GENEVA, SWITZERLAND -BSkyB Chief Executive Jeremy Darroch responded to accusations by British lawmakers about Rupert Murdoch’s running of media conglomerate News Corp., saying that BSkyB is fit to hold its broadcasting license.
Darroch told reporters that his company “remains fit and proper” to hold the license, stating that “It’s important to remember that Sky and News Corporation are separate companies, we believe that Sky’s track record as a broadcaster is the most important factor in determining our fitness to hold a licence”.
A British parliamentary committee Tuesday 1 May said Murdoch, currently under questioning for possible implication in a phone hacking scandal, was “not a fit person” to run the company and accused him of “willful blindness” in the scandal.
The scandal lead News Corp to abandon its bid last year for full control of BSkyB. On April 1 Murdoch’s son, James quit as chairman of BSkyB, in an attempt to dilute criticism over the hacking scandal. He has stayed on as non-executive director at the company.
Meanwhile, the British media regulator Ofcom said it “won’t be rushed” to make a decision on the future of the BSkyB licence, which claims a total of 10.55 million subscribers.
Webster’s Open Day: career&study info available for Media Communications.
Fun events. Hands-on training.
high school students: Business, Media, Marketing, Journalism, Social Sciences. Also grad studies, information on the master programs.
Evening BarBQ
Location: Webster University, Route de Collex 15, Bellevue
Link out: http://www.webster.ch/openday
Date: 10 May 2012
Start time: 11:00
End time: 19:00
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Police are investigating the death of politician and former local media figure Michel Chevrolet, age 39, at his home Tuesday 24 April. The city of Geneva issued a statement noting that he died “suddenly” and a number of politicians have issued statements noting their shock at the death of one of the city’s most dynamic young politicians. Police have issued no details and early media reports that implied the possibility of foul play have been toned down. (Correction: please note that our own translation of “brutalement” as “brutally” was most likely a misinterpretation; under the circumstances “sudden” is probably a more accurate translation)
Chevrolet, a member of the PDC, was born in Argentina, but grew up mainly in Geneva, where he became involved in politics at an early age. He came to local fame as the editor-in-chief at radio station Leman Bleu and later at One FM, before creating a communications agency, comChevrolet.
The municipal councilor’s campaign for a seat on the administrative council in February 2011 was characterized at the time by TSR public TV as “American” and he was described Tuesday by more than one politician, in several local media, as very warm and outgoing.
The Tribune de Geneve cites friends who say he was busy planning two trips abroad and had invited numerous people to a grand gala in May to celebrate the expansion of his communications agency and the recent purchase of a magazine. “Michel was someone who lived at 200 kph,” the Tribune quotes Green Party national councilor and fellow Argentinian Antonio Hodgers as saying.
For his 2011 campaign Chevrolet created a Lip Dub about Geneva, a city he defended passionately.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – The head of the Swiss National Bank may have been pushed to resign by the governing board of the bank, Swiss media, particularly in German-speaking Switzerland, are suggesting Tuesday. Philipp Hildebrand handed in his resignation Monday afternoon, after a two-week scandal sparked by information about his wife’s purchase of dollars in August and profit from their sale two months later.
TSR carries a roundup in French of what several media are reporting today, noting that conservative Christoph Blocher, former head of the UDC People’s Party appears, for now, to be the winner in the political brouhaha surrounding the scandal.
Questions remain about whether or not Hildebrand will take legal action against anyone in the case, which involved private bank data being published by Swiss magazine Weltwoche, and what role Blocher played.
Background stories, GenevaLunch
Reuters profile of Hildebrand and his tenure, 10 January
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – GenevaLunch editor Ellen Wallace was named “Unsung hero” by the British-Swiss Chamber of Commerce at its first Business Awards Wednesday 30 November in Geneva for her work in developing an online news source in English for the Lake Geneva region and Switzerland. GenevaLunch, staffed by volunteers, will soon hit the 3 million pages viewed mark, with 1 million of those in 2011.
The prize was one of five at the first annual awards by the business organization.
The other awards:
Company of the year: Withers LLP
Most Promising Business/Entrepreneur: Avaloq UK
Excellence in Customer Service award: La Cote International School, Gland
Corporate Social Responsibility: HSBC Private Bank
Some 150 people attended the awards dinner, including British Ambassador to Switzerland Sarah Gillett.
GenevaLunch has a strong commitment to high-quality journalism and is staffed by a core group of seven regular contributors and a number of other occasional contributors (see About GenevaLunch) who share a wealth of international journalism experience. Nearly 100,000 pages are viewed a month (November 2011). The news service provides not only daily news but an ongoing historical record of life in the region, in English.
The mission of the annual Business Awards is to recognize the achievements of companies who have made an outstanding contribution towards bilateral trade and investment between the UK and Switzerland, the BSCC notes. They are organized by the British-Swiss Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Lloyds TSB Private Banking.
Ed. note: the awards dinner gave us the opportunity to talk to a number of businesses about their work and we’ll be adding them in the next few days to our resources section, which we are currently updating. Be sure to check back!
So Money Productions video about GenevaLunch, made for the BSCC Business Awards
Ed. note: I’ve posted a smaller version on Editor’s Notepad to accommodate those who have slower Internet connections, so if it doesn’t load quickly and smoothly, please view it here.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – GenevaLunch is one of 15 finalists for 5 categories of business awards given by the British-Swiss Chamber of Commerce. The winners will be announced 30 November at a sold-out gala dinner at Beau-Rivage Hotel in Geneva. The awards night will feature videos of each finalist, made by a Geneva startup, video production company So Money.
The judges did not see the videos before making their decisions, but our visitors can now view all 15 videos on the BSCC web site and decide for themselves who most deserves the awards. GenevaLunch editor Ellen Wallace is in the running to be named an Unsung Hero, as are Guy Stevens of the International Comedy Club/Funny Laundry and Catherine Nelson-Pollard of Living in Nyon (both have long appeared on GenevaLunch, on resources and events pages).
We are of course prejudiced and we’re cheering on Ellen to have a chance to very publicly pay tribute to the wonderful GenevaLunch team, an entirely volunteer staff, who have brought you some 20,000 articles since 2006: quality news on Switzerland and the Lake Geneva region. We also want a chance to pay tribute to your, our visitors. At the start of 2012 we will have reached 3 million pages viewed. Thank you, all of you, for your support!
See us in action. And to learn more about GenevaLunch, visit our updated “About us” page where you can learn about our new sponsorship and donor options Show you care about your community!
Raspille-Tieche river near Crans-Montana
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Blick magazine has shed some some light on the largest-ever chunk of gold found in Switzerland, reportedly found in the Tieche river near Crans-Montana by a 34-year-old German hiker in September. But the Valais cantonal geologist says maybe it’s a nugget someone lost: there’s no gold in that river.
The gold nugget is 7cm long, 3.5cm wide and weights 128.5 grams.
The rivers in this area have not until now been known for carrying gold. And it’s possible they never will be. Geologist Jean-Daniel Rouiller told Le Nouvelliste, the Valais news service, that it’s quite simply impossible because the right bank of the Rhone is limestone and gold isn’t part of the rock there.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The new US ambassador to China, Gary Locke, told reporters at his first press conference in Beijing Sunday 14 August that the US is committed to “getting our fiscal house in order”, in response to Chinese criticism in recent days of what official media have called the American “addiction to borrowing”. China reportedly held $1.16 trillion in US debt, government securities, at the end of May, more than any other country. The criticism followed the downgrading of US credit by rating agency Moodie’s earlier this month.
Locke is a third-generation Chinese-American, whose family emigrated from Hong Kong, with roots in southern Guangdong province. He became the first US state governor of Chinese descent in 1996, re-elected to the post in 2000. He has most recently served as US secretary of commerce. He speaks fluent Cantonese.
He and his wife and three children arrived in Beijing 11 August.
Links to other sites: Economic Times of India, New York Times, Politico, Xinhua
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The Chinese Communist Party was established 1 July 1921 and today is arguably the most successful Communist Party in the world, but it remains subject to heavy criticism from outside the country over several issues. China is celebrating this week with a series of events for the Party faithful as well as for the public, the culmination of months of planning.
Chinese media are praising the government’s record since the Communists took power in 1949, but also focusing on the problem of corruption and efforts to reduce it. Xinhua, the state news agency, carries an article about the government’s corruption watchdogs, which harks back to the days when the population was closely watched by local officials.
Foreign media are pointing to more negative aspects, with the BBC noting that celebrations are accompanied by the authorities’ “their biggest crackdown against dissidents in almost 20 years”, while Bloomberg attributes a rise in young members to elitism: “added 1.24 million university students as members last year, an 8.2 percent increase from 2009. Founded 90 years ago today to build a socialist Utopia for the laboring classes, the party has become a ticket to elite jobs in government and state-owned businesses that offer security, power and a path to wealth.” An audio tape from NPR‘s Morning Edition in the US to be released at 09:00 Eastern Daylight Time there will recount one official’s efforts to fight corruption.
Even leftist Liberation in France contents itself with an article, far from the front page, about how residents of Chongqing were being asked to learn revolutionary songs, long forgotten, for the celebrations.
Links to other sites: Euronews, Wall St Journal blog
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – French and French-language Swiss media have added a new angle to the weekend revelation that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the IMF, was arrested on attempted rape and related charges: Tristane Banon, a young French journalist who said in 2007 that a senior political figure tried to rape her in 2002, has resurfaced. The man was named as DSK, the French media nickname for Strauss-Kahn.
Banon, who interviewed Strauss-Kahn for a book she was writing when she was 22 years old, told a French TV interviewer in 2007 that she had had to fight off a political figure, whose name she mentioned, but it was beeped from the show. The TV team, however, was aware of who the man was. She later said she had seen lawyers and put together a legal complaint of sexual aggression which she did not file, dissuaded in part by her mother, who is a senior politician in France. “I didn’t want to be known as the girl who had a problem with a French politician.”
Her mother confirmed the information in an interview Monday 16 May with Paris-Normandie. Anne Mansouret, the mother, is a Socialist candidate for the French presidency in the primaries set for September, as is Strauss-Kahn.
Merger approved by Competition Commission, but Tamedia recently accused of “abuse”
Recycling newspapers: it's taking longer to fill up the bin
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Tamedia and Edipresse, two of Switzerland’s largest print and online media companies, will celebrate their marriage sooner than expected. The complete merger was expected in 2013, but the companies now say they will merge this year, when Tamedia’s purchase of 50.1 percent of the shares is completed.
Tamedia will spend a total of between CHF269.8 and 330.2 million, plus 250,000 registered Tamedia shares, to buy out Edipresse, it says in a press release issued 7 April.
The news comes as the shakeout of Swiss media continues, with several developments in recent days:
- newspapers in French-speaking Switzerland again had a serious bleed of readers in 2010, including the number one, free paper 20 Minutes, Mach (industry agency that tallies official circulation figures) reported 22 March 2011, with German-speaking areas doing better, but nevertheless seeing falling sales
- Tamedia was accused 1 April of abusing its position of power following its takeover of Edipresse, for sharply increasing advertising rates
- five regional newspapers joined forces this week, with a shared platform starting 5 April for international, national and business/economic news.
French language papers in “free fall”
Remp publishes an annual Mach reports in March of every year on how Swiss media fared the previous year, with sales and circulation details which serve as the bible of the advertising industry.
Circulation figures have been falling for a number of years but the process appears to have speeded up in 2010, with public television TSR reported that French-speaking newspapers in particular were in “free fall” last year, in terms of losing readers.
Aerial Photo of Davos, the Alpine Host City of the World Economic Forum, captured before the Annual Meeting 2011 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 17, 2011. Davos is in the middle of Swiss Alps and the city for holidays, sports, congresses, health, development and culture. (photo ©2011 World Economic Forum/swiss-image.ch/Photo by Andy Mettler)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - All eyes switch to Davos, as the offices of the host, the World Economic Forum in Geneva, empty out for the annual meeting of business and political leaders at the Swiss resort in canton Graubuenden.
Newspapers and magazines are filled with Davos “news” which so far consists mainly of journalists’ descriptions of the pretty road or train ride from Zurich airport to the hills of Davos, where it has been snowing.
Some essential and non-essential Swiss facts about Davos:
- The theme for 2011 is “Shared Norms for the New Reality”. This officially covers four topics: Responding to the New Reality; The Economic Outlook and Defining Policies for Inclusive Growth; Supporting the G20 Agenda; Building a Risk Response Network. Unofficially, it is likely to include anything and everything on people’s minds, from wiki leaks to unemployment and elections and revolutions in Africa.
- Swiss military forces are spending CHF1.5 million and putting 4,000 soldiers on the ground and in the air to protect and help the 2,500 guests at the forum. They’re using 18 km of protective barriers and 1,000 kg of sand to ensure helicopter landing pads and trains no matter what the weather. Media people make up 420 of the foreign visitors, with 80 Swiss journalists.
- Bilateral agreements are likely to be on the agenda at meetings between the Swiss minister for the economy, Johann Schneider-Ammann, and German Minister of Economics and Technology Rainer Brüderle, Austrian Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister Josef Pröll, and French Minister for Economy, Finance and Industry Christine Lagarde.
- Those talks might make more headlines in Europe but of greater interest to Swiss business people is the meeting between Schneider-Ammann and Chinese Trade Minister Chen Deming 28 January, which will launch the negotiations on a free trade agreement between Switzerland and China.
The cost? Starting point is a little over CHF50,000 for membership in the forum, a must if you want to be invited to the Davos party, but the real cost is staggeringly higher for most people attending, according to the New York Times, which ends by noting that this is likely to change, as the appeal of Davos begins to fade (Ed. note: I was told the thing 15 years ago by tow people who attended, but the appeal of Davos appears to have held).
Alpine horns greet guests at the new convention centre in Davos (photo ©2011 World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Michael Wuertenberg)
Here is what some international media in English were saying about the mega-meeting in the run-up, before a suicide bomber in Russia and street demonstrations in Egypt made last-minute deadlines: Economist, The Globe & Mail, Guardian, New York Times, Telegraph, Economic Times of India
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The RTS (Television Suisse Romande) tower on Boulevard Ansermat in Geneva was evacuated at 10:50 Thursday morning 13 January for an hour, following what police are calling a “credible” bomb threat. Some 1,000 employees were gathered nearby 10 minutes later, as police began to search the building. TSR public television remained on air, but with automatic programming. The 12:45 news was able to go live when police found no evidence of a bomb, after taking sniffer dogs and specialist teams through the building.
Geneva's mosque entrance
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss Islamic Shura Central Council is offering a series of workshops and seminars that began 8 January in Zurich to help Muslims learn to work with media to ensure better and fairer presentations of Muslims and Islam. The council, known in French as the Conseil central islamique suisse (CCIS), has had strong critics in Switzerland since its creation in 2009, and the courses are being observed with some misgivings, an article in Le Matin reports, citing the Geneva-based Union of Muslim Organizations.
The group was pushed out of talks in May 2010 between the government and Muslim groups. The series of ongoing discussions were organized after a November 2009 vote against building new minarets, but Migration Office Director Alard du Bois-Reymond told the council it would not be welcome again as long as it continues to take a “conservative stance”.
The workshop series is the first such media-education effort in Europe, according to the Kuwait News Agency. Oscar Bergamin, a Swiss journalist who converted to Islam and who is chief of the council’s presidential staff and responsible for public diplomacy for the group, is organizing the courses, which continue later in January.
Ongoing battle over press postal subsidy continues
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The upper house of the Swiss parliament’s transport and telecommunications commission has agreed to back motions by the lower house that will slow down the deregulation of the Swiss postal system. The two houses have agreed that the ruling Federal Council should provide an interim report showing the impact of the first two years of deregulation before further measures to open the market are adopted.
The upper house commission also agreed to go along with a lower house motion to increase by CHF20 million a subsidy to the post office for the rebates it offers the press.
The world will have to wait a little longer to read People magazine on the new iPads, reports Reuters, as Time Inc., the parent company of the most widely-read magazine in the US, battles paparazzis’ photo agencies for the rights to republish their images. The agencies are fighting for additional money. Time Inc. has been in the front lines of magazine publishers moving to iPad and it has been talking of a People delivery date of August.
Google is phasing out internal use of Microsoft Windows, reports the Financial Times, based on information from the search engine company’s staff. Google reportedly began to make the change, for security reasons, in January, after it experienced problems with hacking from China. The staff of 10,000 is being moved towards other operating systems, notably Mac OS.
The Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific in California, USA, is about to open its beautiful new otter home, the result of a $1 million gift from BP. But the bosses from BP will probably not be on hand for the opening, says the aquarium’s president – who invited them despite the Gulf of Mexico oil leak for which BP is being held responsible. The inauguration of the aquarium highlights a growing concern for non-profits, reports the Los Angeles Times, with corporate America’s donations sometimes turning into public relations albatrosses. The article looks at the impact on universities, museums and public television.
Roger de Weck, new head of Swiss public broadcasting
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Roger de Weck has been named the new head of SSR, Swiss Public Broadcasting, the group announced Tuesday.
De Weck, 56, succeeds Armin Walpen 1 January 2011, upon Walpen’s retirement. The new director is a well-known journalist in Switzerland but he is particularly well-known in Geneva as the president of the Graduate Institute.
Roger de Weck has a multilingual, multicultural Swiss background that will stand him in good stead as he leads a monopoly organization that has been operating in the red for some time.
He is based in Zurich but works in Geneva, was born on the language divide in Fribourg, grew up in Geneva and Zurich, took an economics degree in Saint Gallen, then studied business and publishing in Hamburg, Germany. He later earned a doctoral degree from the University of Lucern.
He has worked for Edipresse’s Tribune de Genève and 24 heures, as well as the German-language publications Weltwoche and Die Zeit. He was later editor-in-chief of Tages-Anzeiger and a member of the management team at Tamedia, also editor-in-chief at Die Zeit, then worked independently before being named to his position at the Graduate Institute.
SSR press release (Fre)
Olivier Glassey
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – “Our definition of privacy is fast-evolving right now and we don’t control it,” says Olivier Glassey, from the University of Lausanne. But don’t panic.
“I believe privacy is gone for good,” argues Christian Heller, a self-described “futurist” who relishes taking the debate a step further. Heller likes to remind his listeners that privacy was not a common notion in the Middle Ages, when people lived in small, tightly interwoven communities.
The two were part of a presentation on the redefinition of privacy at the Lift 2010 conference in Geneva Wednesday 5 May.
Teenagers understand privacy and they have their own definition, says Glassey, but a dilemma as the Facebook generation grows up and their elders catch up with them, is how to ensure forgetfulness. “One of the main challenges will be the long-term memory of privacy,” he points out.
Christian Heller
People use social networks like Facebook to recreate their lives, to record their biographies, and this role of social networking has not yet been sufficiently studied. “We need to build in social forgiveness.” Criminals but also the rest of us, who routinely commit small sins that we want to forget, and we want others to forget, should be allowed to fade away, but how do we do that digitally?
Heller reminded his audience that we tend to forget: the 20th century was a time when privacy replaced a more openly shared, more public life, and the shift has not always a positive thing: privacy can also mean loneliness and shame.
Ed. note: WRS radio carries an audio interview with Glassey and Anil de Mello
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The Swiss media industry continues to take a beating, with one of the country’s largest publishers, Ringier, posting a 72.4 percent fall in profits to CHF17.2 million for 2009. Turnover dropped by 15.6 percent to CHF1.3 billion. The company’s director general, Christian Unger, says 2010 should be more stable, but a turnaround will not be quick.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The latest figures from Remp, the Swiss media industry’s body that measures readership of online and print media, show the downward slide, which accelerated in 2008, of several major publications continuing: the Tribune de Geneve, Le Matin, Le Temps in French-speaking Switzerland, all lost significant numbers of readers while 20 Minutes, the country’s most widely read paper, lost 4 percent of its readership.
Links to other sites: Le Temps (Fre), Tribune de Geneve (Fre), TSR ((Fre)
Igor Sedykh, journalist
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Igor Sedykh, Geneva-based Russian journalist who in 2009 was awarded the Swiss-Russian Cooperation award for journalism at the World Association of Russian Press congress held in Lucerne, died Friday 12 March in Geneva, his widow, Barbara Sedykh, announced.
Sedykh began his career with the monthly Sa Rubeschom, worked in Geneva as a correspondent for the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, and most recently he was known for his reporting for Kommersant from Geneva on Russian affairs, war and arms-related topics. His articles were often picked up elsewhere in other languages.
Sedykh was a longtime member of the Swiss Foreign Press Association.
Links to other sites: Cooperation Council Switzerland-Russia, Kommersant, Medecins sans frontieres
Pierre Veya, Le Temps, new managing editor
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Le Temps, the main serious newspaper in French-speaking Switzerland, has named one of its own, Pierre Veya, editor-in-chief, after a three-month industry-wide search. Veya replaces Jean-Jacque Roth, who has held the post since 2002. Roth in February became head of a joint television-radio news team at Radio Television Suisse Romande (RTSR), created in January by the merger of public television and radio in the region.
Veya, age 49,will take up the new position 1 May 2010.
Veya received a graduate degree in business in Delémont, Switzerland, after which he worked at L’Impartial, covering the Jura and cantonal news. In 1989 he joined Swiss news magazine L’Hebdo, where he was responsible for the economy section.
Click on image to view larger (© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss media companies’ revenues from advertising nosedived by 20.4 percent in 2009, falling to CHF1,585.7 million. Worst hit was the financial and economic press, down 30.1 percent and Sunday newspapers, with a 29.4 percent fall in ad sales. Dailies were close behind, with revenue down 21.6 percent. In December 2009 alone the daily papers saw their advertising income fall by 4.4 percent.
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
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - RSR radio and TSR television will be reborn as RTS, Radio Télévision Suisse in January, when the regional media will merge. The two are part of the SSR group, Switzerland’s public media company. The merger was announced Wednesday 25 November to staff at the two stations in Lausanne and Geneva.
A savings of CHF6 million for a total budget of CHF392m is expected, with the money to be put into programming. The merger will also result in 30 jobs lost out of 1,600 (fulltime equivalent: 2,000 actual jobs), but over a period of five years.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - 20 Minutes, recently merged with Matin Bleu, will concentrate its distribution channels on cities and the Lake Geneva region belt as part of cost-cutting measures. The free newspaper will stop using boxes in outlying areas and reduce the number of them in smaller villages in the region in order to place more of the papers in urban centre, particularly Geneva.
Links to other sites: TSR, 20 Minutes (Fre)
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.
Update 14:00 Geneva, Switzerland (GenevLunch) – Geneva’s public prosecutor, Daniel Zapelli, has now prepared his case against the key people responsible for the collapse of Geneva’s cantonal bank (BCGE), reported the Tribune de Genève 1 October. The article gives a detailed account of the bank’s scandal 10 years ago, based on Zapelli’s 600-page indictment, which the Tribune obtained. Lawyers and government officials have expressed anger in the wake of the article, that a newspaper should have obtained a copy of the indictment before the parties concerned, reports 20 Minutes.
The debacle cost the canton CHF2 billion, and a foundation had to be created to pay off its debts. Hearings in the case began in 2000 and ended only in 2008: they resulted in 3,700 pages of recorded hearings, 40 binders for general information and 1,500 binders of documents related to the hearings, according to an article Le Temps wrote in 2007 about the lengthy judicial process for the case.
