Le Temps: Ringier and Tamedia plan sale
Ringier and Tamedia are seeking a buyer for the daily newspaper Le Temps by June 2014. If no compelling offer is received, they intend to consider purchasing the other party’s stake. A swap deal involving Le Matin is not on the table.
Ringier and Tamedia each hold 46.2 percent of Le Temps. An editorial association holds 2.4 percent, the French newspaper Le Monde 2.1 percent and Geneva banker Claude Demole 3.05 percent. With a strong majority shareholder, the best conditions for continued existence and further development would be created in view of the structural challenges facing the media industry, Ringier and Tamedia jointly announced on Tuesday.
The buyer should be aware of the importance of the daily newspaper for French-speaking Switzerland and be able to offer employees a perspective. The offer is valid until the first half of 2014, as Christoph Zimmer, Head of Corporate Communications at Tamedia, said in response to an inquiry from the SDA news agency.
No swap deal with Le Matin
Regarding the profitability of the quality paper, Zimmer stated that it was "not making a loss. Rumors surfaced in the summer that Ringier and Tamedia were planning to swap their stakes in Le Temps and Le Matin. However, a sale or swap of Le Matin is "not an issue," Zimmer said Tuesday. The tabloid Le Matin is wholly owned by Tamedia. Le Temps was created in 1998 from the merger of the daily newspapers Journal de Genève et Gazette de Lausanne and Le Nouveau Quotidien. According to the latest figures, the printed edition has 115'000 readers. Circulation is 39'716 copies. (SDA)
