Structural support for Swiss publishers
The federal government is now addressing the structural crisis facing Swiss publishers with a publishing subsidy of 1.85 million francs for all language regions.
The funding concept for the measures will apply from January 2016 and applications can be submitted from February 2016, confirmed Anne Weibel, Head of Communications at the Federal Office of Culture (FOC), according to information from the SDA news agency. However, the FOC will not provide details until the end of January. Structural funding for publishing is part of the 2016 - 2020 cultural dispatch, which the National Council adopted at the beginning of June 2015 after the Council of States. Since then, working groups with representatives from publishing houses and the BAK have been fine-tuning the details. Similar to film funding via cinema admissions, the funding contributions for publishers are to be calculated based on the box office sales of individual books.
However, to prevent individual publishers with bestsellers, such as Diogenes with a work by Martin Suter, from emptying the funding pot to an above-average extent, the contributions per book are to be capped at CHF 80,000, with a minimum of CHF 7,500. 2.5 to 3.5 percent of a book's turnover is to be covered by the funding measure. This means that if a publisher generates a turnover of 1 million francs with a book, it will receive around 30,000 francs from the funding pot; however, if the turnover is 3 million francs, for example, the contribution will be capped at 80,000 francs.
It is obvious that contributions on this scale cannot save a Swiss publishing house. Nor do these measures compensate for the currency disadvantages. But: "This support is a recognition of our cultural achievements and is therefore important," comments Sabine Dörlemann from the publishing house of the same name. And Lucien Leitess from Unionsverlag says: "Publishing funding is just the long-overdue support for this area of the cultural industry, which has been neglected up to now." This topic has been on the agenda for decades and has long been realized in other countries, for example in Austria, with significantly larger budgets. However, neither Dörlemann nor Leitess can provide any information on what they expect in terms of funding for their publishing houses. Diogenes Verlag is generally tight-lipped on the subject, as the BAK "has not yet provided any official information". (SDA)
