FPH Freie Presse Holding takes over Thurgauer Zeitung and sells its stakes in Zürcher Landzeitungen group to Tamedia - the Gut family of publishers sells majority stake in Zürichsee Zeitung to Tamedia

Media Release 

Thurgauer Zeitung is being transferred from Tame¬dia to FPH Freie Presse Holding AG, a subsidiary of NZZ-Mediengruppe. Thurgauer Zeitung will extend St. Galler Tagblatt's newspaper group. For the canton of Thurgau, this cooperation will result in a strong voice on an economically sustainable basis. At the same time, Tamedia takes over the stakes in the Zurich regional papers Zürcher Unterländer, Zürichsee Zeitung und Zürcher Oberländer from FPH Freie Presse Holding. The Gut Family of publishers is selling its majority stake in Zürichsee Zeitung to Tamedia. Tamedia wants to continue Zürcher Landzeitungen as independent regional newspapers.

St. Gallen, Stäfa and Zurich, 15 April 2010 - The media houses NZZ-Mediengruppe and Tamedia have agreed to swap their regional newspaper stakes in the cantons of Thurgau and Zurich. The Gut family of publishers is selling its majority stake in Zürichsee Zeitung to Tame¬dia. These steps should help create favourable economic perspectives for the daily newspapers involved.

Thurgauer Zeitung extends Tagblatt newspaper group
Tamedia relinquishes its 100 percent stake in Huber &Co. AG, publishers of Thurgauer Zeitung, to FPH Freie Presse Holding AG, a subsidiary of the NZZ-Mediengruppe. Thur¬gauer Zeitung will be incorporated into Tagblatt Medien at the beginning of 2011. This way Thurgauer Zei¬tung will extend eastern Switzerland's leading group of newspapers with the following titles: St. Galler Tagblatt, Tagblatt für den Kanton Thur¬gau, Ap¬pen¬zel¬ler Zei¬tung, Toggen¬bur¬ger Tagblatt, Wiler Zeitung and Der Rheintaler. The combination of Thur¬gauer Zeitung and the Thurgau issue of Tagblatt will thus create a journalistically strong and economically viable voice for the entire Thurgau region. Printing and pro¬duction operations of Thurgauer Zeitung will be transferred to the newspaper printing facility of Tagblatt Medien in St. Gallen.

The Nordostschweiz newspaper network, established in 2006, which in addition to Thur¬gauer Zeitung includes the Winter¬thur based Landbote and Schaffhauser Nachrichten, will be continued until the end of 2010. Subsequently, the publishing and sales functions for Thurgauer Zeitung and Landbote combined under the umbrella of Huber &Co. AG will be transferred back to the respective newspaper. In the coming weeks Tame¬dia will begin discussions with Ziegler Druck and Verlags AG, publisher of Winterthur based Landbote, on their future cooperation. From the perspective of Tame¬dia, focus will be on a partnership between the Landbote newspaper and Zürcher Landzei¬tungen.

Gut family of publishers and FPH to sell Landzeitungen to Tamedia
The Gut family of publishers as majority shareholders of Zürichsee Zeitung and NZZ subsidiary FPH Freie Presse Holding AG relinquish their stakes in Zürcher Landzeitungen to Tamedia. Tamedia takes over 60 percent of Zürichsee Presse AG, publisher of Zürichsee Zeitungen, from the Gut family respectively their holding company, Zürichsee Medien AG. The Gut family of publishers thus ensures its succession planning within Zürichsee Medien AG and the future of Zürichsee Zeitung. Theodor Gut remains publisher of Zürichsee Zeitung. The remaining 40 percent of shares will be taken over by Tamedia from the NZZ subsidiary FPH Freie Presse Holding AG.

FPH Freie Presse Holding AG also relinquishes its 100% stake in Zürcher Unterland Medien AG and its 38 percent stake in Zürcher Oberland Medien AG to Tamedia. As a result of its stakes in the three media houses, Tamedia now holds an indirect stake in the DZO Druck newspaper printing facility in Oetwil am See. Along with regional newspapers Zürcher Unterländer and Zürichsee Zeitung several gazettes will also be transferred to Tamedia.

Opportunity to strengthen Zurich's newspaper market
Tamedia wants to continue Zürcher Landzeitungen as independent regional newspapers. However, this requires significant improvements in earnings through cost savings and revenue increases. Bundling the Zürcher Unterländer, Zürich¬see Zeitung and Tages-Anzeiger newspapers under one corporate roof provides a good opportunity to achieve this. Over the coming weeks, talks with our partners Publicitas, Ziegler Druck and Verlags AG and Zürcher Oberländer will be held to discuss perspectives for purchasing, printing, logistics, editorial staff, publishing, marketing and preliminary services.