Stalder under pressure

Associations Publishers defend themselves against SWA calculations. "Untrue, one-sided and in places indecent" - this is how Swiss publishers assess Gérard Stalder's statements. The President of the Swiss Advertisers Association (SWA) railed at its annual meeting: "The much-praised media diversity as an expression of Swiss federalism is no longer worth the newsprint it is printed on." Stalder said that "publishers are now eating 65 percent of the advertising pie". In a press release, the Swiss Press Association responded with corrections. According to the latest figures from the Swiss Advertising Statistics Foundation, newspapers, consumer magazines, specialty and trade press only account for 45 percent of total Swiss advertising revenue. Schweizer Presse considers Stalder's assertion that publishers are "exploiting their position of power to continuously increase advertising prices, which are already high compared to other countries" to be "completely unfounded". The publishers: "Firstly, Swiss advertising prices are rather low by international standards, and secondly, most publishers have exercised great restraint in their pricing policy in recent years. Where there have been increases, these have been justified by increased contact services."
The Swiss Press Bureau is demanding an apology from Stalder and "that future communication be conducted both in terms of content and verbally at a level that is customary among market partners". SWA Director Jürg Siegrist was not aware of the reaction of the Swiss press at the time of going to press and did not wish to comment, but said: "We have carefully checked the facts and data."
(pan)