Calling for the resignation of politicians in commentaries, or sharply attacking managers who are a long way off is easy and sometimes even cheap. But criticising in commentaries the work of those you will soon be seeing again, and with whom you are in constant contact, requires journalistic self-confidence. Claus Döring never shied away from clearly pointing out wrong decisions or failings, even if he knew the people involved well. Many board members, whether from companies, stock exchanges or central banks, can certainly report on this extensively from their own experience.

The fact that he nevertheless – or perhaps precisely because of this – still enjoys a high reputation in financial circles, and on the management floors of DAX and MDAX companies, as well as among the readers of Börsen-Zeitung, illustrates that he always succeeded in setting out well argued positions in his editorials, commentaries, and his column „Unterm Strich’. His texts were certainly often controversial, but not reckless.

Döring was honoured with the Ludwig Erhard Prize for Business Journalism in 2015 for his „analytically sharp and brilliantly written commentaries“. Two years earlier, he had already been awarded the Hans Möller Medal for ‘his trenchant advocacy of the market economy“.

No one has shaped Börsen-Zeitung as much as he has over the past 36 years. First as a companies reporter, then for eight years as head of a department, then for no less than 21 years as editor-in-chief, and finally for the last three years as an author and columnist. To illustrate just how long Döring headed the editorial team – when he was appointed editor-in-chief in April 2000 as successor to Hans Konradin Herdt, E.ON was still VIAG and VEBA. And Telekom was still managed by Ron Sommer.

During his time as editor-in-chief, the Franconian-born journalist persistently restructured and modernised the newspaper, and prepared it for digitalisation. At the same time, as a moderator, he was virtually the permanent representative of Börsen-Zeitung in the financial centre. And just as he did not let up as a moderator with panellists whose answers he was dissatisfied with, he also acted confidently in internal discussions with the management of the WM Group, and was highly committed to the independence of the editorial team.

After more than three and a half decades, Claus Döring is now bidding farewell to the readers of Börsen-Zeitung. The 66-year-old is looking forward to having more time in future for his family (he now has five grandchildren), and to being able to get involved in the work of several honorary posts. Döring has already been active outside of journalism and the financial sector for some time.