He will tackle it with a lot of energy, and with Sandra Harzer-Kux and Stefan Postler he has the best management team at his side. I wish them all success and a spirit of adventure.”
“Content to Results”
“Wherever content is decisive to a company's success, we want to be the best and most comprehensive partner by creating and producing content that delivers results. We call this Content to Results,” says Territory CEO Soheil Dastyari.
Territory wants to create this added value by expanding its core and establishing various divisions: Territory Bestseller (sales marketing), Territory Embrace (employer branding and HR marketing), Territory Media (media planning and buying) and trnd by Territory (digital communications and interactive marketing). Experts who have already been successful in their respective markets for years are being integrated in the process.
“Territory is the sum of many excellent colleagues. I look forward to working with them, and would like to thank the editors-in-chief and publishers for our wonderful time together. It was my pleasure to work with them,” says Dastyari.
International network
The new company already has offices in Hamburg, Gütersloh, Berlin, Bochum, Bonn, Leverkusen, Munich, Paris, Amsterdam, Budapest, Prague, Barcelona, Milan and London. The merger with trnd and being a part of G+J and Bertelsmann gives the company access to an international network of specialists, and offers customers global reach and local support.
