Commuter newspaper News discontinued

Medienmitteilung 

Zurich, 4 December 2009 - The commuter newspaper News will be closed down as of today, Friday. Despite the continuous development of its concepts and its success among readers, News was not able to accomplish its objectives in Switzerland's saturated commuter newspaper market. The Tages-Anzeiger media network shall therefore concentrate on the further development of the Tages-Anzeiger main paper and of the successful tagesanzeiger.ch news portal as part of Newsnetz.
Since the withdrawal of Basler Zeitung and Berner Zeitung, the media corporation Tamedia has examined a number of strategies to rescue News. The main focus was on an even closer cooperation with Tages-Anzeiger and Newsnetz, which would have included an extensive advertising combination. Customer surveys have however revealed that the resulting impact on Tages-Anzeiger advertising rates would not be sustainable.
The Board of Directors and the Management Board of Tamedia have therefore decided to close down the commuter newspaper News. As a result, the editorial staff counting some 20 FTE will be given notice, this affecting some 27 employees. Within the bounds of possibility the employees will be reassigned to other media within Tamedia. For all those concerned the social plan negotiated by staff representatives and unions for Tages-Anzeiger and the printing facility will apply. The measures are subject to employee participation rights.

News was launched in December 2007 with four regional editions: News Basler Zeitung, News Ber¬ner Zeitung, News Mittelland and News Tages-Anzeiger. After the News Mittelland edition was closed down in December 2008, the partners Basler Zeitung and Berner Zeitung decided in August 2009 not to maintain the Basel and Berne editions. News Tages-Anzeiger has since appeared with a circulation of 100,000 copies in the canton of Zürich and at major stations within the commuter railway network in neighbouring cantons.