We were able to generate a surprisingly large number of new business ideas and relationships in the first CONTENTshift round. This made us very eager to be involved again in 2017. Dr. Wolfgang Pichler
Manz is Austria’s leading special-interest publisher for law-related content. Our traditional print division comprises books and special-interest magazines as well as our own bookshop. We work in the core markets serving law students, the legal profession, administrative authorities and scientists. We have been pioneers in the online business for 30 years, especially with our RDB-Rechtsdatenbank (RDB Legal Database). In light of the considerable erosion taking place in all traditional business areas, we have been continually expanding our portfolio for several years now in the direction of data services for law firms and workflow software.
Wolfgang Pichler was born in 1961 and grew up in Vienna. In 1979, after finishing his Abitur in the humanities in Klosterneuburg, Austria, he began studies in public and international law. After acquiring his doctorate in 1984, Pichler clerked for one year. In 1986, he began working as an editor at MANZ Verlag and has remained true to that publishing house ever since. From 1993 to 2016, Pichler was head of publishing at MANZ, where he was responsible for the entire publishing programme (books, sequels, magazines and the RDB online database). In January 2017, he became director of business development and subsidiaries. In this position, together with managing partner Susanne Stein-Pressl, he co-manages the digitisation of the Manz Group. Generating strategic contacts to startups is one of the core tasks in this area. In November 2002, Pichler was appointed to the board of Austria’s Magazine and Special Interest Media Association (ÖZV), where he has also acted as president for the past five years.