Ongoing pressure on the traditional media business requires fundamental transformation. Tamedia prepares for the future.

Tamedia is reorganising itself: Focus on digital growth, print activities to be concentrated in Bern

The media world has undergone fundamental change in recent years. In order to deal with these major challenges,  a  thorough realignment has been developed at Tamedia since last autumn under the new leadership of Jessica Peppel-Schulz. The strategy’s core comprises three initiatives: 

• Tamedia is realigning its brand and product portfolio, with reduced complexity and a focus on digital channels. To help it achieve digital growth, Tamedia is relying on four major brands: “Tages-Anzeiger”, “BZ Berner Zeitung”, “Basler Zeitung” and “24 heures”. The print portfolio still exists, and all brands are continuing to operate as strong print products.
• Secondly, Tamedia will organise its advertising marketing in-house as Tamedia Advertising from the beginning of 2025. The aim is to generate growth in advertising revenue by integrating the necessary teams from Goldbach and ensuring closer proximity to brands. Goldbach supports these organisational changes and remains, with Goldbach Audience, a partner in the growing digital network business. Subscriptions and advertising marketing are the supporting pillars of Tamedia’s monetisation strategy.
• Overcapacity has accumulated in the printing plants in recent years, making it no longer possible for Tamedia to operate three plants profitably. Consequently, the media company is planning the gradual closure of printing centres as the most significant measure. The Centre d'Impression de Lausanne in Bussigny (VD) is expected to be closed at the end of March 2025, while the Zurich printing centre will be closed at the end of 2026. The printing centre in Bern will continue to operate. By expanding the site in the Swiss capital, Tamedia can offer long-term production security for its own titles and for external customers.  

The necessary measures are unfortunately associated with personnel measures in the printing and editorial departments. At the printing plants, these personnel measures include a reduction of around 200 full-time positions. The adjustments to the brand portfolio are expected to result in a reduction of approximately 90 jobs in the editorial departments. This is subject to the outcome of the consultation process. Social plans, including the possibility of early retirement, will be implemented. In addition to personal support and advice, Tamedia is offering the affected employees financial support for further development and retraining programmes. 

The new strategy aims to maintain the performance and quality of journalism. The development of the digital offering, with recruitment of new talent and investments in innovative technologies, is intended to accelerate the transformation of business processes and the value chain.

Tamedia thus has a clear ambition to lead Switzerland's largest privately financed editorial network into the digital world. In order to achieve this in a sustainable way, a healthy balance needs to be struck between income and expenditure over the medium term. The time frame for implementing the strategy and achieving the objectives set last November has been extended to 2027.

As Publisher Pietro Supino explains: “The media world has undergone fundamental changes over the past two decades. Following a period of continual adjustments, the time has come for a fundamental reorganisation. The Board of Directors has closely monitored the development of the strategy led by CEO Jessica Peppel-Schulz. It is aware of the difficulties associated with the measures required and is providing its support in order to achieve the objective of successfully positioning the company for a digital future.”

Tamedia will be issuing a separate, detailed media release on how the strategy is developing. 

Details about the segments

TX Markets
The TX Markets segment consists of the two investments in JobCloud (fully consolidated, TX Group holds 50% of the capital) and SMG Swiss Marketplace Group (at equity consolidation, TX Group holds 30.73%).
JobCloud’s revenues were down on the previous year. This is due to the slow economic development, which had a negative impact on the job market. In addition, revenues in the previous year reached a very high level. The margin achieved by JobCloud remains very attractive. JobCloud continues to invest in developing the business, including in innovative AI solutions.

SMG Swiss Marketplace Group continued to experience strong revenue growth, with all areas of the business making a contribution. The margin also increased again. The strongest growth was recorded in the areas of real estate and automotive. In spring 2024, SMG launched an initiative to strengthen its competitiveness: By the end of 2026, a mid-double-digit million euro amount is to be saved and reinvested in order to promote further growth and innovation. SMG has strengthened its offering in the property sector by acquiring a stake in Flatfox. 

Goldbach
After 24 years at the Goldbach Group, including 11 years as CEO, Michi Frank handed over operational responsibility for the company at the beginning of July 2024 to Christoph Marty, who until then had been CEO of Goldbach Neo. The year-on-year increase in revenue is due to the integration of Clear Channel Switzerland, the acquisition which was completed on 1 April 2023. In the TV segment, Goldbach was able to grow in French-speaking Switzerland particularly due to the new inventory of the French TF1 Group. At the beginning of 2025, the marketing of the advertising inventory of Tamedia and 20 Minuten, which belong to the Group, will be largely integrated into the corresponding companies. Goldbach supports this and intends to concentrate on the TV/radio/OOH and network areas.

20 Minuten
With a total of 2.182 million daily digital users and print readers (WEMF Total Audience 2024-1), 20 Minuten is the Swiss media brand with the widest reach in Switzerland. Its position in the digital user market improved in the first half of 2024 and its lead over its competitors was significantly extended. Success in the user market is based on credibility and innovation in journalism. The print newspaper refresh implemented in 2023 also proved successful. In order to strengthen direct customer contact in the advertising market and reduce complexity, 20 Minuten will operate its own marketing again starting in 2025. The successful partnership with Goldbach in network marketing will be continued. 

Tamedia
Digital growth, which is the focus of the new strategy, is crucial for the future of Tamedia: In mid-2024, Tamedia had a total of 635,000 paid subscriptions, 188,000 of which are purely digital. This corresponds to an increase of 9.7% in digital subscriptions compared to the same period in the previous year. The print business remains significant. It still fulfils a widespread customer need and the average revenue per sold print subscription clearly exceeds digital revenue. The proportion of income from digital products is also lower in the advertising sector. The aim is to increase capitalisation by developing in-house advertising marketing. 

Group & Ventures
The Group’s costs were further reduced. Following the successful conclusion of the cost programme which ran until the end of 2023, projects are being pursued across central services departments in order to increase digitalisation and efficiency levels.

The TX Ventures Fintage Fund I is invested in a total of 18 portfolio companies with a capital investment of CHF 49.2 million. Almost 50% of the target fund size (CHF 100 million) has been invested to date. Since its launch in August 2023, the NAV per share has risen from CHF 100 to CHF 111.91 as of the end of March 2024. New additions to the TX Ventures Fintage Fund I portfolio are Trustap from Ireland (escrow payment for marketplaces), Swiipr from the UK (payment solution for compensation payments) and Trever from Austria (whose software enables banks to trade digital assets). The investment in Helvengo was written off in full: The insurance start-up has sold its core business and is being liquidated. 

The first six months of the year were mixed for Doodle. Developments on the user market and the advertising market were challenging. Various product and marketing measures were taken to achieve sustainable growth. A change of CEO is taking place at Zattoo: Nick Brambring has announced his departure after more than 12 years as CEO of Zattoo. Roger Elsener, a renowned expert, has been appointed as his successor and will lead Zattoo into the next development phase. 

Detailed information on the normalised income statement can be found in the half-year report.

¹ As a percentage of revenue; ² Values as of 31.12.2023;  ³ Equity to total assets; ⁴ No indication is given for changes in comparative variables with different signs (n.a.). The change in relative values (e.g. margins) is given in percentage points (p)

Alternative Performance Indicators: TX Group uses the following alternative performance indicators: Operating income before depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), Operating income before effects of business combinations (EBIT b. PPA), Cash flow after investing activities in property, plant and equipment and intangible assets (FCF b. M&A), Normalised consolidated income statement (key figures of the normalised consolidated income statement are referred to as adjusted, for example EBIT adj.)