Who is afraid of the free press?

 
Publishers At the newspaper publishers' congress at the KKL in Lucerne, the focus was on Google and the free press.  
No, Swiss publishers do not want to leave the field to the search engine just like that and allow it to publish editorial texts tel quel on its Google.news service without objection - even if (for the time being) only the entry aids.
The most important congress topic besides the free press at the annual meeting of publishers at the Lucerne Art and Congress Center was preceded by several meetings between the publishers' association and Google - in an unencumbered tone, but still without results. The search engine should recognize the infringement of copyrights and pay compensation accordingly, the publishers demand. At the lectern, however, the country manager of Google Switzerland, Andreas Schönenberger, did not address such problems, but instead promoted his company's services and business models, in which he would love to involve the publishing houses.
In response to the question of who has the upper hand in such negotiations, given the market power of the group, Schönenberger said that it depends on the commitment of the publishers themselves. They must have an interest in generating traffic, which in itself represents a value on the Internet, said the Google man, referring to the New York Times, which has recognized this value and radically stopped using paid content.
Without the publishers' journalistic content, Google would not even exist, countered publisher president Hanspeter Lebrument. Such votes may make it clear that the rapprochement between the parties is still a long way off and that the publishers have perhaps not yet fully grasped the dimensions of Google. This also blurs the question of who should set the pace for whom. At present, it is more likely that the courts will decide on Google.news and copyrights. On the fringes of the congress, PubliGroup CEO Hanspeter Rohner spoke of a monopoly defense debate. In comparison, the way publishers and Google deal with each other abroad is far ahead.
Forecasts on free newspapersAs expected, the other main topic was the war on the free press this fall, which has made Switzerland the market with the highest proportion of free newspapers per 1000 inhabitants. The topic was also pushed by .ch initiator Sacha Wigdorovits, who had launched his new free newspaper just two days before the congress and had it distributed in front of the KKL. How many free titles can the market tolerate and which of the paid newspapers will be hit hardest? Currently probably those in the media triangle of Basel, Berne and Zurich, said Norbert Neininger, publisher of Schaffhauser Nachrichten. However, he does not see the attack on the paid daily newspapers primarily in terms of content, but through the price in the advertising market. "The cake may be getting a little bigger, but there are more people who want a piece of it."
Ralph Büchi, CEO of the Handelszeitungs Group and Jean Frey Verlag, spoke of a gold-rush atmosphere and appealed to the innovative strength of publishers. Because a fifth free newspaper is simply no longer an innovation. Büchi gives a single free newspaper a chance in the market in the long term.
For Christian Müller, CEO of Vogt Schild AG, the publisher of the Solothurner Zeitung, the free press is a temporary phenomenon that will only last five to seven years. Müller recalled the "social responsibility" of publishers of free titles, some of whom had practically devalued their journalists to a "vehicle for the distribution of advertising". In contrast, Solothurn relies on readers who value the work of journalists.
Tamedia CEO Martin Kall did not agree with this view and countered that the 1.2 million readers of 20 Minuten would hardly be satisfied with just journalistic junk - among them more academics than among the NZZ readership. With an attitude like Müller's, the basic needs of the readership and thus an important social development are being ignored. Seen in this light, it is easy to defend a monopoly and leave the work to others. For Kall, the question is not one of either-or between different models, but there will always be everything.
Finally, Hanspeter Rohner expressed the suspicion that one or two free newspaper projects were targeting market structuring and that the market would therefore normalize again sooner or later. One free newspaper will survive in Ticino and one in French-speaking Switzerland. "In German-speaking Switzerland, one free newspaper and a derivative system from a daily newspaper group will remain." Rohner understands this to mean the free paper as a promotional product for a daily newspaper or electronic media, i.e. for an entire media group, which could also be interpreted as a subtle allusion to Cash daily.
René Worni
Industry get-together with strong media responseThis year's Publishers' Congress
was met with above-average media coverage due to the numerous new launches of print products. Video contributions on the Internet also shone for the first time at the industry's navel-gazing event. In keeping with the times, students on the MAZ master's course accompanied the congress as journalists and processed their impressions in a video blog. Some press reports revealed that hardly any of the congress participants publicly spoke out against the free press, including the President of the Swiss Confederation, Micheline Calmy-Rey, who, while speaking out in favor of political journalism and the greatest possible diversity of opinion, nevertheless described the free newspapers as "not without value and meaning". (rw)