74 redundancies: Basler Zeitung closes printing plant
The Basler Zeitung Medien Group (BZM) is closing its print shop at the end of March. 74 employees will lose their jobs, eleven will take early retirement and ten others, together with three apprentices, will get a job at Tamedia, where the Basler Zeitung will also be printed in the future.
BZM's printing plant, which was installed in 2003, is suffering from weak capacity utilization. Whereas 300 million newspapers were printed per year until 2007, the figure was 160 million newspapers in 2012. At the same time, sales shrank from 75 million Swiss francs to 23 million Swiss francs. This has recently resulted in a high single-digit million loss every year.
BZM cites the loss of large print jobs - including in particular a partial run of the Coop newspaper - as well as declining newspaper circulations and volumes. The negative trend is likely to "intensify" in the coming years. The overcapacities of the entire industry put pressure on prices.
Definitive decision on January 22
The BZM subsidiary Die Zeitungsdrucker Schweiz and the staff restaurant on Hochbergerstrasse in Basel will be closed. The future of the large printing plant building next to the BZM headquarters on the Wiese River is open, according to a BZM spokesman. He did not want to quantify the book value of this property, which today belongs to Christoph Blocher. A social plan will be announced for those made redundant, the statement added. This is to be based on the one negotiated with the social partners in 2010. In addition, those affected will be offered a placement in cooperation with a job placement company.
Partnership with Tamedia ever closer
However, the Baz's circulation decline is also partly homemade: Under the new editor-in-chief, Blocher biographer Markus Somm, with his legal course, and after former Federal Councilor and SVP National Councilor Christoph Blocher secretly joined as de facto owner, there has been a hail of subscription cancellations since 2010. At the same time, local competition is growing.
Blocher himself had already announced the closure of the printing plant: At the end of October, he said in an interview with the Sonntagszeitung that he was aiming for a pure Baz, an independent newspaper without unnecessary other parts of the group. If the printing plant was not working to capacity, it would have to close down.
Trade unions alternatives
of the Basler Zeitung, which was causing the newspaper's acceptance and circulation to dwindle.
A management buyout or the continuation of the print shop at a new location in Basel are under discussion. However, an alternative solution only has a chance if the Baz continues to be printed in Basel in the future, said Graf.
Should the closure of the print shop be unavoidable, Brutschin expects a generous social plan from the owners and active support for those affected in finding jobs. CEO Rolf Bollmann, meanwhile, sees no alternatives to closure in view of the millions in losses, as he told Radio SRF's Regionaljournal. (SDA)
