Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The cost of subscribing to a Swiss daily newspaper will rise in 2010, between 1 and 11 percent, to keep in step with increased costs and lower advertising revenues. The rise is even greater in reality in some cases such as the NZZ, when a mid-2009 increase is taken into account, notes ats/TSR. The newspaper’s editor, Markus Spillmann, has written to subscribers saying that “High quality information is an expensive product.”
The traditional income balance has been one-third subscriptions and two-thirds advertising, but with the latter falling dramatically for several months, readers are now being asked to foot a larger share of the bill. Newstand prices are also set to rise.
The rising cost of Swiss papers, according to ats/TSR, includes:
- Le Matin and 24 Heures, CHF379 to CHF389
- Le Temps, 11 percent, from current price of CHF432 for 13 months
- NZZ, from CHF488 to CHF512.
Background, GenevaLunch
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Staff at Le Matin protested in front of the Edipresse tower in Lausanne Tuesday in solidarity with photographers at the newspaper, particularly hard hit by the layoffs that the company is planning. Edipresse is the largest private media company in French-speaking Switzerland. It announced 9 October that it would lay off 10 percent of its workforce, 100 people, in the face of a continuing weak advertising market.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two of the three unions representing workers at Edipresse, French-speaking Switzerland’s largest media group, have told the company to start serious negotiations about the conditions for layoffs or face possible industrial action.
The unions representing the print and the technical workers rejected the company’s layoff terms, Wednesday 28 October, and demanded “serious negotiations”. The company has until noon 2 November to respond. An agreement had been reached with Impressum, the union representing journalists, but the print and production workers are reluctant to accept the terms of the layoffs.
More Swiss media cuts on the way
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Edipresse, the largest media company in French-speaking Switzerland, announced Friday 9 October that it will cut nearly 10 percent of its workforce: 100 jobs, with half in its print units, some 30 journalists’ positions and the rest in production. The company has 1,124 full-time equivalent positions in Switzerland. Half of its approximately 3,000 employees work outside the country. Details about which jobs are affected will follow later. The group will begin consultations next week with staff representatives: Edipresse Romande (French-speaking area) has collective agreements with staff, although it has not had such agreements in German-speaking areas in the country.
The latest round of job cuts is due largely to a 25 percent drop in advertising since 2008, with “no improvement in sight”, the company says.
...and then there was one
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss Competition Commission has given its blessing to the proposed sale of Edipresse’s Swiss operations to Zurich-based Tamedia on the grounds that competition is not threatened by the takeover. Edipresse, Switzerland’s third-largest media company, is based in Lausanne and its operations in Switzerland are limited to the French-speaking area. Tamedia owns media mostly in the German-speaking part of the country.
The competition authorites say that there is no significant overlap in the market coverage.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Edipresse, whose Swiss operations are scheduled to be sold to Tamedia in Zurich in 2010 if the deal is approved by the federal government, has posted a loss of CHF8.9 million for the first half of 2009, citing the continuing overall weak economy and lower advertising revenue. The company notes that the fall in turnover, CHF36 million, was not as great in percentage terms as the decline in profits, showing the positive impact of cost-cutting measures. The figures are in any event difficult to compare to previous financial results because the company has adopted new accounting methods as part of the spinoff, and the Swiss business is now handled separately as “discontinued business.”
The Swiss arm of Edipresse had January-June 2009 revenues of CHF173.6 million, down CHF 38m (-18%) compared to the same period in 2008, “mainly due to the fall in advertising receipts.” The profit on these operations nevertheless remained positive, before depreciation, at CHF22.5 million, a fall of CHF-13.7m.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal competition commission will take a closer look at the proposed fusion of the Swiss business of the country’s second and third largest media groups, Ediresse and Tamedia.
Lake Geneva region, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Publicitas, one of the main advertising sales organizations in the region, will curs its workforce by 89 people at the end of 2009, with 70 of those as redundancies. Fourteen of them will be given an offer by media publisher Edipresse.
Zurich, Switzerland (romandie/ATS, Fre) – NZZ, German-speaking Switzerland’s main serious newspaper, said Wednesay 17 June that it will cut 20-25 jobs among its IT staff as part of plans to merge some of its operations. The cost-cutting measure will not touch the editorial staff. NZZ laid off 24 employees (20 fulltime posts) in late 2008. The newspaper also said it is studying sharp increases in subscription rates and the possibility of charging for some of its online content, notably financial reporting and commentary by its best-known journalists.
NZZ posted a loss for the first quarter of 2009, with advertising down by 30 percent from January to the end of March. Its Internet operations are operating at a loss that is currently CHF3 million, reports ATS. (2007-2008 figures). The Zurich newspaper is the latest media group in Switzerland to announce job cuts, in a string of actions to try to turn around the hard-hit newspaper, magazine and online news business.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal Competition Commission has decided to look more closely at the situation that will be created by a morning newspaper distribution agreement that could leave almost no competition in German-speaking Switzerland and parts of French-speaking Switzerland. The commission concluded after a preliminary review that further study is needed. Tamedia, NZZ and La Poste are seeking to cut costs by joining forces to distribute papers.
In another development linked to the increasingly difficult situation of Swiss media, several hundred journalists took to the streets in Zurich and Bern Tuesday 26 May over editorial staff job cuts announced by Tamedia.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Tamedia, which is scheduled to buy out the Swiss business of Edipresse if the competition commission approves the deal, has published less than rosy results for 2008: a 30 percent fall in profits, to CHF105.8 million. The company’s sales rose 21 percent to CHF895.7m, but this was due mainly to absorbing Bern-based Espace Media Group.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Edipresse, the largest media publisher in the Lake Geneva region, which is being bought out by Tamedia, saw 2008 profits slip by 5.4 percent to CHF30.5 million, with group revenue falling by 9.4 percent to CHF738.3m.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - PublicGroupe, based in Vaud and parent to the advertising company Publicitas, has posted a loss for 2008 of CHF42.1 million despite positive opreating results, a sharp turn-around from its 2007 profit of CHF73.1 million. The overall loss is explained largely by two significant losses: goodwill writeoffs of CHF33.8m, the bulk of which were in the media sales division, and financial market losses of CHF44.7m on its 19.9% share in media publisher Edipresse and 1.4% share in Tamedia. Edipresse has had an exclusive advertising sales agreement with Publicitas which ends in December 2009. Edipresse is being bought out by Tamedia.
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.
Updated 14:15 Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Edipresse, the largest media publisher in western Switzerland, will sharply cut back the work it gives Publicitas, one of the largest agencies that sells advertising space in the country, at the end of 2009 when their current contract ends.
Lausanne, Switzerland (romandie/ats and 24 Heures, Fre) – The downturn in the Swiss mass media market continues, with the announcement, 23 February, of January figures for ad sales, on which media depend for the bulk of their revenues: down 8.7% compared to January 2007, to CHF249.5 million. Edipresse, the Lake Geneva region’s largest media publisher, announced it will lay off 25 staff, representing 16.5 fulltime equivalent jobs, at its Bussigny printing operation, at least in part because of fewer advertising inserts.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Edipresse, the Lake Geneva region’s largest publisher, Wednesday announced that net income for the group rose 10% in the first six months of the year, to CHF24.2 million. Overall revenues dropped, however, by 10.1% to Read more…
