CH Media plans its own domestic agency - Keystone-SDA faces further savings shock
CH Media baut eine eigene Inlandagentur auf. Keystone-SDA könnte dadurch einen weiteren Grosskunden verlieren. CH Media sieht nicht nur wirtschaftliche, sondern auch publizistische Chancen bei den Plänen.
Pascal Hollenstein, Head of Journalism CH Media, is pushing ahead with the establishment of his own domestic agency. Although the corresponding contract with Keystone-SDA will not be shredded, it will not be renewed next year.
Like SRF first reported on Wednesday, CH Media is currently looking for journalists for a newsdesk via a job advertisement. This is to write reports in the style of a news agency for all editorial offices of the joint venture between AZ Medien and the NZZ Media Group.
One thing is clear: the planned domestic agency is intended to fish in the Keystone-SDA pond - and save a lot of money in the process. According to SRF, CH Media intends to save CHF 1.5 million per year by providing agency services itself. Although the joint venture receives services worth CHF 4 million a year from Keystone-SDA, the cut of millions is likely to hit the already economically struggling news agency hard. "If CH Media were to actually produce a large part of the text services itself and no longer purchase the services from Keystone-SDA, this would be a major loss," Keystone-SDA told SRF.
From quick news reports to commentary
The domestic agency will support the online desk and the 50-strong central editorial team in Aarau and ensure rapid reporting - primarily in the domestic and business sections. "The new news team will work closely with the local editorial teams, the Federal Parliament office and the correspondents to ensure that CH Media's newspapers and portals can report on all relevant news in Switzerland at all times using their own sources," says Pascal Hollenstein, Head of Journalism at CH Media, to Advertisingweek.ch. "This means we cover all speeds: From the quick news report to the classifying report to background and commentary."
It all kicks off on January 1, 2020
CH Media's contract with Keystone-SDA expires on December 31, 2019. CH Media wants to get started then, as Hollenstein told Werbewoche.ch: "We can start with the newsdesk on January 1, even if we haven't reached the target team size by then."
CH Media and Keystone-SDA are currently still in negotiations. The publishers, who are also under economic pressure due to dwindling subscription and advertising revenues, want to reduce the amounts they have to pay the news agency as much as possible. For years. This in turn is putting Keystone-SDA under increasing pressure. After several significant cost-cutting measures, the company announced in September that it would have to save a further 800,000 francs (Werbewoche.ch reported). Further jobs are being cut and the cost pressure on employees is increasing. The cost-cutting and downsizing measures are leading to increasing incomprehension among staff: further job cuts would not be compatible with quality standards and the savings potential has long been exhausted, according to the credo.
If CH Media and Keystone-SDA do not come to an agreement, the amount to be saved will increase significantly. For CH Media, it's either or. A coexistence of newsdesk and Keystone-SDA is out of the question. Or as Pascal Hollenstein, Head of Journalism at CH Media, put it to SRF: "We would not pay twice."
"Those who demand money for journalism must not deliver a standardized product"
Hollenstein sees both economic and journalistic opportunities in the planned domestic emancipation of Keystone-SDA. "If you want to sell something, you have to produce something that you can't get for free from others." In other words: Away from the journalistic uniformity that is a constant criticism of today's media landscape. "We want to provide diversity and also stand out in news reporting," Hollenstein tells Advertisingweek.ch. This not only makes sense in terms of media and democratic policy, it is also a market requirement. "Hardly any readers are prepared to pay for news that is identical on all channels and free of charge. If you charge money for journalism, you can't deliver a one-size-fits-all service."
Speaking of uniformity: Would it even be possible for CH Media to make the services of the planned agency available to third parties and thus become a direct competitor of Keystone-SDA? "Many things are conceivable. But we don't have any concrete plans in this regard," says Hollenstein when asked by Werbewoche.ch. Nothing must, everything can. At least from CH Media's point of view.
