Tamedia reorganises its publishing areas

Zurich, 17 September 2024 – Tamedia, under the leadership of Editorial Director Simon Bärtschi, is planning to realign its editorial divisions as part of its announced strategy for the digital future. The editors-in-chief of the four brands with which Tamedia aims to grow strategically in the digital world are Raphaela Birrer, currently editor-in-chief of the ‘Tages-Anzeiger’, Claude Ansermoz for ‘24 heures’, Wolf Röcken for the ‘BZ Berner Zeitung’ and Marcel Rohr for the ‘Basler Zeitung’. They also head the corresponding four editorial offices of Tamedia in Zurich, French-speaking Switzerland, Bern and Basel. These editorial offices provide ‘Digital First’ content for the shared, new content pool, which operates nationally and across the borders of French-speaking and German-speaking Switzerland. The editorial offices of Schweizer Familie, Finanz und Wirtschaft and Bilan remain unchanged.

The creation of an overarching Digital Desk and a Print Desk is new. The Digital Desk, with two organisational desk teams in German- and French-speaking Switzerland, will be responsible for the distribution of content across the board. Tamedia has secured Adrian Zurbriggen, currently deputy editor-in-chief of the ‘Tages-Anzeiger’ and an experienced journalist, to head the Digital Desk in German-speaking Switzerland. The position of head of the Digital Desk for French-speaking Switzerland is still to be filled. The overarching Print Desk for German- and French-speaking Switzerland will be managed by Viviane Joyce, currently head of Tamedia Editorial Services.

These initiatives will also result in further changes to the product portfolio: for example, the ‘Züritipp’ will be discontinued as a separate supplement at the end of 2024. In future, selected content will appear in the ‘Tages-Anzeiger’. The BZ-Split Langenthaler Tagblatt will be merged with the Emmental edition of the Berner Zeitung in the course of next year.

The editorial teams of the Zurich regional newspapers (Landbote, Zürichsee-Zeitung, Zürcher Unterländer) will be integrated into the Zurich editorial team and managed centrally by editor-in-chief Raphaela Birrer. The team of the SonntagsZeitung will also be integrated into the editorial office in Zurich. The editorial office of the Berner Oberländer titles (Thuner Tagblatt, Berner Oberländer) will be headed by BZ editor-in-chief Wolf Röcken.

In French-speaking Switzerland, the editorial teams of the ‘Tribune de Genève’, ‘24 heures’ and ‘Le Matin Dimanche’ will in future form a single editorial team. The ‘Tribune de Genève’ will continue to have its own digital presence and to appear as a newspaper as an important brand. The magazine ‘Femina’ will be integrated into the editorial team for French-speaking Switzerland and will continue to appear monthly as a supplement in ‘Le Matin Dimanche’ and, for the first time, in ‘24 heures’ and ‘Tribune de Genève’. 

‘With the new organisation, we are reducing the complexity in the editorial offices and changing the processes and structures in the newsrooms in order to position ourselves better and more agilely in the rapidly changing media world,’ says Simon Bärtschi, Editorial Director at Tamedia. “We will accompany the change with the utmost care”.

With the adjustments to the brand and product portfolio and the closer cooperation through the new organisation in the editorial offices, Tamedia is combining and strengthening its forces for the future in the digital arena. In the ongoing process, Tamedia is able to reduce the announced, planned personnel measures from 90 full-time positions through internal transfers to the Digital Hub or by not filling vacancies to around 55 full-time positions. Unfortunately, these personnel measures are expected to affect 30 full-time positions in German-speaking Switzerland and 25 full-time positions in French-speaking Switzerland. This is subject to the consultation procedure. Tamedia is aware of the severity of these measures. Social plans including the possibility of early retirement will be implemented. In addition to personal support and counseling, Tamedia will offer the affected employees financial support for further development and retraining programmes.