Espace Media Will Continue Publication of the Daily Newspaper Der Bund and Plans Savings - Tages-Anzeiger Reorganises Editorial Staff

Press Release 

Berne and Zurich, 14 May 2009 - Espace Media is going to continue publication of the daily newspaper Der Bund in collaboration with Tages-Anzeiger. Given the sharp decline of advertising expenditures in the first three months, and with a view to the structural shift of advertising investments, Espace Media plans to strengthen sales and various cost-cutting measures. A total of 22 positions are being eliminated. The Boards of Directors of Tamedia and Espace Media have made this decision. At the same time, Tages-Anzeiger is reorganising its editorial staff. The Newsnetz, News and Tages-Anzeiger will also collaborate more closely in the future. These reforms will result in the reduction of 57 jobs. Overall, the editorial staff of the Tages-Anzeiger media network will comprise 235 full-time positions in the future.

Espace Media is going to continue publication of the Berne daily newspaper Der Bund. Starting in autumn 2009, the daily and tradition-rich newspaper will collaborate closely with Tages-Anzeiger. The objective of the collaboration between Der Bund and Tages-Anzeiger is to provide the demanding readership of both newspapers a combined main section with well developed reporting on national and international politics, culture, sports and economy. The Berne model with two editorially independent daily newspapers in one publishing company will thus be continued. 

Collaboration intended to strengthen Der Bund and Tages-Anzeiger
The collaboration between Der Bund and Tages-Anzeiger is to strengthen both publications. Der Bund will be responsible for the joint editorial staff in the Federal Parliament in Berne and will provide Tages-Anzeiger with further selected topics concerning economy, culture and special features. In return, Der Bund will receive articles on national topics from Tages-Anzeiger. Planned are four newspaper sections with a new layout. The first section will contain national and international news, and the second section topics on the economy and business together with a sports section newly created in collaboration with Tages-Anzeiger. The city and the canton of Berne are the focus of the third section. The previous weekend supplement «Der kleine Bund» will be published daily as the fourth newspaper section and, among other topics, will be dedicated to culture, society and science. Artur K. Vogel (56) will remain editor-in-chief of Der Bund; he has been in charge of the daily newspaper since 2007 and was significantly involved in the elaboration of the new concept.

Espace Media is taking a chance with the strategy of continuing publication of the Berne newspaper model, which has to pay off in the coming years. The collaboration with Tages-Anzeiger is designed to reduce losses incurred to date and achieve a balanced result in the mid-term. In addition, the subscription fee will also be increased in the near future in order to further improve the economic perspectives of Der Bund. At the same time, Espace Media will start negotiations concerning future support of Der Bund with those institutions and companies, whose representatives were involved in the «Rettet den Bund» committee for continuation of the daily newspaper.

In the future the editorial staff of Der Bund will comprise 35 full-time positions as opposed to the previous 54, with a total of 19 positions reduced. Some of these positions will be eliminated via regular and early retirements. The permanent and freelance employees affected by the lay-offs as well as other areas of Espace Media are to be supported with an appropriate social compensation plan. Negotiations will be started with the employees' committee of Der Bund, representatives of employees in other areas of Espace Media and the unions over the next few days and shall be concluded rapidly.

Differentiation between Berner Zeitung and Der Bund
To take full advantage of the chances of journalistic competition in Berne, the Berner Zeitung will be positioned more consistently as the leading regional newspaper. A new community of editorial staff will further improve readership contact. Increased regionalisation of the news platform bernerzeitung.ch within the Newsnetz is also planned. The collaboration with the Thuner Tagblatt and Berner Oberländer will be continued, and the Berner Zeitung will continue to be published with different regional editions.

Measures for increasing sales and cutting costs at Espace Media
Given the sharp decline of advertising expenditures in the first three months, Espace Media expects a clearly negative result for the current year. With the increase of the sales department by an addition of 7 full-time positions, more advantage is to be taken of the potential in the advertising market. The return to a category-related sales organisation should also further increase the market presence of Espace Media at the same time. The management structure will be made leaner, and a traditional publishing organisation will be introduced.

With a view to the structural shift of advertising investments, which will probably accelerate due to the difficult economic situation, the company is also planning various cost-cutting measures. The large print run of the Solothurner Tagblatt is to be discontinued. The share of trial offer subscriptions as well as free copies in the overall circulation of the Berner Zeitung will be reduced step by step. Other measures include adaptation of in-house departments to the declining number of section ads as well as the partial integration of the job ads of the Berner Zeitung and Der Bund into the main newspaper. The cost-cutting measures, as well as the restructuring of the Espace Media publishing company organisation, will result in the reduction of 3 full-time positions, 2 of them in editorial staff of the Berner Zeitung BZ.

Tages-Anzeiger with new organisation of its daily editors
Tages-Anzeiger is reorganising its editorial staff and is eliminating a total of 50 full-time positions, some of which through early retirements. Fee budgets will also be adapted to fit lower advertising revenues. The lay-offs, which will affect all departments, are part of a comprehensive new concept, which also foresees savings in print and distribution thanks to the introduction of a four-section newspaper. All regional newswill be combined in one newspaper section and the regionalisation of Tages-Anzeiger therefore consequently strengthened. The look of the largest subscriber daily newspaper in Switzerland is to undergo substantial improvements in layout and reader management. With these measures, Tages-Anzeiger is reacting to structural shifts of advertising expenditures as well as the sharp decline of advertising revenue over the past months. Thanks to the collaboration with Der Bund, which in turn receives articles on national topics from Tages-Anzeiger, the scope of the lay-offs can be slightly reduced. 

The new concept, with four newspaper sections, will result in the elimination of additional 7 full-time positions in newspaper printing, which will be mainly achieved through early retirements. The permanent and freelance employees of Tages-Anzeiger, and the print centre affected by the lay-offs, are to be supported with an appropriate social compensation plan. Talks with the Tages-Anzeiger employees' committee are already underway. Negotiations are to be continued with the inclusion of the print centre plant committee and unions over the next few days and shall be swiftly concluded.

Taking full advantage of the possibilities of a comprehensive media association
Together with the news platform tagesanzeiger.ch and the commuter newspaper News, Tages-Anzeiger wants to take more targeted advantage of the possibilities of a comprehensive media network in the future. As a result, the editorial staff of Newsnetz and the commuter newspaper News will move into a shared newsroom in August 2009, which will be linked directly with the editorial offices of Tages-Anzeiger. The to date independent editorial staff of Newsnetz and News will expand their collaboration step by step over the course of the second half-year 2009. Plans are for the inclusion of contents from the news network in the commuter newspaper News, as well as close cooperation of the two editorial staffs with Tages-Anzeiger in the area of the basic provision of news reports. The collaboration will result step by step in a slight reduction in editorial staff numbers by the end of 2009, which shall be achieved without lay-offs.

Joint editing of news reports will furthermore enable all three editorial staffs to concentrate on their core competencies. Overall, the editorial staffs of the media network Tages-Anzeiger with the daily newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, the Newsnetz and the commuter newspaper News will comprise 235 full-time positions in the future. With 177 full-time positions, Tages-Anzeiger will continue to have the largest regional newspaper editorial staff in Switzerland.

Decisions contingent on consultation rights
All decisions are contingent on the legal consultation rights of the affected employees of Espace Media and Tamedia.