Tamedia creates two new cover editorial offices for the newspaper titles

Tamedia is reorganizing its newspaper editorial teams. The goal is to secure the economic and editorial independence of the twelve paid daily newspapers and the two Sunday newspapers in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland, according to a statement. Tamedia also wants to take advantage of growth opportunities in digital journalism.

No layoffs are associated with the introduction of the new organization. All employees will continue to have a job in one of the editorial offices as of January 1, 2018.

From January 1, 2018, two new editorial teams will provide Tamedia with domestic, foreign, business and sports reporting in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland. Competence centers are planned in Bern, Lausanne and Zurich. The research desk will be run jointly by the two editorial offices. The two Tamedia regional language editorial offices will be staffed with employees from all newspaper editorial offices and managed by two editors-in-chief.

In the future, the competence centers will supply the twelve paid daily newspapers and two Sunday newspapers with jacket reporting from the topic areas of domestic, foreign, business and sports. The start date is January 1, 2018. According to Tamedia, the reason for the reorganization is the sharp decline in advertising revenues. According to the release, no layoffs are associated with the introduction of the new organization.

Rutishauser Editor-in-Chief of the Tamedia Editorial Office in German-speaking Switzerland

In German-speaking Switzerland, Arthur Rutishauser will be in charge of the Tamedia editorial team. He will also remain Editor-in-Chief of the SonntagsZeitung. He will be succeeded at Tages-Anzeiger by Judith Wittwer, who will become Editor-in-Chief on January 1, 2018. Wittwer is already a member of the Tages-Anzeiger's editorial team.

Ariane Dayer becomes Editor-in-Chief in French-speaking Switzerland

In French-speaking Switzerland, Ariane Dayer will take over as editor-in-chief of Tamedia. Ariane Dayer has been Editor-in-Chief of Le Matin Dimanche since 2010 and will continue in this role. "The new Tamedia editorial team, which is based on three titles anchored in French-speaking Switzerland, offers a unique opportunity to provide in-depth and comprehensive coverage of current affairs with research and analytical expertise," she said in a statement.

New Editorial Services division headed by Simon Bärtschi

The areas of layout, text production, picture editing, photography and proofreading are heavily affected by the restructuring. In German-speaking Switzerland, all competencies will be combined in the new Editorial Services unit. It will be headed by Simon Bärtschi, previously a member of the editorial staff of Tages-Anzeiger and SonntagsZeitung. The organization of the layout, text production, image, photography, proofreading and other supporting processes in French-speaking Switzerland is still open.

Each newspaper with its own editorial office and chief editors

Despite the use of joint competence centers in the national sector, the daily newspapers will remain independent with different profiles, individual positioning and independent political orientation, according to the announcement. Together with the title editors, the editors-in-chief will decide on the front on all channels, have commentary sovereignty and create all local, regional and other title-specific content from the existing sites. In German-speaking Switzerland, the editorial team of Der Bund will continue to be headed by Patrick Feuz, Peter Jost will continue to lead the editorial team of BZ Berner Zeitung, and Benjamin Geiger will continue to lead the editorial teams of Der Landbote, Zürichsee-Zeitung and Zürcher Unterländer. In French-speaking Switzerland, the editorial office of Tribune de Genève will continue to be headed by Pierre Ruetschi.

Claude Ansermoz becomes new editor-in-chief of 24 heures

Claude Ansermoz is slated to become the new ie Editor-in-Chief of 24 heures, succeeding Thierry Meyer, who will leave the company as previously communicated.

Claude Ansermoz has been working for 24 heures since 2003. In his early days, he headed the Politics and Switzerland department, then he was stationed in France as a correspondent for coverage of the 2007 presidential election, and from 2008 he was responsible for 24 heures' Journal du Samedi. Since September 2011, he has been deputy editor-in-chief of 24 heures.

Exploiting digital growth opportunities

Tamedia intends to exploit digital growth opportunities with various measures. The number of digital subscriptions is to be increased through better usability, automatic personalization of news, new offers such as the 12 app or Le Matin du Soir, better visibility of the added value of paid offers, and targeted marketing and pricing initiatives. A growth strategy in the area of video has already been adopted. For example, Tamedia will roll out a company-wide app that allows videos to be created directly on smartphones and published immediately on the news platforms.

Tamedia also sees growth opportunities in hyperlocal and audio-compliant information. A pilot project in the area of hyperlocal information is to be launched in 2018. Starting as early as Sunday, September 10, SonntagsZeitung and Le Matin Dimanche will also make an audio article available every day for eight weeks and additionally distribute it via the podcast apps in iTunes, Spotify and Deezer. Other voice and podcast offerings are to follow. Tamedia also wants to further expand its expertise in the area of data journalism. In the last two years, investments have already been made in training and further education, software for the editorial processing of large amounts of data, and new data specialists.

20 Minutes obtains sports and delivers Newsexpress

The editorial teams of 20 Minuten, and in French-speaking Switzerland with Le Matin, will cooperate with the Tamedia editorial team on two points only: The sports department of the Tamedia editorial office will create content for all newspapers including the titles of 20 Minuten and Le Matin. 20 Minuten and 20 minutes & Le Matin are now home to the joint Newsexpress, which provides all news portals with breaking news, short agency reports, photo spreads and live tickers.

Tamedia's daily newspapers: more contacts with less advertising revenue

The Tamedia media group publishes twelve paid daily newspapers and two Sunday newspapers in German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland. Every day, almost two million people in Switzerland use the paid newspapers in print or digital form. While the number of readers of Tamedia's daily newspapers has increased digitally or in print, the newspapers have lost a quarter of their advertising revenues in the last four years. In the first half of the year, advertising revenues of all printed daily newspapers in Switzerland fell sharply again by 12 percent.

"With advertising revenues continuing to decline, only those dailies that are part of a larger network will continue to exist," says Christoph Tonini, Chairman of Tamedia's Management Board. "Pooling resources - as opposed to being dispersed across many small editorial teams - enables powerful teams with greater dossier expertise, more research capacity and the ability to develop new skills and offerings."

Unions see diversity threatened

The trade unions Impressum and Syndicom expressed concern on Wednesday about media diversity in Switzerland. For Impressum, it is questionable how diversity will actually be implemented in a de facto single editorial office, the trade association writes in a statement.

In order to maintain a diverse media landscape, it is not enough to distribute the same content across different titles, Syndicom also believes. The independence of the individual titles must be guaranteed - on all channels.

Fears of job cuts

Tamedia's announcement that there will be no layoffs is met with skepticism by both unions. They warn against creeping job cuts: This would mean further "bloodletting" for the "cut-together" editorial departments and even more pressure for the individual employees.

Following a staff briefing, the president of the Personnel Commission (Peko) of Tages-Anzeiger and SonntagsZeitung, Andrea Fischer, said: "We take note that there will be no layoffs." The question, she said, is how long that commitment will last. Officials were assuming voluntary departures. "We will therefore take very good care to ensure that this does not lead to an overload for those who remain."

Berner also concerned

The staff of the two Bernese dailies Der Bund and Berner Zeitung BZ also do not quite believe that Tamedia's publishing house will not announce any layoffs in Bern, even in the medium and long term, according to a spokesman for both staff committees. The staff believes that with the announced reorganization, the carpet will be rolled out for later personnel saving measures, said Jürg Steiner.

The employees now want to take Tamedia's management at its word when it says that the Bund and BZ will remain independent newspapers. Many people in Bern want the two newspapers to continue to exist - also in politics.

The unions also question the company's strategy. Journalism is dependent on completely new financing models, writes Impressum. Tamedia does not seem to have realized this yet, since the reorganization is justified by the loss of advertising revenues. (pd/SDA/hae)