Der Landbote: Blocher soon to be buyer?

Schweiz am Sonntag interprets the fact that the Landbote is to be sold from the Tamedia annual report: Martin Bachem is leaving the Board of Directors so that there are no conflicts of interest in the future orientation of Ziegler Druck- und Verlags-AG. Bachem has been Chairman of the Board of Ziegler Druck since 1996 and Tamedia holds a 20 percent stake in the publisher of the Landbote. Conflict of interest because the founding family wants to sell Ziegler Druck und Verlags-AG and Tamedia could be one of the parties interested in selling.

Schweiz am Sonntag sees two possible buyers for the Winterthur daily Landbote: Tamedia and the Medienvielfalt Holding of Tito Tettamanti with Christoph Blocher in the background. According to insiders, Tamedia's ownership of 20 percent of the shares almost certainly gives it a right of first refusal. But research by Schweiz am Sonntag suggests that Tamedia is not interested - the media company is focusing in the future on cooperations, not acquisitions, in the newspaper sector.

Tamedia's disinterest means an opportunity for Blocher and Tettamanti to create "a kind of conservative northern newspaper," as Schweiz am Sonntag speculates: Landbote, Schaffhauser Nachrichten and the Basler Zeitung, which would take the lead in producing the cover section for all three newspapers. This thesis is denied by the head of the Baz Group, Rolf Bollmann, who already sits on the board of directors of Ziegler Druck for Tamedia and is considered a close confidant of Christoph Blocher, and attributed to "blooming imagination." However, Bollmann is said to have announced to friends that he wants to cut back in Basel because an exciting new project is coming up.

The Schweiz am Sonntag article is also available online: Sonntagonline.ch/press/media/2922/

Image detail Christoph Blocher: Keystone