Thinking of changing jobs?

ORF wants to treat itself to a new top position

Will Pig (left) and Schuh (right) soon be working side by side at ORF?(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA/Roland Schlager)

Behind the scenes, despite cost-cutting pressures, a new management position for ORF is under discussion. A confidant of former Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer is considered the SPÖ’s preferred candidate.

It will be exactly one week until the new ORF Director General is appointed. Meanwhile, however, some observers believe they already know the name that will be announced by the Board of Trustees on June 11. There are reportedly government agreements between the ÖVP and SPÖ under which APA head Clemens Pig is to get the public broadcaster “back on track”—as reported, Pig has already had his contract with the APA terminated. But the top job isn’t the only position that needs filling.

And although the public broadcaster must save tens of millions of euros, and even ORF3 Managing Director Kathrin Zierhut-Kunz believes the broadcaster does not need two managing directors, behind the scenes, people are already considering a new position that could be created.

The talk is of a new Secretary General for the ORF, who can be appointed and does not have to be recruited through an open application process. Christoph Schuh, currently the corporate spokesperson for Austrian Power Grid (APG) and a former employee and confidant of SPÖ Chancellor Gusenbauer—who is implicated in the René Benko case and the Signa scandal—is repeatedly being mentioned in SPÖ circles as a potential candidate.

Rumors of Termination
As the “Krone” has learned, following Pigs, Schuh’s dismissal is now reportedly in the works—is a job change on the horizon? Are there offers? Perhaps from the future ORF general secretary?

The group spokesperson says he feels “honored” by the rumors surrounding his appointment as secretary general, but that his career plans are “a highly personal matter” on which he will not comment. However, in the “Krone” interview, he does not rule out a future at ORF either. Later, though, he backtracked and denied any intention of leaving APG.