Wanner warns Aargau municipalities about free News magazine

 Peter Wanner, the publisher of AZ Medien, has sent a letter to Aargau municipalities regarding the new Tamedia free newspaper News. In it, he asks the authorities to be cautious when approving boxes for News, as Roger Köppel writes in the latest issue of Weltwoche. AZ Media spokeswoman Eva Keller confirmed that the letter had been sent when asked by Werbewoche. It was sent to 200 municipalities. Wanner writes the following: "In itself, competition would be something positive because it stimulates business. However, Tamedia is not launching news in order to fulfill a journalistic mission, but solely to weaken and harm the competition. [...] In this context, we would be delighted if you would support us in our efforts to continue to provide a journalistic service publique in Aargau and its regions. We would be very grateful if you would be very cautious about approving boxes and stands on public land for the new free newspaper News. Or even reject it."
Köppel finds it astonishing how liberal principles of competition are immediately scuttled when one's own business is threatened. He describes the letter as an attempt to exert pressure. Eva Keller disagrees: "This is not an attempt to exert pressure, but to provide information. We want to raise awareness in the municipalities of how the media world will change if Tamedia goes on the offensive in Aargau and the 'service publique' could suffer as a result." According to Keller, there has been no feedback from the municipalities so far.
According to Köppel, Wanner also writes that the media offensive from Zurich is a "strangulation strategy" without "journalistic added value". Wanner had already described News to Werbewoche as an "attack on the Mittelland Zeitung, de facto a declaration of war on the entire AZ Medien Group" (see
).