Free press On March 8, 20
minutes, Tamedia's free newspaper, to conquer French-speaking Switzerland. It goes
confrontation with the Edipresse free product Le Matin Bleu.20-minutes editor-in-chief Philippe Favre
is confident of victory: "We can continue with the promising
20 Minuten formula to conquer the market." Otherwise, the Zurich
media company Tamedia is not eating its cherries well at the moment. The publishing house
monitors every detail in connection with the launch of 20
minutes. The statements made by Lausanne editor-in-chief Philippe Favre must be
for authorization on the desk of Zurich media spokeswoman Franziska
Hügli - to "avoid linguistic misunderstandings", it is explained.
Zurich is also sensitive in other respects: when the French-speaking part of Switzerland
satirical magazine La Distinction last December under the logo "00
minutes" free newspapers as fads, threatened
Tamedia with legal action. And when the electoral alliance
LausannEnsemble with the election newspaper "02 minutes" for their candidates
in the municipal elections, the publisher also stepped in with
legal threats against the apparently dangerous competition from
the French-speaking part of Switzerland.
But Tamedia is not the only one to use heavy artillery. The defense strategy
of Edipresse plays on the well-known resentment of many French-speaking
of the German-speaking Swiss majority and tries to find appropriate
To tickle defensive reflexes: Only Le Matin Bleu is "Romand d'esprit",
have the right French-Swiss attitude. And anyway, that's how we
further instructed, "the Romands simply prefer the French", period!
To put the fear of God into the cheeky intruder from the Wild East
Edipresse increased the size of the "Bleu" editorial team in February
around 20 journalists, has recently opened a Geneva and a
Lausanne regional edition and with Tristan Cerf also a new
Editor-in-chief - the interim head Catherine Maret has, as planned,
back to the television magazine Télétop after the launch phase
changed. The 32-year-old Cerf took his first steps in the profession as a
Zurich correspondent for Le Temps and then worked at the
Migros-Presse - he is convinced that the editorial
Quality and regional sensitivity in a competitive environment
will be decisive. He has further expansion plans for the "Bleu",
which has so far been aimed at a young target audience: "We will
more topical issues that affect a majority of the population.
interest."
At the same time, he announces that he will also address all those groups that
did not feel affected by traditional newspapers, such as the
"Secondos". "Making a free newspaper is simply great because we
break up the traditional patterns of the press and
who can't afford newspapers." The accusation that the
Cerf rejects the idea of playing on the defensive reflexes of the Romands: "Put
imagine that we had done nothing against the plans of Tamedia AG
and all advertising money would have gone to the German-speaking part of Switzerland at 20 minutes.
gone! That is exactly what would have increased the resentment of the Romands,
not our advertising."
The fact that 20 minutes is an export product from the German-speaking part of Switzerland
39-year-old editor-in-chief Philippe Favre does not agree: "The concept
is based on the 20-minute formula, which also works well in other countries.
works. We tailored it to the needs of French-speaking Switzerland.
adapted."
The team of around 30 employees in Lausanne and Geneva are all
Romands, and the budget for translations is minimal. Articles that
not produced in French-speaking Switzerland would be "regionalized",
i.e. adapted for an audience in French-speaking Switzerland. Especially
Favre is proud of the focus on local journalism - two pages
Local info for the two regional editions in Lausanne and Geneva - and
a "People" section, which is not only characterized by international stars, but also by
and starlets, but also about young talents in French-speaking Switzerland
reports.
Favre is a specialist in local journalism. From 1994 he was in
various functions at the local newspaper Presse Riviera Chablais
on the upper shores of Lake Geneva. When the "Presse" was taken over by Edipresse
and merged with 24 Heures, he took over as editor-in-chief
of the split edition of 24 Heures for this region. He shies away from the
competition with the Edipresse free paper: "We don't have to compete with the
how Le Matin Bleu takes into account other titles from the same publisher.
and have a free hand to conquer a new market."
Newspaper crisis worsens
Fear the announced conquest of the market by 20 minutes
Regional newspapers such as the Fribourg "Liberté". Roger de Diesbach
is worried. He has become an investigative journalist and
editor-in-chief of the Fribourg daily La Liberté made a name for himself as a
incorruptible observer of the media scene. He fears that the
The advertising crisis of daily newspapers is being exacerbated by free newspapers
tightened: "Free newspapers bring no more than the summary
of agency reports. It doesn't seem very responsible to me,
to launch such papers and accept the death of real newspapers.
to take."
De Diesbach gets annoyed when he hears the word free newspaper -
it would be more correct to speak of newspapers financed by advertising.
"I believe that a newspaper does not derive its legitimacy from the advertiser,
but from the reader." A newspaper receives the order from the reader,
to search for the truth and to write the truth: "In this
sense, the press is democracy's little sister." Theoretically
free newspapers could also do a good job, but that is not
their goal: "The goal is distraction. The content must not be important
otherwise it distracts from the advertising message."
For this reason, de Diesbach is joining the "Info en
danger", which was organized by a group of concerned journalists.
circulates. "Certain publishers are about to turn the press into a
to degrade it into a trivial product. This is how they prepare their own
downfall," says de Diesbach. For him, it is clear that this
development must be stopped. How? "A lot would already be gained,
if the Swiss Press Council not only intervenes when journalists
violate their professional ethical obligations, but also when publishers
by granting ever greater concessions to advertisers, the
violate the duty to inform."
Helen Brügger
