Fit again - even without job advertisements
Balance sheet Tamedia has achieved a turnaround - thanks to significant staff reductions.
Balance sheet Tamedia has achieved a turnaround - thanks to significant staff reductions.
Tamedia achieved sales of CHF 566.6 million in 2004, CHF 7.4 million less than in the previous year. The decline is due to the sale of small operating units (such as the cultural magazine Du), but Tamedia maintained sales in its core business. Nevertheless, the media group recorded a positive operating result (EBIT) of CHF 63.1 million, a respectable performance after the minus of CHF 40.7 million in the previous year. This result was only possible thanks to restructuring measures. Over the past two years, Tamedia has reduced its workforce by around 25 percent - one third through outsourcing and two thirds through redundancies. Accordingly, personnel expenses, the largest cost item, were reduced by CHF 66 million or 24.5 percent to CHF 203 million last year alone. Lower paper prices and reduced paper consumption due to smaller volumes further reduced costs. The Group result, which was still in the red at minus 18 million francs in 2003, rose to 50 million francs.
New-old philosophy
"We have achieved the same turnover as in 2003, but with far fewer staff," said Tamedia CEO Martin Kall at the annual press conference. The return has risen accordingly. In 2004, Tamedia achieved the fourth-best EBIT margin of the last 15 years despite the adverse environment, Kall triumphed. "We want to be in a position to achieve a decent return even without cyclical job advertisements," said the CEO. Kall, a historian, was referring back to an insight from the 1973 oil crisis. Job advertisements were already the butter on the bread back then. It is to Kall's credit that he did not wait to put this insight into practice, but did so back in 2004, as shown in the graphic opposite. Seen in this light, Tamedia even achieved the best EBIT margin of the last 15 years last year!
Of the Group divisions, only the Magazines segment reported a decline in sales, due to the sale of the magazine Du and the discontinuation of Annabelle Wohnen and Business. Nevertheless, the magazines achieved a turnaround faster than expected, according to Kall. Their operating result (EBIT) rose from minus CHF 9.6 million to plus CHF 8.5 million. Newspapers even increased their EBIT by 1218 percent to 47.3 million francs. The electronic media are still in the red (-5.6 million francs), although this is due to a subsequent correction for unreported sales from media partnerships in 2003. Kall also expects this division to be in the black in 2005. And although TeleZüri will be in the black by 2006 at the latest, Kall does not want to forego shares from fee splitting. "If there is to be this honeypot, it would be no contradiction for us to also reward those who generate a profit on their own," he says.
The commissioning contract with Publimedia is still not signed and sealed. Tamedia had terminated it extraordinarily after the Zurich press deal. Publimedia has not yet responded to Tamedia's proposal, said Kall. Publimedia General Director Otto Meier is of a different opinion. "We are in mutual exchange, the point of contention is still the specific form of the bonus for the P", says Meier.
NZZ Group also with better figuresIn 2004, the NZZ Group achieved a net profit of 21.7 million francs, more than four times as much as in the previous year. The operating result amounted to 16.1 million francs compared to a minus of 8.7 million francs in 2003. Turnover rose by 18.6 percent to 547 million francs. However, the turnaround is mainly due to changes in the scope of consolidation: the participation in Bund Verlag was eliminated and LZ Medien was included for the first time.
The Zurich press deal has not yet been reflected in the NZZ result. However, it is interesting to note that NZZ will receive more shares in the longer term from Akeret AG, a 100% subsidiary of PubliGroupe and publisher of the Zürcher Unterländer, than previously communicated. This was stated by PubliGroupe CEO Hans-Peter Rohner to Werbewoche. He said: "The transfer of shares in Akeret AG will be carried out as announced when we announced our agreement with NZZ in the summer of 2004: In a first step, which will be completed in the course of the next few weeks, 40 percent of Akeret AG will be transferred from PubliGroupe to Freie Presse Holding (FPH) AG. The remaining 60 percent of Akeret AG will also be transferred to FPH in a second step, probably in two to three years." (mk)
Tamedia in figures (in CHF million)
2003 2004 Change in %
Turnover 574.0 566.6 - 1.3
Operating
result -40.7 63.1 -
(EBIT)
Group
result -17.7 49.8 -
Cash flow 51.9 99.2 + 91.1
Personnel
stock 1825 1518 - 16.8
Source: Tamedia
Markus Knöpfli
Tamedia achieved sales of CHF 566.6 million in 2004, CHF 7.4 million less than in the previous year. The decline is due to the sale of small operating units (such as the cultural magazine Du), but Tamedia maintained sales in its core business. Nevertheless, the media group recorded a positive operating result (EBIT) of CHF 63.1 million, a respectable performance after the minus of CHF 40.7 million in the previous year. This result was only possible thanks to restructuring measures. Over the past two years, Tamedia has reduced its workforce by around 25 percent - one third through outsourcing and two thirds through redundancies. Accordingly, personnel expenses, the largest cost item, were reduced by CHF 66 million or 24.5 percent to CHF 203 million last year alone. Lower paper prices and reduced paper consumption due to smaller volumes further reduced costs. The Group result, which was still in the red at minus 18 million francs in 2003, rose to 50 million francs.
New-old philosophy
"We have achieved the same turnover as in 2003, but with far fewer staff," said Tamedia CEO Martin Kall at the annual press conference. The return has risen accordingly. In 2004, Tamedia achieved the fourth-best EBIT margin of the last 15 years despite the adverse environment, Kall triumphed. "We want to be in a position to achieve a decent return even without cyclical job advertisements," said the CEO. Kall, a historian, was referring back to an insight from the 1973 oil crisis. Job advertisements were already the butter on the bread back then. It is to Kall's credit that he did not wait to put this insight into practice, but did so back in 2004, as shown in the graphic opposite. Seen in this light, Tamedia even achieved the best EBIT margin of the last 15 years last year!
Of the Group divisions, only the Magazines segment reported a decline in sales, due to the sale of the magazine Du and the discontinuation of Annabelle Wohnen and Business. Nevertheless, the magazines achieved a turnaround faster than expected, according to Kall. Their operating result (EBIT) rose from minus CHF 9.6 million to plus CHF 8.5 million. Newspapers even increased their EBIT by 1218 percent to 47.3 million francs. The electronic media are still in the red (-5.6 million francs), although this is due to a subsequent correction for unreported sales from media partnerships in 2003. Kall also expects this division to be in the black in 2005. And although TeleZüri will be in the black by 2006 at the latest, Kall does not want to forego shares from fee splitting. "If there is to be this honeypot, it would be no contradiction for us to also reward those who generate a profit on their own," he says.
The commissioning contract with Publimedia is still not signed and sealed. Tamedia had terminated it extraordinarily after the Zurich press deal. Publimedia has not yet responded to Tamedia's proposal, said Kall. Publimedia General Director Otto Meier is of a different opinion. "We are in mutual exchange, the point of contention is still the specific form of the bonus for the P", says Meier.
NZZ Group also with better figuresIn 2004, the NZZ Group achieved a net profit of 21.7 million francs, more than four times as much as in the previous year. The operating result amounted to 16.1 million francs compared to a minus of 8.7 million francs in 2003. Turnover rose by 18.6 percent to 547 million francs. However, the turnaround is mainly due to changes in the scope of consolidation: the participation in Bund Verlag was eliminated and LZ Medien was included for the first time.
The Zurich press deal has not yet been reflected in the NZZ result. However, it is interesting to note that NZZ will receive more shares in the longer term from Akeret AG, a 100% subsidiary of PubliGroupe and publisher of the Zürcher Unterländer, than previously communicated. This was stated by PubliGroupe CEO Hans-Peter Rohner to Werbewoche. He said: "The transfer of shares in Akeret AG will be carried out as announced when we announced our agreement with NZZ in the summer of 2004: In a first step, which will be completed in the course of the next few weeks, 40 percent of Akeret AG will be transferred from PubliGroupe to Freie Presse Holding (FPH) AG. The remaining 60 percent of Akeret AG will also be transferred to FPH in a second step, probably in two to three years." (mk)
Tamedia in figures (in CHF million)
2003 2004 Change in %
Turnover 574.0 566.6 - 1.3
Operating
result -40.7 63.1 -
(EBIT)
Group
result -17.7 49.8 -
Cash flow 51.9 99.2 + 91.1
Personnel
stock 1825 1518 - 16.8
Source: Tamedia
Markus Knöpfli
