Bernese Tamedia journalists distribute "monopoly newspaper" to commuters
Around 20 employees of Berner Zeitung and Der Bund distributed 7000 copies of a "monopoly newspaper" to commuters at Bern's main railway station on Thursday morning. With this special newspaper, the Bernese media professionals are protesting against Tamedia's concentration plans.
With the special newspaper, the journalists want to uncover "what Tamedia is hiding from the public", as the creators write in the front article. With the 2020 reform project, the publisher wants to compensate for at least CHF 61 million in lost revenue from the declining advertising business.
If these losses were fully offset by job cuts, 400 to 500 jobs would be lost across the Group. However, Tamedia does not want to make anyone redundant and is relying on voluntary redundancies and retirements. "This calculation does not work". The necessary job cuts in the medium term will "probably significantly exceed the natural fluctuations."
The publisher is also concealing the fact that Bern is feeling the impact of this upheaval particularly keenly. The Berner Zeitung is being gutted and will only have 70 of its current 150 editorial staff. The Bund, which had already downsized in 2009, would be forced to "give up further parts of its character."
Protest against Tamedia newspaper restructuring: employees of @derbund- and @BernerZeitung inform commuters https://t.co/7msjfo9GHR pic.twitter.com/8s8o5Bjerk
- Nick Lüthi ✎ (@nick_luethi) September 7, 2017
Prominent support
In the "Monopol-Zeitung", the journalists receive prominent support from the worlds of culture, sport and politics. In addition to SCB CEO Marc Lüthi, who is "not just interested in as much SCB as possible", but in "as much opinion as possible", the writer Pedro Lenz argues for journalism that is close to the action, which must take place "where the people we are talking about are". This cannot be done from afar.
For Green Party President Regula Rytz, politics must "protect the democratic public sphere" if there is a "market failure" due to downsizing and concentration. Active media promotion along the lines of several European countries is therefore needed.
In an interview with the "Monopol-Zeitung", Thun mayor and Bernese SVP councillor Raphael Lanz is also concerned about "what will happen in a few years' time". If, in future, decisions on how and whether an issue is dealt with are primarily made in Zurich, "the feeling for other regions, especially rural regions, is in danger of being lost".
Two national editorial offices from 2018
The media group Tamedia announced on August 23 that it was reorganizing its newspaper editorial team. From 2018, two supra-regional editorial offices in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland will provide the cover for twelve newspaper titles. Competence centers are planned in Bern, Lausanne and Zurich.
According to Tamedia, no layoffs are planned until the launch on January 1, 2018. The reason for the concentration is the sharp decline in advertising revenue. (SDA/hae)
