Last but not least: Ticket circus at Ringier

It's no secret that Ticketcorner is half-owned by Ringier. Nor is it a secret that the Blick editorial team cultivates this family relationship from time to time. For example, when the pre-sale of the Rolling Stones concert was exploited in March as if the band were celebrating a comeback in Switzerland after a thirty-year absence from the stage. A rogue who thinks evil. The Media Week did it in detail. Perhaps the concerns of certain journalists who saw their editorial independence at risk with economic ties to Lara Gut (Infront Ringier), Ottmar Hitzfeld (columnist) or Ticketcorner (shares) were not so unfounded after all? Let us recall an interview that Ringier CEO Marc Walder gave to the Bündner Tagblatt in November 2012. Christian Buxhofer asked the following question:

"If a concert organized by your company Good News goes badly and Ticketcorner - also a Ringier subsidiary - sells too few tickets, does the newspaper editorial team have to push the concert?"

And Marc Walder replied:

"Then Good News buys advertisements in Blick, that's a commercial process. We don't talk about it with the editors. And if Madonna gives a bad concert, Blick writes about it too. And in a big way. Ultimately, our involvement in new areas may even have the opposite effect."

(Bündner Tagblatt, 16.11.12)

That sounded plausible and transparent. Even if the report published on Monday Article about the sluggish advance sales of DJ Bobo's "Circus" tour gives the impression at first glance that Buxhofer's idea of the publicity-driven Ringier media has now become reality:

Once again, anyone who thinks of surreptitious advertising is a rogue. Especially as sentences such as "And this despite the fact that the tickets are rather cheap compared to other artists. The cheapest one costs 29.50 francs." do not necessarily give rise to the suspicion of unbiased reporting. Incidentally, the prices are compared with the Helene Fischer tour, which is also scheduled by chance - tickets are available from Ticketcorner. To round off the unobtrusive offer, there is a direct link to the Ticketcorner site at the end of the article - that would be fine if readers had to find their own way to the unpriced tickets.

Thomas Häusermann