Südostschweiz Medien: Cost savings of two million planned by 2010

The publisher of the daily newspaper *Die Südostschweiz* aims to cut costs by two million francs by the end of 2010. One of the measures is to increase the weekly workweek from 40 to 42 hours starting next year. According to publisher Hanspeter Lebrument, conditions have deteriorated, and sources of revenue—such as advertising—have dried up. He shared this information on Friday with the Regionaljournal Graubünden, a program on Swiss Radio DRS.
The cost-cutting measures will affect the 50 to 60 percent of the approximately 1,000 employees who track their working hours. In addition, certain positions will not be filled after employees leave. Other measures include, among other things, requiring employees to pay half of the premium for daily sickness benefit insurance, which was previously paid in full by the company.
However, the company has decided against implementing short-time work, as the media company wants to manage without government assistance, Lebrument added. According to SDA, Südostschweiz Medien generated 133 million francs in revenue last year and posted a profit of 4.1 million francs.