Biography

After school, Riekel completed a traineeship at "Münchner Merkur" from 1968 to 1970. She then worked as an editor at the "Augsburger Allgemeine" for a year. Riekel then moved to the editorial team of the magazine "Quick". In 1974 she joined the Burda publishing house, where she worked in the editorial department of the women's magazine "freundin". After three years, Riekel left the "freundin" editorial team to work as a freelance editor. In this position she continued to contribute to "freundin", but also to print media such as "Elle", "Bild am Sonntag", "Gong", "Quick", "Für Sie", "Petra" and others. During this time she also founded the "Radio der Frau" and worked at "Radio Gong 2000".

Riekel also wrote non-fiction and screenplays. In 1991, Riekel gave up her freelance editing work and became deputy editor-in-chief of "die aktuell", "die zwei" and "TV-Series". In 1995 she was appointed editor-in-chief of "die aktuell". Two years later, Riekel moved back to Burda-Verlag. There she took on the position of editor-in-chief of the magazine "Bunte" in 1997. In the same year, she was added to the editorial management of "InStyle", of which she became editor-in-chief - in addition to "Bunte" - in 1999. Under Riekel's leadership, the circulation figures of "Bunte" improved significantly. She placed more value on a dramatic narrative tone in the stories about prominent personalities than on the reproduction of factual life facts.

Another innovation in terms of content was the target group, which was able to expand further reader potential through mobilization. When managing "Bunte," Riekel followed the principle of journalistic give and take. With the "Bunte" she offered the celebrities a high-profile platform - in return for which she received a story for the readers. In November 2003, the program "Bunte-TV" started with Riekel as presenter on ARD, but was discontinued in spring 2004 - due to a late broadcast slot and the resulting low audience response. The series presented two prominent people in a weekly home story in the style of a print magazine.
- IMDb mini biography by: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth