Merger of free daily newspapers and of online classifieds

Medienmitteilung 

Lausanne and Zurich, 18 September 2009 - Following the decision of the competition commission to approve the merger of the Swiss activities of Edipresse (included in PPSR S.A.) with Tamedia, the two media companies will merge their free daily newspapers in French-speaking Switzerland, as well as their online classifieds.

Together, Edipresse and Tamedia intend to further develop their online activities. The company JobUp Sàrl as well as the holdings in the real estate platform homegate.ch and the dating platform swissfriends.ch will be brought together to form a common classifieds organisation starting as of 1 January 2010. Through the consolidation of the online job platforms alpha.ch, jobwinner.ch (Tamedia) and jobup.ch (Edipresse) a strong national job network will be formed. Moreover Jobup.ch will be gradually expanded to a national brand. Urs Hügli, to date CEO of Homegate, will assume overall management of the new classifieds organisation (in which Tamedia and PPSR will each hold a 50 percent share), whereas Christoph Tonini, Head of the Switzerland Media division of Tamedia, will be Chairman of the Board.

Edipresse and Tamedia will merge their free daily newspapers in French-speaking Switzerland in the next few weeks. The final edition of Le Matin Bleu in its current form will appear on Friday, 25 September 2009. Thereafter the reunited editorial teams will develop a new concept which will combine the best of 20 minutes and Le Matin Bleu. The first edition will be published during the month of November under the name 20 minutes. The continuation of the name 20 minutes secures the advertising combination with 20 Minuten in German-speaking Switzerland. Besides, the design of 20 Minuten in German- speaking Switzerland will be revised and complemented with graphic elements of Le Matin Bleu. At the beginning of 2010, 20 minutes will have, as Le Matin Bleu today, two regional editions (Geneva and Vaud-Regions). Print run will be around 210,000 copies and printing will be carried out in the Centre d'Impression Edipresse in Bussigny.

Chairman of the Board of 20 Minutes Romandie S.A., of which Tamedia and PPSR will each hold a 50 percent share, is Serge Reymond, CEO of Edipresse Switzerland. Managing Director will be Joseph Crisci, to date Managing Director of 20 minutes. Tristan Cerf, until now Editor-in-Chief of Le Matin Bleu, will become Editor-in-Chief of the new daily. Philippe Favre, until now Editor-in-Chief of 20 minutes, will take over the management of the online edition. Due to natural labour turnovers, it will be possible to reduce the number of layoffs to 10 employees (9.32 full-time equivalent). Accompanying measures are planned for affected employees.