• Operating profit (EBITDA): Increased to CHF 120.3 million (+1.3% compared to previous year)
• EBITDA margin increased to a record level: 15.8% (2024: 14.8%)
• Digital EBITDA share reaches a high of 83%
• Milestone: Successful IPO of Swiss Marketplace Group Holding AG (SMG) in September 2025. This one-off effect is not included in the operating profit (EBITDA)
• Transformation: Integration of tech and AI resources directly into the Media, Sports Media, and Digital Marketplaces business units

The Ringier Group closed the 2025 financial year with the highest EBITDA margin in its history: 15.8%. Today, 83% of operating profit is already generated by the digital business. Alongside this record operating performance, the successful IPO of Swiss Marketplace Group Holding AG (SMG) in September 2025 highlights the enormous increase in value of the digital portfolio: By definition, the strategic gain from the sale of 10 percent of SMG shares is not included in the operating profit (EBITDA). This significant one-off effect further strengthens the Group’s capital base.

This financial strength forms the foundation for the systematic further development of the business model. To this end, Ringier has completed a long-prepared restructuring: Technology, data, and AI are no longer organized as corporate functions but are firmly integrated into the three business divisions of Media, Sports Media, and Digital Marketplaces. With this powerful structure, the company is now active in 19 countries.

Economic performance and balance sheet strengthening
Despite a challenging market environment, the Ringier Group increased its EBITDA to CHF 120.3 million. This marks the Ringier Group’s second-best result in ten years, with the exception of 2021. Revenue for the 2025 financial year amounted to CHF 762.4 million (2024: CHF 800.6 million). This decline is almost entirely due to the scheduled closure of the Swissprinters AG printing plant at the end of 2024.

Marc Walder, CEO of Ringier AG: “In 2025, the Ringier Group vigorously continued its transformation into a technology-driven media and marketplace company. The most significant event was the successful IPO of the Swiss Marketplace Group Holding AG in September 2025, the largest IPO in Europe up to that point in 2025. The fact that we were able to achieve another record year is thanks to the entrepreneurial courage of our shareholders, the support of the Board of Directors, and the enormous efforts and qualities of our employees worldwide. As a company that has always seen transformation as part of its DNA, we are at the beginning of the fourth chapter of our almost 200-year history with AI. AI is changing how we work, decide, and create. In 2025, we made the leap from exploration to integration. Today, technology, data, and AI are directly embedded in our business units. We see technological progress as a great opportunity for our group.”

To support this strategy, Ringier has decentralized its tech resources and integrated them directly into the strategic business areas of Media, Sports Media, and Marketplaces. Technology partners like Palantir provide the infrastructure for Ringier to build an excellent data foundation, reduce complexity, and create relevance at scale.

Development of the strategic business areas

Digital Marketplaces
Our job platforms in Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, Romania, and the Baltic states were particularly affected by the stagnating or even slightly declining job market. The real estate platforms, on the other hand, developed stably. The dominant event of the year was the successful IPO of SMG in September 2025, in which Ringier continues to hold a stake of around 20 percent.

Media
In the international markets, Ringier Serbia stands out with its 14-year market leadership of Blic.rs (168 consecutive months). In Poland, our Ringier Axel Springer joint venture strengthened its market leadership by introducing “Onet Czat z AI” in partnership with OpenAI and achieved record reach as Poland’s most trusted news platform. Slovakia reported digital subscription revenues of one million euros for the first time with Aktuality.sk, while the automated Azet Magazin saw an immediate jump in reach of 700,000 users. The African Pulse Group reached over 70 million users with its offerings. In a world of AI-powered aggregation, Ringier continues to focus on credibility and context across all media brands and offerings. The media portfolio was sharpened through the sale of the Hungarian media division.

Sports Media
The Ringier Sports Media Group (RSMG) further expanded its international business in 2025. In Portugal, A Bola introduced an AI-powered newsroom for its 80th anniversary. In Bulgaria, Sportal.bg acts as the official Euroleague basketball partner. In Slovakia, Sport.sk produces over 3,700 pieces of content per month based on the Sportal365 CMS. In Romania, GSP became the source for video highlights of the national football Superliga through a rights partnership. In Switzerland, RSMG founded the joint venture RSMG kicker Schweiz AG together with Olympia-Verlag, owner of kicker, the German sports media brand with the widest reach.

Ringier in Switzerland
Ringier Media Switzerland (RMS) reaches 1.4 million users daily and generates 11.4 million page views per day. The portfolio includes 20 of Switzerland’s magazines and journals with the greatest reach, such as Blick, BILANZ, Schweizer Illustrierte, Schweizer LandLiebe, and GlücksPost. The print media reach 2.8 million readers daily. Digitally, RMS has around 40,000 subscribers, with over 30,000 at Blick+. Blick is the number one among Swiss news brands on all major social media platforms. On the technical side, the new “ring” CMS was rolled out; in partnership with Google, pilot projects such as “Frag Blick” and the Beobachter legal chatbot are underway. Over 13,000 screens via Livesystems expand the visibility of RMS media brands. The TV commercialisation contract between SRG and Admeira was extended until 2028.

Ticketcorner, the joint venture between Ringier and CTS Eventim, sold a total of 12.7 million tickets for almost 21,000 events in 2025—a new all-time record, despite a 4.2% decline in festival attendance.

In a cooled Swiss job market, JobCloud, which Ringier operates jointly with the TX Group, continued to act as the number one job portal with 5.5 million submitted applications and 750,000 newly registered profiles.

Slavs and Tatars design the 29th Ringier Art Annual Report
Since 1997, the Ringier Annual Report has been designed by artists whose works are part of the Ringier Collection. The series was initiated by Michael Ringier and Beatrix Ruf with the aim of establishing art not as an accessory, but as an independent stance. The artistic concept for the 2025 Annual Report was developed by Slavs and Tatars. Their project, Simurgh Self-Help, replaces the eagle – a symbol of power and authority—with the Simurgh, a mythical bird from the Turko-Persian cultural sphere: transnational, ambiguous, gender-fluid. The question behind it: Whose symbols do we use—and what do they reveal? Slavs and Tatars work with wit and idiosyncrasy, between high culture and pop, research and narrative. For Ringier, this is not an abstract artistic question. Journalism also negotiates daily whose perspectives count.

Michael Ringier, Publisher and Chairman of the Board of Directors: “Slavs and Tatars are kindred spirits to journalists: they work with language, conduct intercultural research, and seek what connects, while the internet primarily promotes what divides. We must not forget our craft: facts instead of opinion, research instead of prejudice. And perhaps the quote attributed to Kurt Tucholsky helps here: Tolerance is the suspicion that the other person might be right.”