Tamedia journalists protest in Lausanne against cost-cutting plans
More than a hundred journalists took to the streets in Lausanne on Friday. They were protesting against any cutbacks at Tamedia's publications in French-speaking Switzerland.
With signs such as "Fake News: the future of the press is dazzling," the demonstration marched through Lausanne's Bahnhofstrasse. The editorial offices of the Tamedia titles in French-speaking Switzerland stopped working for two hours. Tamedia had increased its profits in the first half of the year, while the newspapers continued to cut costs, they said.
Together with the professional associations Syndicom and Impressum, the editorial staff demanded a two-year moratorium on further layoffs. They also demanded that the newspaper Le Matin, one of the few national titles in French-speaking Switzerland, continue to be printed and not be transformed into a digital-only edition. "These decisions endanger media diversity in French-speaking Switzerland," the Tamedia editorial teams in French-speaking Switzerland stated. They conveyed their concerns to the chairman of Tamedia's management board, Christoph Tonini, in early December and invited him to immediate talks. The fact that he did not go to Lausanne did not go down well with the editorial teams in French-speaking Switzerland. The CEO had replied in writing, blaming declining advertising revenues. Since the beginning of 2016 alone, these had fallen by over 100 million francs.
No decision yet on Le Matin
Also on Friday, Tamedia's spokesman for Western Switzerland, Patrick Matthey, rejected the accusations. In view of the situation, Tamedia is trying to merge editorial units, he said. Every journalist has his or her place even in January, Matthey said. At Le Matin, there were fears last week in French-speaking Switzerland that the print edition would be discontinued. In response to several media reports, Editor-in-Chief Grégoire Nappey said that no decisions had yet been made. (SDA)
