A slap in the face with reverberations
The Basler Zeitung is setting an example for the public service of the press by charging for agenda items. And in doing so, it is unintentionally throwing water on the mills of those demanding subsidies.
Column By charging for agenda items, the Basler Zeitung is setting an example for the public service of the press. In Basel, a highly interesting field test is currently underway to determine the value of the public service of the printed press. The Basler Zeitung, which created a daily tabloid-format journal in the midst of the advertising crisis, has fallen into disrepute with cultural organizers. This is because it has recently dared to charge between five and twenty francs for the advertisements in the Agenda, in return for which it guarantees publication. Previously, the announcements were free of charge, but inclusion was at the discretion of the editorial team. The reasoning: What costs nothing is worth nothing - and after all, cultural event organizers pay for all the other services they use without any problems (although they are usually not badly refinanced by public subsidies).
But when it comes to the press, over a hundred organizers and cultural institutions are shaking with indignation. They have solemnly sworn to boycott the Agenda and accuse the market-leading paper of trying to open up an additional classified advertising market at the expense of free cultural life. Publisher Matthias Hagemann counters that he invests two million francs a year in cultural reporting, which is being expanded rather than reduced despite the advertising slump.
The controversy is not only being followed with interest by publishing managers throughout the country. The question of where the organizers' duty to inform ends and the newspaper's begins is also being discussed elsewhere. The longer the cultural perpetrators in Basel do without this announcement medium, the more urgent the question becomes as to whether they can afford to do so and whether the other channels are strong enough to compensate for the resulting loss of contact.
The background to the dispute is really worth considering. Successful regional newspapers have long concentrated their resources on local reporting and on the regional service sector, in which the event agenda plays a prominent role. The paying subscribers and buyers demand this service - a win-win situation, one would think. The substitution of this service by the Internet and other media only works to a limited extent at regional level.
On the other hand, this service incurs high costs - for the daily space, but also for the procurement and preparation of the information. Newspapers therefore provide a service to the public that should not be underestimated. And they do this in a competitive environment that is distorted - among other things by the SRG - to the extent that it siphons off concession money of one billion francs per year in the name of public service.
Newspapers of all sizes, but especially the smaller ones, provide us with many other services. By providing a platform for events, votes, debates and initiatives, they keep public life and direct democracy going: without a performance mandate, without remuneration, certainly out of self-interest, but also as a voluntary commitment. The fact that some publishers derive a justification for state press subsidies from this increasingly expensive service package may be rejected on regulatory grounds, but it is certainly understandable.
> Karl Lüönd is a journalist, ombudsman of the Jean Frey publishing house and head of the Media Institute of the Swiss Press Association.
But when it comes to the press, over a hundred organizers and cultural institutions are shaking with indignation. They have solemnly sworn to boycott the Agenda and accuse the market-leading paper of trying to open up an additional classified advertising market at the expense of free cultural life. Publisher Matthias Hagemann counters that he invests two million francs a year in cultural reporting, which is being expanded rather than reduced despite the advertising slump.
The controversy is not only being followed with interest by publishing managers throughout the country. The question of where the organizers' duty to inform ends and the newspaper's begins is also being discussed elsewhere. The longer the cultural perpetrators in Basel do without this announcement medium, the more urgent the question becomes as to whether they can afford to do so and whether the other channels are strong enough to compensate for the resulting loss of contact.
The background to the dispute is really worth considering. Successful regional newspapers have long concentrated their resources on local reporting and on the regional service sector, in which the event agenda plays a prominent role. The paying subscribers and buyers demand this service - a win-win situation, one would think. The substitution of this service by the Internet and other media only works to a limited extent at regional level.
On the other hand, this service incurs high costs - for the daily space, but also for the procurement and preparation of the information. Newspapers therefore provide a service to the public that should not be underestimated. And they do this in a competitive environment that is distorted - among other things by the SRG - to the extent that it siphons off concession money of one billion francs per year in the name of public service.
Newspapers of all sizes, but especially the smaller ones, provide us with many other services. By providing a platform for events, votes, debates and initiatives, they keep public life and direct democracy going: without a performance mandate, without remuneration, certainly out of self-interest, but also as a voluntary commitment. The fact that some publishers derive a justification for state press subsidies from this increasingly expensive service package may be rejected on regulatory grounds, but it is certainly understandable.
> Karl Lüönd is a journalist, ombudsman of the Jean Frey publishing house and head of the Media Institute of the Swiss Press Association.
