About me

As you will have noticed, this is a german-language website targeted mainly at a german-speaking audience. Though I’ve always maintained strong ties towards the United States, my business is almost completely local.

For my international visitors, most of whom I consider being located in the U.S., here is a short summary of the information given on ujf-online.de.

My name is Ulf Jochen Froitzheim (= ujf like in ujf.biz), and I’m a freelance journalist mainly covering the IT, telecoms, car and retail industries for business and trade publications. My customers include brand eins, a prestigious monthly magazine for entrepreneurs and business professionals as well as the german version of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Technology Review.

One big new area of interest of mine is Sustainability & Renewables. Corporate Magazines for B-2-B customers of companies like Capgemini or Porsche Consulting are also an area I’m pretty familiar with, as an author as well as in the editor’s role. My secondary occupation is photography; maybe you want to have a little look at my photoblog Froitzheim’s Bildpresse which is still under construction.

A central part of this website’s content is my archive. You’ll find a lot of what I’ve written either in full text or as a link. So if you don’t bother reading long articles in German, you may take a deep look into the history of the IT and Internet industries. This is being complemented by blog articles mainly covering the media industry, copyright, piracy and privacy issues. My special pastime is criticizing media outlets that try to save money at the cost of editorial quality. Those posts are marked with „Ja liest denn keiner mehr gegen?“ which means „Isn’t there anyone left proof-reading?“

My office is located in Kaufering, a nice little town 30 miles west of Munich at the river Lech.

You might be interested in my CV, so here are some milestones:

today, on-going (since end-1991)

Freelance Reporter and Editor for Major Publishing Companies as well as Corporate Publishing Agencies

2002-2006

Freelance Reporter and Executive Editor of BJVreport, the bimonthly members‘ magazine of Bayerischer Journalisten-Verband, or BJV (Journalists’ Guild of Bavaria)

2002

Freelance Reporter and Media Trainer.

2000-2002

Special Correspondent, BIZZ magazine

BIZZ was a german business monthly for the target group of „young decision makers“. It was published by Gruner+Jahr Wirtschaftspresse in Cologne, a unit of Bertelsmann AG. The magazine had a paid circulation of more than 120000 copies. Unfortunately, Bizz was discontinued due to a big slump in advertising in the german print market.

1992-2000

Freelance Reporter for leading business weekly Wirtschaftswoche

1996

Developer — with Dieter Eckbauer and Max Schulze-Vorberg — of Global Online , one of the world’s first trade publications specialized on E-Commerce; this monthly magazine was published by Computerwoche Verlag AG, a subsidiary of IDG Group of the U.S. GO was sold in 1998 and discontinued by the new owner.

1995

Co-Developer — with Bernhard Rose and Dieter Eckbauer — of Computer Partner (meanwhile renamed ChannelPartner), a trade publication for IT salespeople (also with Computerwoche Verlag)

1989-1991

Staff Writer, highTech Magazine, Munich

1987-1989

Senior Editor, News & Business Bureau, Computerwoche

1986

Staff Writer, Computerwoche

1984-1985

Staff Writer, Computer Business (early predecessor of Computer Partner at IDG Germany)

Education:

I hold a Diploma in Journalism, Political Sciences and Economic Geography from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet and received professional training at the German Journalist School (Deutsche Journalistenschule, DJS), both located in Munich, Bavaria.

Professional:

Held various honorary posts within Bayerischer Journalisten-Verband (Journalists‘ Guild of Bavaria, BJV), such as Chairman of the Magazine Writers Group, the 4,000-member Freelance Group or the 5,000-member Regional Association Munich/Upper Bavaria.

Currently: Board member of VG Wort, the mutual agency of Germany’s authors and publishers for collecting copyright levies.

Personal:

Born in Aachen, Germany, Nov. 1958. Married, two children.