Application for the Position of Director
Lisa Totzauer: “The ORF must be saved!”
Lisa Totzauer is the first official candidate for the ORF top job. The current head of the magazine division announced on Tuesday that she is once again applying for this position after 2021. On Wednesday, Totzauer provided details about her application and made it clear: “The ORF is in a serious crisis and must be saved. I know what needs to be done!”
“We are currently going through many crises that affect us all. Despots are making decisions about our lives,” said Totzauer at a press conference on Wednesday morning. In this phase, she said, the ORF is important. Public information must not be left to the tech giants; instead, public broadcasting is needed for this.
“I know what I have to do”
Leading the ORF out of this crisis and into the future will be “a Herculean task, a mammoth undertaking.” She had applied once before five years ago and failed. But the challenges from back then are still there. The ORF must be “saved.” “I am not applying because the ORF is a large organization that needs to be managed, but because it is a democratic institution that needs to be saved.”
“I know what I have to do!”
Lisa Totzauer
Bild: APA/HERBERT NEUBAUER
Time for Change
There is a strong desire for change within the organization, and the time for these changes has now come. The ORF needs leadership that understands, feels, and lives the organization.
Five years ago, Totzauer received five out of 35 votes and was seen as a conservative alternative to then-ORF head Alexander Wrabetz. The woman in her mid-50s from Vienna has been working at the public media organization for nearly 30 years.
Totzauer has already held several positions at the country’s largest media organization—including as channel manager for ORF 1, a role that was no easy task given the pull of many streaming platforms, particularly on younger audiences. Her goal at the time was to gradually phase out U.S. series from the lineup and replace them with in-house productions.
She was responsible for prime-time hits such as “Starmania 21” and stood out for experiments like the comedy series “Wischen ist Macht” or “Walking on Sunshine,” which aired during prime time. Formats like “Fakt oder Fake” and the documentary series “Das Leben ist schön” were further attempts to offer “a humorous and authentic look into Austrian life.”
ORF Election on June 11
The call for applications for the ORF General Director position starting in 2027 was already published at the end of April. The election will take place on June 11. However, other interested candidates still have until May 28 to submit their applications. It is assumed that APA CEO Clemens Pig has the government’s support. Pig has not yet submitted an official application.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.