Free newspapers consider summer break
For financial reasons, Le Matin Bleu is considering taking a break next summer during the vacation season. .ch is also considering a summer break.
For economic reasons, Le Matin Bleu is considering taking a break next summer during the vacation period. Publication of the commuter newspaper has already ceased between Christmas and New Year for two years. It is very possible that there will now also be a break in the summer. However, this has not yet been definitively decided, Théo Bouchat, Director of Edipresse Switzerland, told the news agency SDA.
Due to the many vacation absences and ecological considerations, it makes little sense to flood the boxes with newspapers that nobody reads. However, Bouchat emphasized that a possible break would not be the first step towards the complete discontinuation of the title.
A summer break is also being considered in German-speaking Switzerland. The summer months are always difficult in terms of advertising, said Caroline Thoma, Managing Director of .ch. A break may therefore be an option. A decision will be made by the end of the year as to whether the .ch editorial team will also take a break.
The free newspapers are suffering less from the summer slump than the subscription press because they have fewer job advertisements, as Publicitas employee Georges von Csernatony explained when asked by SDA. However, a slowdown in the economy is likely to hit them harder because they are completely dependent on advertising.
There is no question of an interruption at the 20-Minuten and News parent company Tamedia, although the summer has left its mark on advertising and readership figures, said Tamedia spokesman Christoph Zimmer. However, the decline is not significant enough to justify discontinuing the publication. In contrast to other European countries, Switzerland does not go on vacation "en bloc", said Zimmer. The situation is different in Luxembourg: Tamedia's local title L'Essentiel, also a free newspaper, is not published during the summer vacation.
Due to the many vacation absences and ecological considerations, it makes little sense to flood the boxes with newspapers that nobody reads. However, Bouchat emphasized that a possible break would not be the first step towards the complete discontinuation of the title.
A summer break is also being considered in German-speaking Switzerland. The summer months are always difficult in terms of advertising, said Caroline Thoma, Managing Director of .ch. A break may therefore be an option. A decision will be made by the end of the year as to whether the .ch editorial team will also take a break.
The free newspapers are suffering less from the summer slump than the subscription press because they have fewer job advertisements, as Publicitas employee Georges von Csernatony explained when asked by SDA. However, a slowdown in the economy is likely to hit them harder because they are completely dependent on advertising.
There is no question of an interruption at the 20-Minuten and News parent company Tamedia, although the summer has left its mark on advertising and readership figures, said Tamedia spokesman Christoph Zimmer. However, the decline is not significant enough to justify discontinuing the publication. In contrast to other European countries, Switzerland does not go on vacation "en bloc", said Zimmer. The situation is different in Luxembourg: Tamedia's local title L'Essentiel, also a free newspaper, is not published during the summer vacation.
