The financial crisis comes at the right time for many
Be careful when media companies justify their job cuts with the financial crisis. They often want to solve structural problems.
The bad news from the media industry keeps on coming: one company after another is making savings, cutting jobs, letting people take early retirement or sending them a pink slip. Edipresse, a media company in French-speaking Switzerland, kicked off the round of cutbacks in this country by announcing the elimination of 50 jobs in the summer - after having already eliminated 8.5 jobs in November 2007.
Shortly afterwards, a redundancy announcement came from Neuchâtel: the newspapers Express and Impartial, which belong to the French media group Hersant, are also facing a phase of redundancies - originally there was talk of 15 job cuts, but following a protest strike by staff, the extent is still under discussion.
At the end of October, it was rumored that Basler Zeitung Medien would be reducing its editorial staff by 15 percent, which was never officially confirmed. Just a few days later, PubliGroupe and NZZ AG announced that they too were making cuts. PubliGroupe intends to reduce its workforce - primarily in the area of advertising sales (Media Sales) - by 250 jobs worldwide, while NZZ announced an internal "review of all areas" without specifying the number of redundancies. They would be "in the low double-digit range", it said.
In November, Ringier, AZ Medien and Weltwoche followed suit with plans to cut jobs. Ringier will part with 22 employees, AZ Medien will cut 30 jobs and the extent of the cutbacks at Weltwoche is still open.
The fact that Tamedia is now examining two projects for the Bernese daily newspaper Der Bund - a cooperation with the Tages-Anzeiger and a merger with the Berner Zeitung - shows that this group is no exception. Tamedia is currently careful not to talk about redundancies. But no matter which project is ultimately realized, it will definitely involve job cuts.
The need to save and cut back is generally attributed to the effects of the financial crisis. Also by journalists. But is this really the case? A few things make you wonder. For example, it is astonishing that the downsizing plans should be necessary so soon after the peak year of 2007. For the Bund and Weltwoche, a few fewer advertisements might make a difference - they have been on a knife-edge economically for some time. The other publishers and Publi¬Groupe, on the other hand, made profits. Where are the cushions from the fat years now? It is also strange that the downsizing plans primarily affect the print sector.
All this tends to indicate that it is not primarily the financial crisis that is the reason for the reduction in print, but that the structural problems in the print industry are continuing, perhaps somewhat more acutely than before. By structural problems, we mean the increasing use of free newspapers, the Internet and Sunday titles instead of daily subscription newspapers, and the associated outflow of advertising money into these media.
The slipstream of the banking debacle
Here and there, but rarely enough, this has been communicated. Last week, for example, the cantonal employment office in Neuchâtel rejected Express and Impartial's application for short-time working on the grounds that this was only possible in the event of economic problems, whereas the two newspapers' financial problems were of a structural nature. An astonishing verdict against the spirit of the times. But a look at the advertising statistics shows: The office is probably right. The volume of advertising at Express and Impartial has so far remained at the same level as the previous year, and there are no signs of the financial crisis. It seems to be serving Hersant as a pretext.
Tamedia's communication on the two Bund projects was almost pleasantly honest. The Zurich-based company refrained from sailing in the slipstream of the banking debacle, instead writing in the press release about "declining readership figures and the shift of advertising expenditure to the Internet". And that the federal government has not been able to stand on its own two feet economically for years. Structural problems, in other words.
They are also likely to play a key role in the current downsizing elsewhere. Take AZ Medien, for example, where the decline in advertising in the flagship Aargauer Zeitung already began a year ago, parallel to the launch of the Sonntags. At Neue Zürcher Zeitung, too, it is difficult to believe that the financial crisis is having an impact at this stage - advertising volumes up to and including (black) October were at the previous year's level. CEO Albert P. Stäheli confirmed this indirectly when he said that the NZZ wanted to "anticipate market developments".
Markus Knöpfli
Shortly afterwards, a redundancy announcement came from Neuchâtel: the newspapers Express and Impartial, which belong to the French media group Hersant, are also facing a phase of redundancies - originally there was talk of 15 job cuts, but following a protest strike by staff, the extent is still under discussion.
At the end of October, it was rumored that Basler Zeitung Medien would be reducing its editorial staff by 15 percent, which was never officially confirmed. Just a few days later, PubliGroupe and NZZ AG announced that they too were making cuts. PubliGroupe intends to reduce its workforce - primarily in the area of advertising sales (Media Sales) - by 250 jobs worldwide, while NZZ announced an internal "review of all areas" without specifying the number of redundancies. They would be "in the low double-digit range", it said.
In November, Ringier, AZ Medien and Weltwoche followed suit with plans to cut jobs. Ringier will part with 22 employees, AZ Medien will cut 30 jobs and the extent of the cutbacks at Weltwoche is still open.
The fact that Tamedia is now examining two projects for the Bernese daily newspaper Der Bund - a cooperation with the Tages-Anzeiger and a merger with the Berner Zeitung - shows that this group is no exception. Tamedia is currently careful not to talk about redundancies. But no matter which project is ultimately realized, it will definitely involve job cuts.
The need to save and cut back is generally attributed to the effects of the financial crisis. Also by journalists. But is this really the case? A few things make you wonder. For example, it is astonishing that the downsizing plans should be necessary so soon after the peak year of 2007. For the Bund and Weltwoche, a few fewer advertisements might make a difference - they have been on a knife-edge economically for some time. The other publishers and Publi¬Groupe, on the other hand, made profits. Where are the cushions from the fat years now? It is also strange that the downsizing plans primarily affect the print sector.
All this tends to indicate that it is not primarily the financial crisis that is the reason for the reduction in print, but that the structural problems in the print industry are continuing, perhaps somewhat more acutely than before. By structural problems, we mean the increasing use of free newspapers, the Internet and Sunday titles instead of daily subscription newspapers, and the associated outflow of advertising money into these media.
The slipstream of the banking debacle
Here and there, but rarely enough, this has been communicated. Last week, for example, the cantonal employment office in Neuchâtel rejected Express and Impartial's application for short-time working on the grounds that this was only possible in the event of economic problems, whereas the two newspapers' financial problems were of a structural nature. An astonishing verdict against the spirit of the times. But a look at the advertising statistics shows: The office is probably right. The volume of advertising at Express and Impartial has so far remained at the same level as the previous year, and there are no signs of the financial crisis. It seems to be serving Hersant as a pretext.
Tamedia's communication on the two Bund projects was almost pleasantly honest. The Zurich-based company refrained from sailing in the slipstream of the banking debacle, instead writing in the press release about "declining readership figures and the shift of advertising expenditure to the Internet". And that the federal government has not been able to stand on its own two feet economically for years. Structural problems, in other words.
They are also likely to play a key role in the current downsizing elsewhere. Take AZ Medien, for example, where the decline in advertising in the flagship Aargauer Zeitung already began a year ago, parallel to the launch of the Sonntags. At Neue Zürcher Zeitung, too, it is difficult to believe that the financial crisis is having an impact at this stage - advertising volumes up to and including (black) October were at the previous year's level. CEO Albert P. Stäheli confirmed this indirectly when he said that the NZZ wanted to "anticipate market developments".
Markus Knöpfli
Drawing the structural future with a red pencil.
