Tamedia publications

Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – One of the main Swiss daily free newspapers, 20 Minutes or Matin Bleu, will be folded into the other, with the likely loss of 20 out of 70 jobs, as Switzerland’s second and third largest media companies, Tamedia agrees to buy Edipresse’s Swiss business and merge their activities in the home market. The goal, according to the joint press release they issued Tuesday 3 March, is to create a media company on a national scale. Tamedia is paying CHF226 million for a first 49.9% share in Edipresse, with the deal set to go through soon, and a 0.2% share to be transferred in early 2011.

Currently, Edipresse is the largest media company in French-speaking Switzerland and Tamedia the second in German-speaking Switzerland, behind media leader Ringier. Edipresse owns most of the French language daily papers and is one of two main partners in Le Temps, with Ringier. Tamedia, besides 20 Minutes, publishes dozens of magazines and newspapers, including Finanz und Wirtschaft, a newspaper for investors.

The merger must be approved by Comco, the federal Competition Commission.

The news comes just a day after Edipresse announced it will end its exclusive advertising sales relationship with Publicitas, partly for economic reasons. The companies say “the partnership will offer national advertisers more effective services.”

The Swiss media industry is facing the same dramatic downturn in advertising revenue as media in many other countries, notably the US, where city daily papers are under severe pressure, with several moving into bankruptcy. In Switzerland, advertising revenue fell by nearly 9% in January 2009 alone, worsening a trend that began several months earlier.

One of the first moves will be to merge the two free dailies as quickly as possible.

The merger, to be completed by 2013, will create “the necessary critical mass to guarantee growth and meet the challenges of foreign competition,” according to the joint statement. Initially, Tamedia will take a 49.9 percent stake in a company that is responsible for most of Edipresse’s Swiss activities, PPSR. At the start of 2010 it will acquire another 0.2 percent and in 2013 it will acquire the final 49.9% but mainly in shares, making Edipresse at that point one of the main shareholders in the new company.

The two companies’ non-Swiss activities will remain separate.

Related stories: Le Temps, TSR

TSR on the merger of 20 Minutes and Le Matin Bleu, summer of 2009

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