Crisis year for NZZ Media Group - Black figures for LZ Medien and St. Galler Tagblatt

The NZZ Media Group posted a loss of CHF 3.1 million, compared to a profit of CHF 22.2 million in the previous year. The Group remained operationally just profitable: the operating result EBIT amounted to 3.7 million francs, compared to 27 million francs in the previous year. In its press release on Saturday, the NZZ Media Group cited the crisis in the advertising market and costs for restructuring and value adjustments as the reasons. The loss in advertising sales amounted to 46.7 million francs.
The Board of Directors will propose to the General Meeting that no dividend be paid for 2009. The Group expects the current year to be another difficult financial year with stagnating advertising income. Despite acquisitions, the number of employees fell by 5.2 percent last year to 1702 full-time positions. The electronic media affiliated with the Group increased their revenue by 11 percent or CHF 3.9 million. According to the press release, this was due to the new revenues generated by the Central Swiss television station Tele1.

LZ Medien Holding weathered the crisis year 2009 better. Thanks to strategic expansions, sales rose by 1.2 percent to 159.1 million francs. Profit increased by 6.1 million francs to 8.3 million francs. At the same time, however, operating profit EBIT fell by 35 percent to CHF 8.6 million. Investments in securities and the sale of an investment led to a financial result of CHF 2.5 million. In 2008, this had been clearly in the red. Newspaper advertising revenues fell by 14.7 percent, while Group-wide advertising revenues were down 4.6 percent. The dividend per share is to be increased to CHF 85.
St. Galler Tagblatt AG also suffered losses in sales and profits, but remained in the black. Compared to 2008, profit plummeted by 73 percent to CHF 2 million. The Tagblatt media sold almost a quarter fewer advertising pages. The flagship St. Galler Tagblatt also suffered as a result.
Former Swisscom CEO Jens Alder, entrepreneur Carolina Müller-Möhl and internet specialist Joachim Schoss are to be elected to the Board of Directors of the NZZ Group at the Annual General Meeting on April 17. Susanne Bernasconi-Aeppli and Oliver Burger will leave the Board of Directors.