Layoffs: HQTA closes office in French-speaking Switzerland
The holding company HQTA has decided to close its French-speaking Switzerland office, which it had taken over from the Associated Press (AP). The seven journalists in the editorial team will be made redundant, according to the professional association Impressum.
This move comes two and a half years after the AP's Swiss German office was closed. HQTA, to which the news agency DAPD belongs, justifies the redundancies with economic reasons, namely the loss of Tamedia Publications Romandes as an important customer.
Impressum was shocked by the "brutality" of the measure. "It simply results in the closure of an agency that plays an important role in the diversity of the press in Switzerland," the communiqué states. The union recalled the social responsibility of those involved. Every effort is being made to support the journalists affected in their job search.
Depositing the balance sheet
DAPD and six other subsidiaries declared themselves insolvent at the beginning of October and filed for insolvency at a Berlin district court. This affected 299 out of 515 employees. DAPD was formed in summer 2010 from the two news agencies DAPD and DDP. The two investors Peter Löw and Martin Vorderwülbecke, owners of Deutscher Depeschendienst (DDP), had bought the German-language service of the US news agency AP in December 2009 and merged the two companies to form DAPD.
DAPD has expanded rapidly in recent years. In May 2011, DAPD took over the press agency Sipa in France. For its part, Sipa acquired AP's French-language service in the summer of 2012, including the editorial office in French-speaking Switzerland. Sipa described this as an important step. In February 2010, the Swiss News Agency (SDA) took over the German DDP text services and the DDP's foreign news service (DADP) for distribution in Switzerland. In return, DDP received the license to distribute the SDA services in its markets (SDA).
