Christian Baesler is the President of Bauer Xcel Media, the global digital division of the Bauer Media Group. With more than 1,000 products in 16 countries and an annual turnover of 2.7 billion dollars, the Bauer Media Group is one of the world’s largest media companies.
Christian Baesler started his career as a freelance writer, photographer and web developer. After subsequently spending 4 years at Bauer Media Group’s headquarter in Hamburg, Germany he got relocated to New York in 2012 to jump-start Bauer Media’s digital business in the U.S. There he built a digital department from scratch, turning a solo operation into a team of currently more than 50 across editorial, technology, marketing and product management. In August 2014 what had been a “New Media” department of a print publisher was spun off into its own separate division called “Bauer Xcel Media”, focussing solely on digital, with Baesler running the operation as President. Under his leadership, all of Bauer Media’s U.S. brands experienced extraordinary digital growth: Among other achievements, Life&Style became the fastest growing magazine brand in the digital space, while J-14 became the largest editorial teen brand on Facebook. In February 2015, Bauer Media Group expanded Bauer Xcel Media’s operations internationally, to become Bauer’s global digital division. With offices in New York, London, Sydney, Melbourne, Hamburg and Warsaw, Bauer Xcel Media’s digital products currently reach 150 million monthly unique users worldwide.