A look back: When the shareholders of the Thurgauer Zeitung (TZ) announced the sale of their publishing house to Tamedia, the publisher of the Tages-Anzeiger, at the beginning of September 2005, the St. Galler Tagblatt (SGT) was very upset. The St. Galler Verlag, a subsidiary of the NZZ Group, had also negotiated with the TZ about cooperation in the print and advertising sector and later even about integration into the SGT headline system. "In the end, the Zurich bidder was surprisingly awarded the contract - but not for a cooperation model, but for a complete takeover," the SGT sobered up the day after the deal was announced.
The government council of the canton of Thurgau also regretted the takeover of the Thurgauer Zeitung by Zurich-based Tamedia. This means that a media company with a long tradition is losing its independence. However, it sees the takeover by Tamedia as an opportunity, as the Frauenfeld site could be expanded as a result and the canton would continue to be served by two cantonal daily newspapers.
In a weekly interview with Werbewoche in April 2006, Daniel Hofer, then Director of Publishing and Production and member of the Executive Board at Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG since January 2006, answered the question of whether NZZ would swap its holdings around Lake Zurich for the Thurgauer Zeitung: "Swapping Thurgau for these holdings is absolutely not a topic of conversation for me. On the contrary: the regional newspapers and the NZZ are a very good match and complement each other to provide a very attractive product offering for readers in the greater Zurich area".
Pierre C. Meier

Find out more in the current print edition of Werbewoche.

A look back: When the shareholders of the Thurgauer Zeitung (TZ) announced the sale of their publishing house to Tamedia, the publisher of the Tages-Anzeiger, at the beginning of September 2005, the St. Galler Tagblatt (SGT) was very upset. The St. Galler Verlag, a subsidiary of the NZZ Group, had also negotiated with the TZ about cooperation in the print and advertising sector and later even about integration into the SGT headline system. "In the end, the Zurich bidder was surprisingly awarded the contract - but not for a cooperation model, but for a complete takeover," the SGT sobered up the day after the deal was announced.
The government council of the canton of Thurgau also regretted the takeover of the Thurgauer Zeitung by Zurich-based Tamedia. This means that a media company with a long tradition is losing its independence. However, it sees the takeover by Tamedia as an opportunity, as the Frauenfeld site could be expanded as a result and the canton would continue to be served by two cantonal daily newspapers.
In a weekly interview with Werbewoche in April 2006, Daniel Hofer, then Director of Publishing and Production and member of the Executive Board at Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG since January 2006, answered the question of whether NZZ would swap its holdings around Lake Zurich for the Thurgauer Zeitung: "Swapping Thurgau for these holdings is absolutely not a topic of conversation for me. On the contrary: the regional newspapers and the NZZ are a very good match and complement each other to provide a very attractive product offering for readers in the greater Zurich area".
Now, four years later, everything is different. How did this come about? Last December, Thedi Gut, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Zürichsee Medien AG, told the magazine Klartext that the Zürichsee-Zeitung was up for sale: "It's about the succession plan; I'm now 62 years old. The Board of Directors and the family have decided that we want to have this succession plan worked out by next summer." At the end of January, Thedi Gut confirmed to Werbewoche: "Zürichsee Medien AG is a family-owned stock corporation. No one in the family is willing to succeed me. We on the Board of Directors have therefore decided to examine various options for this succession plan. One of these options is to offer part of Zürichsee Medien AG, namely Zürichsee-Druckerei and our majority stake in Zürichsee-Zeitung, on the market." When asked whether Freie Presse Holding does not have a pre-emptive right to the 60 percent share of Zürichsee Medien AG in Zürichsee Presse AG, Gut said: "They have a pre-emptive right to this 60 percent, but only if we sell it alone. That's how it's worded in the contracts." Gut continued: "We have a clear idea of what Zürichsee Medien AG - the parent company - should look like in five to ten years' time. We do not want a unilateral sale of our 60 percent stake in Zürichsee Presse AG, in which only NZZ would be a possible buyer. Such a sale would not solve our internal family problems. We are therefore not even considering this option."
The NZZ was correspondingly miffed. Albert Polo Stäheli, CEO of the NZZ Group, told Werbewoche: "As a long-standing partner of Zürichsee Presse AG, we are astonished by the actions of Zürichsee Medien AG. Both partners in Zürichsee Presse AG have a contractual right of first refusal and pre-emptive right to the other's shareholding. Whether this right of first refusal and right of first refusal can be circumvented by the now chosen construct of a subholding with the addition of prepress services will have to be clarified by the lawyers."
Two months later, Conrad Meyer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the NZZ Group, was interviewed in his own newspaper. When asked by the journalist what he had to say about Thedi Gut's bidding competition, Meyer said: "We hold 40 percent of Zürichsee Presse AG. A right of first refusal was agreed at the time of purchase. At the time, we assumed that it would come into effect when Zürichsee Presse was sold. Now, however, the effectiveness of this right is to be undermined with a legal construction. We don't think that's extremely nice."
Then last week came the big surprise. The media companies NZZ Media Group and Tamedia agreed to swap their regional newspaper holdings in the cantons of Thurgau and Zurich. The Gut publishing family and FPH Freie Presse Holding are selling their stakes in the Zurich regional newspapers Zürcher Unterländer, Zürichsee-Zeitung and Zürcher Oberländer to Tamedia.
Tamedia wants to introduce the "Bern model" in the canton of Zurich with two newspapers under one publishing umbrella. It is not yet clear who will participate. In addition to the regional newspapers, negotiations are also being held with the Winterthurer Landbote, which is 20 percent owned by Tamedia, and the independent Schaffhauser Nachrichten, as Martin Kall, Chairman of the Management Board, told the media in Zurich. Where these negotiations will lead is completely open. A decision should be made by the end of the year.
Tamedia has two newspapers in mind that are journalistically different, Kall continued. He described the "Bern model" as a "clever model". Something like this should also be possible in the canton of Zurich. This should create more advantageous economic prospects for the daily newspapers involved. This also applies to advertising sales, where such a combination (with or without Tages-Anzeiger) could possibly meet with interest.
The question arises as to how Kall will deal with the fact that the Zürcher Unterländer and Zürichsee-Zeitung are currently marketed by Publigroupe. Kall is not necessarily a friend of Publigroupe and is instead focusing on its own marketing. The conditions offered by the Lausanne marketer would have to be very favorable for Kall to change his mind.
FPH Freie Presse Holding AG, a subsidiary of the NZZ media group, is taking over Tamedia's 100 percent stake in Huber & Co, the publisher of the Thurgauer Zeitung. The Thurgauer Zeitung will be integrated into Tagblatt Medien from the beginning of 2011. The combination of the Thurgauer Zeitung with the Thurgau edition of the Tagblatt is intended to create a journalistically strong and economically viable voice for the whole of Thurgau.
And everyone is happy. Except for the Thurgau government: "Newspaper diversity was desirable, but now there is only one newspaper in the canton," said Claudius Graf, President of the Thurgau government. Who cares?
Pierre C. Meier