About CIO

CIO

CIO — "IT-Strategie für Manager" (IT strategy for managers) — is the Munich monthly IT-business magazine, published by the IDG Business Media GmbH (now Foundry). Named after the Chief Information Officer role, the magazine deals with the economic and strategic aspects of information-technology use in companies: the executives of all industries deciding the strategic IT deployment — the implementation examples, the technology trends, the management methods. First published in October 2001, the German edition is part of the twelve-country CIO network: Australia, China, Germany, France, India, Japan, Canada, South Korea, New Zealand, Poland, Sweden, and the USA.

Overview

The magazine serves the IT leadership: the CIOs, the IT executives, the digital officers, the business-technology leaders — plus the CEOs and boards deciding the digital strategy. The monthly rhythm — twelve issues a year — follows the IT year's rhythm: the budget season, the project launches, the conferences. The editorial program covers the strategic IT's agenda: the digital transformation, the AI and automation, the cloud, the cybersecurity, the data, the leadership, the organization, the sourcing.

The crossmedia concept — the print monthly, the cio.de portal, the newsletters, the studies (the State of the CIO — the 23rd annual survey: the CIO role's parameters, 875 qualified IT respondents, 251 LOB), the events — gives the CIOs the peer insight: the analysis, the benchmarks, the community. The "CIO des Jahres" — the German award — deserves its telling. Since 2003 — with the COMPUTERWOCHE — the competition honors the CIO of the year: the projects, the strategies, the leadership. The 2026 edition — 14–15 October, H4 Hotel & Wappenhalle Messe München — gathers the community: the agenda, the networking dinner (19:00–23:00). The organization — the editorial lead Wolfgang Herrmann, the executive producer Gerhard Holzwart, the executive relations Henriette von Wangenheim (CIO, COMPUTERWOCHE, CSO) — runs the competition: the applications (bewerbung.ciodesjahres.de), the jury, the gala. The CIO Executive Award — since 2016 with the CIO-Stiftung and the WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management — honors the "herausragende Potentialträger" (outstanding potential carriers): the next generation's talents. The awards' role — the recognition, the benchmarking — serves the profession: the excellence's visibility.

History

The German CIO — first issue October 2001 — brought the American CIO magazine's concept to Germany: the IT-strategy magazine for managers, in the IDG Business Media's portfolio. The editorial team — Wolfgang Herrmann, Jens Dose, Alexandra Mesmer, René Schmöl — carries the title: the implementation examples, the trend analyses. The twelve-country network — the licensed editions from Australia to the USA — gives the international: the global CIO community, the shared brand.

The Foundry/Regent ownership — the 2025 change — deserves its telling. The March 2025 acquisition — the private-equity firm Regent LP acquiring Foundry (including CIO) — followed the February 2022 rebrand (IDG Communications to Foundry): the tech media's private-equity era. The Regent's expansion — one day after Foundry, the TechCrunch acquisition from Yahoo — built the portfolio: the B2B tech (Foundry) and the startup media (TechCrunch) under common ownership. The Foundry's model — the media, the marketing technologies, the proprietary data (the intent data, the martech platforms, the 38 offices) — serves the technology marketers: the demand generation. The German titles' continuity — the CIO, the COMPUTERWOCHE, the ChannelPartner — maintained: the Munich newsroom, the editorial teams. The ownership's implication — the investment, the synergies — watched: the tech media's consolidation — the CIO's global brand, locally edited. The "CIO des Jahres" — since 2003 with the COMPUTERWOCHE — built the German award: the competition's editorial lead (Wolfgang Herrmann), the executive producer (Gerhard Holzwart), the executive relations (Henriette von Wangenheim).

Coverage and Content

The editorial program follows the CIO's year. The strategy coverage — the digital transformation, the IT strategy — treats the leadership: the business alignment, the value contribution. The AI agenda — the CIOs' current imperative — deserves its telling. The artificial intelligence — the generative AI, the copilots, the agents — tops the CIO agenda: the pilots, the scaling, the governance. The automation — the intelligent process automation — transforms the operations: the efficiency, the quality. The data — the foundation — enables the AI: the quality, the governance, the architecture. The cybersecurity — the AI's risks — demands the defense: the threats, the resilience. The talent — the AI skills — constrains the ambitions: the hiring, the training. The business case — the ROI — justifies the investments: the productivity, the growth. The magazine's AI coverage — the strategies, the implementations — guides the CIOs: the hype's navigation, the value's capture — the 2026 agenda's core. The security coverage — the cybersecurity, the resilience — addresses the risks: the threats, the defenses. The leadership coverage — the organization, the talent, the culture — serves the management: the teams, the skills, the change.

The CIO role's evolution — the magazine's subject — deserves its telling. The Chief Information Officer — the company's IT head — evolved from the technology manager to the business strategist: the digital transformation's driver, the AI's governor, the change's champion. The State of the CIO (2024: "CIOs Emerge as Champions of Change") — the 23rd annual survey — documents the shift: the innovation and operational efficiency harmonized, the leadership responsibilities expanded. The challenges — the AI's governance, the cybersecurity, the talent, the budgets — define the agenda: the 875 qualified IT respondents' priorities. The business alignment — the IT's value contribution — measures the success: the cost optimization, the margin improvement, the revenue growth. The magazine's coverage — the strategy, the technology, the leadership — tracks the evolution: the CIO's rise — from the server room to the boardroom. The award coverage — the "CIO des Jahres" (the competition, the gala), the CIO Executive Award (the potential carriers) — honors the excellence: the projects, the leaders. The peer community — the CIOs' network — deserves its telling. The events — the "CIO des Jahres" gala, the conferences — gather the leaders: the networking, the exchange. The studies — the State of the CIO — benchmark the peers: the data, the comparisons. The magazine's examples — the implementation stories — share the practices: the successes, the lessons. The twelve-country network — the licensed editions — connects the global: the CIOs' worldwide community. The executive relations — the Foundry's program — cultivates the relationships: the dinners, the roundtables. The community's value — the peer insight — differentiates the brand: "unparalleled peer insight and expertise on business strategy, innovation, and leadership" — the CIOs learning from CIOs — the magazine's promise, monthly.

Organization and Ownership

CIO is published by the IDG Business Media GmbH, Munich (now Foundry, foundryco.com) — since March 2025 owned by Regent LP. The editorial team — Wolfgang Herrmann (also the "CIO des Jahres" competition's editorial lead), Jens Dose, Alexandra Mesmer, René Schmöl — carries the magazine. The business model follows the B2B trade-press pattern: the subscriptions, the advertising (the enterprise-IT industry), the studies, the events (the awards, the conferences). Detailed current circulation figures are not publicly confirmed.

The Foundry — the IDG's technology-publishing arm (the CIO, CSO, Computerworld, InfoWorld, Network World on the B2B side; PCWorld, Macworld, TechAdvisor consumer) — gives the global backing: the 38 offices, the media, the marketing technologies, the data. The German operation — the Munich newsroom (Georg-Brauchle-Ring 23) — publishes the CIO, the COMPUTERWOCHE, the ChannelPartner.

Digital Presence

The brand's digital home is cio.de: the IT-strategy news, the analyses, the studies. The global — the cio.com — carries the international: the CIO 100 Awards (40+ years: the strategic and operational IT excellence), the State of the CIO. The events — the "CIO des Jahres" (the October 2026 agenda: the gala, the networking dinner) — gather the German CIOs: the competition, the celebration. The ciodesjahres.de — the award's portal — administers the applications.

The digital strategy follows the B2B logic: the monthly print for the deep strategy coverage — the transformation, the leadership — the portal, the studies, and the events for the daily IT news, the benchmarks, and the peer community. As the IT executives' strategy magazine — the 2001-founded monthly, published by Foundry — CIO remains the CIOs' companion: the strategy, the technology, and the leadership — monthly in print, daily on cio.de.