Brain-burning project
Op-Ed by Roger de Diesbach
Guest commentary by Roger de DiesbachNow it's enough! Successful newspapers such as "Le Nouvelliste du Valais" or "La Liberté" in Fribourg, which are increasing their circulation, are finding that competition is becoming increasingly unfair. They are regularly confronted with obstacles that are fatally reminiscent of back shots: these daily newspapers have just had to accept losses in the tough negotiations with Swiss Post (earlier closing, massive increase in transport costs). And it is precisely at this moment that Wemf is choosing to reorganize the economic areas allocated to the newspapers. These are crucial for the advertising market. For example, if a large Zurich advertising agency wants to reach the Fribourg and Lausanne regions, it will advertise in the most widely read newspaper there. However, the new Wemf map amputates the economic areas of the "Liberté" (15) around the areas of the Fribourg and Vaud Broye and the Veveyse region with a total of 26,000 households; those of the "Nouvelliste" (16) around the Chablais with 16,000 households. Other regional newspapers such as the "Quotidien jurassien", the "Südostschweiz" and the "Mittelland Zeitung" will also be disadvantaged.
The approach and the proposed project are insane. In our regions, all the political leaders interviewed are shocked by this "dog days project", while its authors claim that their conclusions are based on the statements of 2441 municipal presidents.
Wemf's plan seriously reduces the zones of influence of the "Nouvelliste" and the "Liberté", which distorts the true status of these newspapers and dramatically shrinks their advertising market. It was already difficult to make it clear in Zurich that French-speaking Switzerland does not only consist of the Léman arc from Geneva to Lausanne. With the planned amputation, we will completely become "quantités négligeables", which the major Swiss advertisers will ignore without hesitation.
Worse still, by allocating to the Lausanne economic area what it takes away from Fribourg and Valais, the project tailors a tailor-made suit for the "large Vaudois daily newspaper" planned by the Edipresse group. A veiled attack by Edipresse to kill off the last independent newspapers? We are not suggesting that. But we do note that coincidence is rolling out the red carpet for the giant of the French-speaking Swiss press landscape and that the Edipresse representative sits alongside friends of the major press groups on the ultimately decisive Wemf Board of Directors. Elephants can easily do themselves a service here, as not a single representative of the regional press sits on this illustrious board.
We strongly oppose this plan, which destroys equality of opportunity between newspapers. We demand that readers and advertisers remain the arbiters of the success or failure of newspapers.
> Roger de Diesbach is editor-in-chief of La Liberté.
The approach and the proposed project are insane. In our regions, all the political leaders interviewed are shocked by this "dog days project", while its authors claim that their conclusions are based on the statements of 2441 municipal presidents.
Wemf's plan seriously reduces the zones of influence of the "Nouvelliste" and the "Liberté", which distorts the true status of these newspapers and dramatically shrinks their advertising market. It was already difficult to make it clear in Zurich that French-speaking Switzerland does not only consist of the Léman arc from Geneva to Lausanne. With the planned amputation, we will completely become "quantités négligeables", which the major Swiss advertisers will ignore without hesitation.
Worse still, by allocating to the Lausanne economic area what it takes away from Fribourg and Valais, the project tailors a tailor-made suit for the "large Vaudois daily newspaper" planned by the Edipresse group. A veiled attack by Edipresse to kill off the last independent newspapers? We are not suggesting that. But we do note that coincidence is rolling out the red carpet for the giant of the French-speaking Swiss press landscape and that the Edipresse representative sits alongside friends of the major press groups on the ultimately decisive Wemf Board of Directors. Elephants can easily do themselves a service here, as not a single representative of the regional press sits on this illustrious board.
We strongly oppose this plan, which destroys equality of opportunity between newspapers. We demand that readers and advertisers remain the arbiters of the success or failure of newspapers.
> Roger de Diesbach is editor-in-chief of La Liberté.
