Defensive reflexes instead of educational work

The contrast in the way the media industry and media research interact could hardly be greater: In Switzerland, the two largest print publishers Tamedia and Ringier are keeping quiet - as if they had colluded - about research findings on the state and prospects of journalism presented by 60 media researchers led by Kurt Imhof in their "Yearbook Quality of the Swiss Media". And the president of the Swiss Press Association, Hanspeter Lebrument, had his managing director ranting against the researchers before he and his colleagues had even had a chance to take note of the yearbook's content.

In the neighboring Alpine republic, on the other hand, people are practicing unity. The Association of Austrian Newspaper Publishers recently presented its "Public Value Report" under the catchy title "Added Value", with which it aims to make the wider public aware of the important contribution print media make to media diversity and that the ORF, as a public broadcaster, does not have a monopoly on quality journalism. The authors include the crème de la crème of Austrian journalism and publishing management as well as renowned media researchers. What they have to say is not always comfortable for the publishing industry - for example when Matthias Karmasin encourages media entrepreneurs to adopt more "regulated self-regulation" or his colleague Franzisca Weder from Klagenfurt sees "the true communicative responsibility of media companies and associations in maintaining a public discourse on the values of media products": But the fact that such statements were integrated into the volume can be seen as a sign of willingness to engage in dialog. Another annoyance for newspaper publishers in the demanding market segment in Austria is that state and other public institutions, which are ultimately financed with taxpayers' money, often favor media in their advertising campaigns that do not exactly help quality journalism. The amounts involved in such advertisements are many times higher than the previous direct and indirect press subsidies regulated by law.

Then, in neighboring countries, giants such as Google and Facebook are also a thorn in the side of publishers. Not only do they do good business with their links to content that print companies have financed, but they are now also putting pressure on traditional media providers in the advertising market - and are also shifting their profits to countries where they pay virtually no taxes. Nevertheless, the Austrian Public Value Report is an impressive document of cooperation between the media industry and media research. Perhaps now that the Federal Council has re-established the Federal Media Commission under the chairmanship of media researcher and Vice-Rector of the University of Zurich, Otfried Jarren, Swiss publishers will also realize that academics can sometimes be knowledgeable cooperation partners in solving their problems. Former Press Council President Peter Studer is right: "Trench warfare between publishers who are less critical and more profit-obsessed and sometimes overly normative and rigid academics is slowing down the necessary dialog."

Democratic societies are hardly conceivable without professional journalism that produces "added value" in the form of socially relevant news. However, this is acutely endangered if nobody wants to pay for journalism anymore and, on top of that, advertising revenues are melting away like snow in March. So there is a lot for media policy to do, and not just in Switzerland and Austria. On the other hand, publishers themselves must finally face up to the communicative challenge of "anchoring" the "added value" that solidly researched journalism undoubtedly delivers in the minds of the public. This may be partially successful with advertising and public relations work. However, competent journalism that deals with media and journalism (and also with media research) just as critically as politics, business or sport would always be more credible. P.S.: It has also come this far in the meantime - Austria's publishers of all people have rediscovered Marx's concept of added value with their report, "occupied" it and breathed new meaning into it.