Lose weight in Bern

Berner Tagespresse Saving at the Bund and Berner Zeitung: How much more should the papers cut back?cost-cutting measures and layoffs of
possibly three to four people each on the editorial boards both at the
as well as at the Berner Zeitung: This once again raises the question of
whether the Berne model, which was launched last year, can work.
had been launched to save the bund.
Specifically, the job cuts at the federal government are affecting two experienced journalists,
as recently became known. The Board of Directors had, contrary to the
initially emerging agreement, proposals from the editorial team rejected,
the two terminations with a reduction in the workload
to catch.

Let the market decide
But will this get the traditional paper out of the red?
"It's possible that the jobs we're cutting will be enough," estimates
Editor-in-Chief Hanspeter Spörri. Further measures, including the
subletting vacant premises in the company's own premises, shall
bring the required half million francs in savings. Whether it
Spörri does not know definitively whether there will be further job cuts.
to say. He said the future of the paper depended on the will of a possibly
smaller editorial team to create an independent daily newspaper.
And here applies unchanged - and thus the whole Bern model
the sentence: Let the market decide.
The same applies to the Berner Zeitung. There, too, the editorial team had to
slim down. According to Espace Publishing Director Franziska von Weissenfluh
this has already been done in part. She values the reduction of 1.8 positions
However, it is considered small compared to the size of the editorial teams of the two
titles (over 100 employees at FC and 65 at the federal government). In comparison
with the "tragic" job cuts at Anzeiger Region Bern.
the degradation bearable.
Since the beginning of the year, the advertisements in both titles (complete edition) have been
decreased by 10 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. What now
are "necessary structural adjustments," according to von Weissenfluh.
While both newspapers differ - the Bund as a quality newspaper
and the BZ as a broad forum newspaper - in content, journalistic
approach and with the target audience, but ads run in parallel in both
Scroll. Experience shows that the advertising industry does not appreciate it much when they
suddenly have to advertise in two titles at the same time, where before that was
selectively possible, and pay an average of 30 percent more for it.
even if, for example, an advertiser is offered better coverage than the
is in no way helpful. Von Weissenfluh denies corresponding
Difficulties. "We have only received positive feedback from advertisers.
We got reactions," advertisers had nowhere in the Espace Mittelland...
a comparably good coverage. Responsible for the
The decline in advertising is also due to the absence of ads from the
Wholesale distributors.

More efficiency required
The publishing director is optimistic about the federal government.
hope to be in the black with the federal government as early as next year.
Writing."
But how far back can editorial departments spell out to
already several slimming cures have not yet further
to have to cut back? The publishing director is convinced that
the editorial offices can still increase their efficiency. But Hanspeter
Spörri of the Confederation has in previous interviews, so in the weekly,
repeatedly explained that the dismantling had not yet affected the editorial
but that quality journalism has its price. Spörri
also sees opportunities for its business in the current structural change of the press.
paper, which he wants to be understood as Bern's little NZZ: "We will be
focus even more on backgrounds, analyses and reports.
We tend to leave the pure news business to the
electronic media and the free newspaper."
One thought, however, seems taboo until now. How to continue when the
Quality leaf not recovering financially? Will the federal government in
this case to the federal government in the BZ, or does it disappear altogether? "If a
of the newspapers is seriously damaged, then I would object that
we never thought that far ahead," says Spörri. But he is still
still convinced of the Bern model, which, despite possible further
Cutbacks journalistic competition also at local level
would make it possible. "This challenges and allows the editorial teams,
different newspapers for different reader groups
design."

René Worni