Tamedia in the year 2007

Der Landbote and Thurgauer Zeitung announce on 8 January that they are jointly founding the North-East Switzerland newspaper network. From 2 April 2007, the two newspapers are published with a main section covering national and international news, business, culture and sport. The editorship for this section is based in Winterthur, with Colette Gradwohl (Editor-in-Chief Der Landbote) appointed as Editor-in-Chief. Regional news coverage is still handled by two separate editorial offices in Frauenfeld and Winterthur. The number of pages in the Thurgauer Zeitung thus increases by an average of seven pages per day. The visual appearance of the two all-round newspaper is also adapted on 1 April 2007. The Thurgauer Zeitung is now published like the Der Landbote as a four-section newspaper.

At the same time as launching the new main section, the two publishers combine the publishing and advertising business in Frauenfeld. Urs Bucher, until now Publishing Director at the Thurgauer Zeitung, takes charge of the combined publishing business. Felix Walder is in charge of publishing at Der Landbote. From 1 January 2008, national and regional advertising sales for Der Landbote and Thurgauer Zeitung are handled by Thurgauer Medien AG based in Frauenfeld. In the course of this collaboration in the advertising market, among other things the two titles launch a new job supplement and a new property exchange for North-East Switzerland on 1 April 2007.

Tamedia announces on 31 January that the 2007 wage bill for Tamedia and its fully consolidated subsidiaries is being raised by 1.6 per cent. This applies with the exception of the employees subject to the collective employment agreement of the graphic industry. Payment is made through individual wage increases from 1 April 2007 onwards. The increase in the wage bill, greater than the media industry average of 1.0 per cent, takes account of the positive market development and the good results achieved by Tamedia as well as the great dedication of the employees.

Christoph Zimmer, 30, becomes Head of Corporate Communications, having already headed this staff unit on an interim basis since September 2006. He assumes this function officially as of 1 March 2007. He has worked at Tamedia since summer 2006. After completing his studies of journalism and communication at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Winterthur, he was Editor at drs.online in Bern. Prior to that, Christoph Zimmer completed a long internship at the news magazine, Facts.

Tamedia is obliged to protect non-smokers from passive smoking. The buildings in the Werd area are to be therefore gradually smoke-free by the end of 2007. On 16 February, it is announced that the Werd Media building will be subject to a smoking ban from 2 May 2007 onwards. In coordination with the reconstruction project, the other buildings are also becoming smoke-free one by one. From 1 January 2008, all buildings in the Werd area are smoke-free, including the Werdino staff restaurant.

Ursula Fraefel, 50, of Toggenburg becomes the new Editor-in-Chief of the Thurgauer Zeitung. She takes up her new post on 1 July, as announced on 16 March. As a trained modern dancer and lic.phil. and following various posts in the fields of dance, media, tourism and consulting, Fraefel had worked since summer 1998 as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the St. Galler Tagblatt. Whilst there, she was significantly involved in the successful development of the readership. From 2004 to 2005, she completed an MBA course at the University of St. Gallen alongside work.

On 21 March, Tamedia announces that Res Strehle is to become Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Tages-Anzeiger and at the same time will step down as Editor-in-Chief of Das Magazin of which he had been in charge since 2001. However, he remains manager of the weekend supplement of Tages-Anzeiger, Basler Zeitung and Berner Zeitung. On 1 April 2007 Strehle succeeds Roland Schlumpf, who takes on the newly created role as Editorial Director of the editorial staff for the Swiss Parliament. As the successor to Res Strehle, Finn Canonica becomes Editor-in-Chief of Das Magazin. The 41-year-old Canonica has been writing since 1997 for Das Magazin, having been Deputy Editor-in-Chief since 2003. Finn Canonica has won several awards, including the Zurich Journalism Prize in 2007 and the men’s prize from women’s magazine Emma in 2006. Guido Mingels, 36, will be named new Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Das Magazin.

As of 1 March 2007, Tamedia acquires a 25-per-cent equity stake in the Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich from NZZ subsidiary Freie Presse Holding. Tamedia now holds 85 per cent of the shares. FPH continues to hold a stake of 15 per cent. This sees partners NZZ and Tamedia continue their collaboration with the Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich.

Tamedia announces its result for the year 2006 on 27 March: strong growth and an operating result (EBIT) up by 18 per cent to CHF 112 million are the key points of the annual result. For the first time, all the divisions are in the black at EBIT level. At CHF 98 million, the group performance is substantially higher than in the previous year (CHF 80 million). An application is made to the General Meeting for the payment of a dividend of CHF 3. The employees also benefit from the positive course of business in the form of profit sharing.

According to the figures published on 27 March by wemf most Tamedia titles have managed largely to maintain their readership figures. With an increase of 12.6 per cent over the previous year’s survey, 20 Minuten shows another significant rise and has managed to increase its readership to 1.17 million.

On 18 April, more than 300 former employees take part in the annual pensioners’ meeting; Hans Heinrich Coninx, Pietro Supino, Martin Kall and three other members of the corporate management are also present. Six coaches carry the participants to Buchs near Aarau, where Hans-Heinrich Coninx holds a speech taking his leave of those in attendance as Chairman of the Board. He emphasises his intention to continue attending these meetings, though in future as a pensioner.

On the occasions of various visits to the departments, Hans-Heinrich Coninx personally takes his leave of the employees as Chairman of the Board. For example, on 27 April at the Bubenberg printing facility, where he is accepted into the guild of black magicians with a genuine certificate, and in Werdino on the same day, where the editorial and publishing teams of the Tages-Anzeiger say goodbye with an aperitif and a piano concert by Patrick Rapold.

The 2007 General Meeting at the Kongresshaus Zurich on 3 May bids farewell and gives thanks to Hans Heinrich Coninx with a standing ovation for his many years of dedication to the company, most recently as Chairman of the Board. It also elects Pietro Supino as his successor. The 41-year-old Supino, a representative of the fifth generation of the founding family takes on the role of Publisher at Tamedia. With their choice, the majority shareholders confirm their long-term solidarity with the company. Pietro Supino has been a member of the Board of Tamedia since 1991 and in 2002 took over the post of Vice President. The General Meeting also elects Andreas Schulthess to the Board of Directors. The 36-year-old economist, who works as a Human Resources Manager at Swiss Life, is also a member of the founding family.

On 16 May, the 2007 staff party is held in the Maag Event Hall in Zurich with just under 1,400 employees, including staff brought on two buses from Thurgau and Lausanne. The celebrations go on long into the night in various halls, all characterised by different culinary and cultural delights.

On 24 May, Tamedia announces its intention to merge with the Espace Media Groupe in Bern. The Bern based media house is an ideal match for Tamedia with its portfolio of newspapers, magazines, gazettes, the two broadcasters TeleBärn and Capital FM, as well as its print and publishing logistics activities. There has already been a partnership-based collaboration between the two media houses for many years, for example with the SonntagsZeitung, in which the Espace Media Groupe holds a stake, or the Berner Zeitung, in which Tamedia has an interest. The two printing plants of Bubenberg in Zurich and Ostermundigen in Bern, were jointly planned and equipped with printing machines evaluated by the two partners together.

Tamedia announces on 30 May that Echo-Verlags AG is to take over the weekly newspaper Die Vorstadt for Zurich North from Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich AG as of 15 August 2007. The takeover of Vorstadt by the locally based Echo-Verlags AG means that the future of the gazette for Zurich’s districts 11 and 12 can be safeguarded, thus maintaining the diversity of the media in Zurich North.

The free gazette, Uster Nachrichten, is published for the last time on Thursday, 31 May. Founded in 1980 and owned by Tamedia since 2005, the gazette was most recently published with a print run of 64,000 copies in the boroughs of the three Zurich Oberland districts of Uster, Hinwil and Pfäffikon. The reason for the discontinuation is the unsatisfactory profit situation of the free gazette, which in 2006 was forced to post another fall in advertising revenues having lost a further market share to new competitors.

Christian Haberbeck, 36, is appointed as the new Managing Director of Huber & Co. AG in Frauenfeld as of mid-June 2007. As successor to the previous manager, Urs Lüdi, Haberbeck will be in charge of the operational management of the Huber Group. Until March 2007, the 36-year-old Christian Haberbeck was Managing Director of Druckhaus Haberbeck in Lage (Germany).

Following intensive discussion by the Board of Directors and the company management regarding the economic situation and the prospects for the weekly magazine, Tamedia announces on 20 June that Facts is to be discontinued. In the 12 years during which Facts was published, a profit was achieved only once. Despite great investment in the editorial department and various redesigns, it is inevitable that the move to discontinue Facts must be made.

With the intended merger of Tamedia and Espace Media Groupe in Bern in mind, the Extraordinary General Meeting of 27 June votes for an increase in share capital and elects Charles von Graffenried to the Board of Directors. The 600,000 shares resulting from the increase in share capital are taken over by the families that own Espace Media Groupe.

Peter Schuppli becomes the new Editor-in-Chief of Finanz und Wirtschaft at the beginning of July. The 57-year-old Schuppli, who has already been in charge of editorial on an interim basis since October 2006, has worked for Finanz und Wirtschaft for more than 30 years and until now was in charge of the Switzerland section. The economist, who has outstanding connections in the editorial department and good knowledge of the financial sector, has made a significant contribution to the continuous further development of the high-quality investors’ newspaper.

Philippe Uhlmann, 44, succeeds Marcel Sennhauser as Managing Director of the classified advertising portal, piazza.ch, on 1 July 2007. Uhlmann has the experience in online marketing required for the planned further expansion of piazza.ch. Since 2003, he has been an Account Director at the agency Planetactive Zürich specialising in digital marketing.

Diego Quintarelli, 41, takes over as Publishing Director at the SonntagsZeitung as of 1 August. Since 2004 Quintarelli has been in charge of the advertising market at the SonntagsZeitung. He previously worked for five years in various posts at the Aargauer Zeitung, first as Advertising Sales Manager and from January 2002 also as Deputy to the Publishing Director.

As early as 23 August the Competition Commission of the Confederation announces its approval without reservation or condition concerning the merger of Tamedia and Espace Media Groupe. This means that the merger can legally be executed in the course of 2007 and all further steps in the integration process are to be initiated.

On 30 August, Tamedia reports its financial figures for the first half of 2007. With an increase in operating income of 5.5 per cent to CHF 373.0 million, Tamedia recorded a substantial rise in turnover in the first half of 2007, for the third time in succession. The rise is broadly based and encompasses all divisions. The operating result after depreciations (EBIT) rose in comparison to the first half of 2006 by 2.5 per cent to CHF 64.4 million. The EBIT margin remains high at 17.3 per cent.

Daniel Schnüriger becomes Publishing Director of Annabelle as of 1 September 2007. The 41-year-old has worked for Tamedia in various roles since 1995 and was most recently in charge of central advertising sales for the Annabelle, Facts and Schweizer Familie magazines.

On 13 September, Tamedia announces that it is to acquire 20 per cent of the share capital of tilllate Schweiz AG in an initial step. An increase of the holding to 49 per cent is planned for the beginning of 2010. The cooperation with the innovative and rapidly growing portal, tilllate.ch, is in particular, intended to boost the existing cooperation between 20 Minuten and tilllate.ch in the print and online fields.

At a media conference on 14 September, the Basler Zeitung, Berner Zeitung and Tages-Anzeiger present details of the planned commuter newspaper, News, set for launch before the year is out. The layout features a calm, classic design and the discreet use of pictures. From spring 2008 onwards, a leading national online news network with a central editorial department, in which the Der Landbote of Winterthur and the Thurgauer Zeitung will acquire a stake, should complement the collaboration.

Tamedia announces that Druckerei Flawil AGis to take overthe job sheet-fed printing division of Huber PrintPack AG in Frauenfeld as of 1 November. At the same time as the job sheet-fed printing, the magazine publisher of Huber & Co. is also to be transferred to Druckerei Flawil AG. On 1 November 2007, K+D AG of St. Gallen takes charge of the package printing division of Huber PrintPack AG. At the same time, Tamedia announces that the Welcomedia publishing company will take charge of trade magazine TIR transNews from Huber & Co. AG at the beginning of October 2007.

The commuter newspaper L’essentiel in Luxembourg, in which the publishers Editpress in Luxembourg and Tamedia both hold a 50 per cent stake, is to be published for the first time on 10 October. The new newspaper is targeted at a young, urban and well-funded readership and is distributed via newspaper boxes. A website is being launched at the same time as the printed newspaper. The traditional Luxembourg publishing house, Editpress, brings its knowledge of the Luxembourg media landscape to the project and guarantees acceptance in the Grand Duchy. In return, Tamedia contributes its experience from the successful expansion of 20 Minuten and 20 minutes in Switzerland. The collective newspaper project sees the two publishers develop their partnership, which for many years involved the exchange of articles between weekly magazines.

Just in time for the two-year anniversary, the classified advertising platform piazza.ch is to be relaunched on 11 October with a new navigation concept, design and colour scheme. The 35 categories previously used have been refined into 50 and combined into six overall topic areas.

The forthcoming parliamentary elections at federal level are also an important topic in various Tamedia titles. At the Political Podium of the Tages-Anzeiger in the Werdino on 17 October, the chairmen of the five largest parties compete with each other once again a few days before the elections. Even teams from ZDF and Schweizer Fernsehen follow the debate.

With the edition for Wednesday, 31 October, the Thurgauer Zeitung expands its reporting on Thurgau. The reports from the canton and its regions, until now grouped in a section, now encompass two sections. The Thurgau section contains cantonal reporting and is structured into the conventional sections of Politics, Business, Culture, and Sport. The Region section remains devoted to the regions of Frauenfeld, Untersee/Rhein, Kreuzlingen, Weinfelden, Bischofszell, Oberthurgau and Hinterthurgau.

Markus Mehr becomes new Publishing Director of Schweizer Familie as of 1 November. The 41-year-old entered the media industry in 1999 at the Südostschweiz newspaper and was responsible for all newspaper products at Südostschweiz Presse AG in Chur as Publishing Director for Graubünden. The trained marketing planner and federally certified publishing manager previously worked in marketing at Credit Suisse among other positions.

The new corporate structure now divided into five divisions and the new corporate management of Tamedia are presented on 2 November. Unlike the previous corporate structure, which was based on media categories and for example split newspapers and magazines into divisions of their own, the new corporate structure will focus on the geographical distribution of the titles. The two divisions of Medien Espace Bern and Medien Zürich & Nordostschweiz group the titles that are based in these two metropolitan areas. The titles published nationally are grouped in the Medien Schweiz division. At the same time, all print and publishing logistics activities throughout Switzerland are combined into a dedicated Services division. The fifth division encompasses finances.

On the national daughter’s day on 8 November, around 20 girls – and boys – visit their mother or father’s workplace at Tamedia in the Werd area in Zurich and are shown through the company on a tour. This day is a welcome opportunity to give the younger generation an insight into the work process of a major media house.

The Swiss Textile Federation and Annabelle present the Stella Fashion Night in the Toni Eventhall on 9 November. The renowned Annabelle Award is presented by Lisa Feldmann and star designer Tommy Hilfiger to emerging talent Caroline Casanovas.

The Schazo delivery company of Schaffhausen and Zuvo, a common subsidiary of NZZ and Tamedia, announce on 14 November that they are to pool their early-morning deliveries in around 50 boroughs in the cantons of Schaffhausen, Thurgau and Zurich. For this purpose, Zuvo is to acquire 50 per cent of the shares in Schazo AG from Meier & Cie. AG. In return, the Schazo company will deliver the Tages-Anzeiger and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in the Schaffhausen region from 1 January 2008, also expanding its offering at the weekend by delivering NZZ am Sonntag, SonntagsBlick and the SonntagsZeitung.

Around 200 adults and 150 children celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Rasselchischte nursery school, supported by Tamedia, on 17 November. As well as plenty of games, there was even a balloon woman to conjur up balloon figures for the children, plus a buffet with sausages, bread and salads and a huge cake buffet with home-made treats.

Tamedia announces on 6 December that Marcel Tappeiner, until then Director of the Projects Staff Unit at Tamedia, is to take over as Publishing Director of the Tages-Anzeiger and assume overall responsibility for the Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich on 1 January 2008. In this role, the 39-year-old is in charge of the Zurich advertising sales, Zurich readership market and Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich divisions. Marcel Tappeiner has worked for Tamedia since September 2000 and has been in charge of the Corporate Projects staff unit since 2005. He was previously Publishing Director of Spick magazine and in 2004 in addition interim Director of Magazine Advertising Sales.

With regard to the broadcasting licence for the Zurich-North-East Switzerland area, TeleZüri agrees a long-term collaboration with Schaffhauser Fernsehen on 7 December. If the broadcasting licence is awarded to TeleZüri, Schaffhauser Fernsehen, which is part of the Meier & Cie. AG media house, is set to produce a daily information window for Schaffhausen in its own broadcast studios.

Tamedia announces on 18 December that Andrea Hämmerli-Ott is to take over as Commercial Director of Radio 24 and TeleZüri on 1 February 2008, whilst Philip Hofmann will become Sales Director of Radio 24 and TeleZüri as of 1 February 2008. From 1992 until the birth of her daughter in 2004, Andrea Haemmerli-Ott worked in various posts for Eurosales and Eurosport. From 2004 to 2007 she supervised various marketing projects. Hofmann worked from 2003 to 2007 at IP Multimedia in Küsnacht, most recently as Head of Account Management TV. The 31-year-old previously worked as a Key Account Manager for Goldbach Media as well as television broadcaster TV3 among other posts. Philip Hofmann already knows Tamedia from his commercial apprenticeship, which he completed from 1994 to 1997 at Tamedia, as it was known at the time.

Tamedia announces on 21 December that Orell Füssli Verlag AG is to acquire Frauenfeld-based Buchverlag Huber as of 1 January 2008 from Huber & Co. AG. Founded in 1809 and steeped in tradition, publisher Huber will be continued as an independent part of the range within Orell Füssli Verlag at the Frauenfeld site. All the employees are to be taken on.