Swisster will stop publishing 23 December 2010
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swisster, the English-language online news service set up in 2008 by Edipresse, the largest media publisher in French-speaking Switzerland, is shutting down after two-and-a-half years, effective Thursday 23 December.
Swisster was launched in March 2008 during the boom phase of Internet media, but shortly before the financial crisis hit the industry. In a statement published 22 December in Cominmag, a publication for the communications industries in the region, Edipresse noted that the site was not able to “take advantage of synergies to develop optimally and thus reach a point of critical mass” during a difficult economic period and in an extremely competitive niche market, despite having doubled its readership between January 2009 and December 2010.
The statement by Edipresse makes no mention of its own imminent takeover by Tamedia, a process that will be completed in January 2011. Tamedia is one of the country’s largest publishers.
Swisster joined what was a growing number of English language media in 2008, with at least seven newspapers, magazines and radio stations in the Lake Geneva region, including GenevaLunch, a volunteer daily news service set up in 2006. GenevaLunch wrote at the time, of Swisster, that “the real “newness” lies mainly in the business model, with Edipresse selling bulk subscriptions [for CHF300] to multinationals and EPFL.
This content will be largely unavailable to the public.” In early 2009 the editorial staff at the online paper changed, with Marcus Berry, who had earlier managed World Radio Geneva before it became World Radio Switzerland, taking over as chief editor and product manager, working under the name Mark Oliver.
The 22 December edition of Swisster makes no mention on the home page of its closure, but editorial staff Wednesday sent out a message of thanks, “to express our warm appreciation to all our readers, partners and sponsors for their wonderful support over the past three years”.
The 11,000 articles published by Swisster in its nearly three years will remain available online, as part of the Tribune de Geneve’s and 24 Heure’s archives.
Notice something different? Find out more!
GenevaLunch has a fresher look and some new features, with more to come in the next few days. The site is faster as well, part of our efforts to make your visit enjoyable and informative. Read the details on the editor’s blog: Editor’s Notepad.
The web site is much easier to use since they revised it in November 2008 but you now get a limited number of articles for free if you register; for months they advertised registration as free.
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…
Zurich, Switzerland (RSR, Fre) – Cash, the business magazine paper published by Switzerland’s largest media company, Ringier, will be printed for the last time 28 June. Ringier plans to concentrate on its online publishing, continuing with www.cash.ch and other products such as the free Cash daily. Ringier in its annual report issued in March 2007 reported an annual sales increase of 6.5%.
