Lucerne City Council fears weakening of Lucerne as a media center
According to the Lucerne City Council, the merger of AZ Medien and the NZZ Media Group weakens Lucerne’s position as a media hub in terms of editorial and journalistic standards. However, local politicians are not in a position to influence such developments.
On Tuesday, the City Council answered an interpellation from the CVP parliamentary group of the Grand City Council. The reason for the request was the announcement by AZ Medien and NZZ to produce their national offerings centrally in a pool solution. NZZ publishes the national newspapers via LZ Medien. Lucerne Newspaper. A pool solution could free up resources in the short term, writes the city council. However, there is a risk that the reduction of editorial competencies in Lucerne will have a negative impact on the attractiveness and quality of regional journalistic work. A possible reduction in jobs would be an extremely undesirable development.
According to the City Council, it was not informed in advance about the AZ/NZZ joint venture. It learned about it from the media, it writes. There is no regular contact with the NZZ Media Group and LZ Medien. The NZZ Media Group and AZ Medien announced last year that they wanted to merge their regional titles and create a company that would unite 20 paid newspapers in 13 cantons under one roof. The New Zurich Newspaper remains with NZZ. The Competition Commission (ComCo) announced last week that it was examining the planned merger in depth. (SDA)
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