Basel free paper Spatz Zeitung discontinued
Two years after the change in ownership, the Spatz Zeitung in Basel is ceasing publication. The staff, who share about five full-time positions, are being laid off, as the publisher Publitex announced on Tuesday.
The free paper will be discontinued with immediate effect. The issue planned for the end of June will no longer be published, according to the press release. Publitex owner Dominique Hiltbrunner does not completely rule out a relaunch in the future, but says there are no concrete plans at present.
Hiltbrunner, who also publishes Automobil Revue, took over Publitex from Robert Schmid in 2011. He gave the free newspaper, which has a monthly circulation of around 217,000 copies in the city and region of Basel, a new look. However, it had not succeeded in gaining the necessary share of the highly competitive advertising market in Basel.
Hiltbrunner the end.
Spatz Zeitung was first published in 1984. It had been highly profitable for a long time, said managing director Hans Gerber, who had already resigned in June at the end of August, in response to an inquiry from the SDA news agency. But with today's advertising revenues, the paper could no longer be financed. In addition to Spatz Zeitung, Publitex also published Blickpunkt until recently. According to Gerber, the business magazine for SMEs was recently sold to Gassmann in Biel, which also took over the editor-in-chief. (SDA)
