Swissinfo.ch coming to an end soon?
Despite its growing popularity, the Federal Council wants to cut off funding for the Swissinfo website. If Parliament approves the elimination of the federal subsidy of 13.4 million francs, this could spell the end of the information portal for Swiss citizens living abroad.
Today, the Confederation and SRG share the costs of a good CHF 26 million. Without the money from the federal government, Swissinfo could certainly no longer continue to operate in its current form, said SRG spokesperson Daniel Steiner when asked by the SDA news agency. Steiner did not want to say any more, "as long as there is uncertainty about the performance mandate and the decision is not yet final". However, the SRG spokesperson points out that SRG itself wants to save CHF 7 million at Swissinfo. Three models have been examined, namely savings within Swissinfo, integration of the platform into Swiss Radio DRS and integration into the new French-speaking Swiss radio and television company RTS.
Marked increase in users
All variants had proven to be feasible - with full fulfillment of the contract, as Steiner emphasized. However, implementation has been put on hold as long as it is not clear to what extent the federal government will be involved in the future. When asked, the Swissinfo editorial team was unable to comment on the Federal Council's savings plans.
According to the 2008 annual report, Swissinfo has just under 123 full-time employees. The Internet platform emerged from Schweizer Radio International in 1999. At the beginning of February, Swissinfo was able to announce a significant increase in users (unique clients) of a good 18 percent for 2009 compared to the previous year. According to Net-Metrix, an average of 901,000 unique user terminals were registered each month. Page impressions increased by 17.6 percent to 6.41 million.
Marked increase in users
All variants had proven to be feasible - with full fulfillment of the contract, as Steiner emphasized. However, implementation has been put on hold as long as it is not clear to what extent the federal government will be involved in the future. When asked, the Swissinfo editorial team was unable to comment on the Federal Council's savings plans.
According to the 2008 annual report, Swissinfo has just under 123 full-time employees. The Internet platform emerged from Schweizer Radio International in 1999. At the beginning of February, Swissinfo was able to announce a significant increase in users (unique clients) of a good 18 percent for 2009 compared to the previous year. According to Net-Metrix, an average of 901,000 unique user terminals were registered each month. Page impressions increased by 17.6 percent to 6.41 million.
