The inauguration took place at the close of the 36th FIPP World Magazine Congress at the China World Hotel in Beijing, China on 15 May, 2007. The chairmanship of the world's magazine association was passed to Lamunière after Chris Llewellyn, managing director, Emap International, completed his two-year term.

Said Lamunière: 'Thanks to the excellent work of my predecessors Chris Llewellyn and Bill Kerr, and the unrelenting dedication of FIPP president Donald Kummerfeld and his team, great achievements have been realized. In a period of profound change for our industry, I am honoured that FIPP and its board have entrusted me with continuing this important mission. I very much look forward to working with our members on an ambitious agenda of promoting the importance of magazines vis-à-vis readers, advertisers and policy makers.”

Commenting on the election, Kummerfeld said: 'Pierre has been on the board since April 2002 and has been vice chairman for the past two years. He has been a strong supporter of FIPP and will continue to give us the energetic, wise and involved leadership his immediate predecessors, Chris Llewellyn and Bill Kerr have given over the last four years.”

Pierre Lamunière joined the Edipresse Group in 1977, becoming the chief executive officer in 1986. In February 2005, he stood down from the daily operational management of the Group and became chairman of the board of directors and group publisher. Edipresse, headquartered in Switzerland, is active in newspapers, magazines and electronic publishing. It publishes over 150 titles and websites, and employs 3,500 people.

Lamunière is also a director of Lamunière SA and its subsidiary companies. Amongst several of his past and current directorships, he was a director of La Poste, the largest Swiss Company, from 1997 to 2002. He has been a member of the FIPP Management Board since April 2002. Lamunìere is a Swiss national and holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, USA.

On the outlook for the industry, Lamunière said: “Our industry faces both challenges and opportunities. But the bottom line is that we are producers of content which serves to inform, educate and entertain. When we do this well, we create a bond between our products and our readers – a trust and loyalty which perhaps no other form of media enjoys. So the real question we are all facing is how do we sustain this over the long term? I believe that magazines will continue to have a central, inescapable, and “must have” position in the media landscape. But we will have to evolve so as to be in a position of using our brands across multiple distribution channels.”

About FIPP: Founded in 1925 as the Fédération Internationale de la Presse Périodique, The International Federation of the Periodical Press www.fipp.com works for the benefit of magazine publishers around the world; promoting the common editorial, cultural and economic interests of consumer and business-to-business publishers, both in print and electronic media. FIPP serves a global market with a total annual advertising revenue in the region of US$70 billion and approximately 110,000 titles based on figures from FIPP World Magazine Trends 2006/2007. FIPP currently represents 280 members in 57 countries, which consist of 45 national associations, 170 publishing companies and 65 associate members (including six individual members).

For further information :

Gregory Blatt
Edipresse Group
Director Marketing, Communications and Strategy
Email
Tél. +41 21 349 45 02

Sylvia Wuersten
Deputy Manager Communications
Email
Tél. + 41 21 349 42 01