Tamedia in the year 2002

In January Tamedia announces details of the changes at the head of the group management: Martin Kall, appointed as the new CEO by the board of directors in October 2001, starts work on 16 April. He takes over the post from Michel M. Favre formally on 8 May. The previous head of the group remains available to his successor and the board of directors in an advisory capacity during a transitional period.

The staff in the area of motoring journalism is combined: Autopool is intended to strengthen and improve reporting on cars and on Formula 1. The newly created competence centre is placed under René Bortolani, the media-forum manager. Operational management of Autopool is the responsibility of the two former Tages-Anzeiger sports editors, Peter Haab and Robert Höpoltseder. They take up their new work on 1 April.

In March the operating revenues figures for the previous year are announced. In 2001 Tamedia was compelled to accept a fall in operating revenue of 8 per cent to 756 million Swiss francs. In the company’s most important business division communicated, the print media, turnover fell by 9 per cent compared with the previous year, to 647 million Swiss francs. The unsatisfactory trend is primarily attributable to the significant decline in advertising revenue.

In mid-March Markus Gilli is appointed as the new editor in chief of TeleZüri. Gilli was part of the inner management team around Roger Schawinski and for several years was programme manager and editor in chief of Radio 24 and Tele 24.

The certified circulation figures for the end of March provided by the advertising media research company (wemf AG für Werbemedienforschung) do not make pleasant reading for Tamedia: the Tages-Anzeiger shows a fall of 6.8% to 250,0000 copies. Du (-16.6%), Spick (-15%), Finanz und Wirtschaft (-5%) and the free newspaper Zürich Express (-3.9%) also show falling circulations. SonntagsZeitung, Schweizer Familie and Annabelle were able to maintain their circulation; for Facts it rose by 2.1% to 103,363 copies.

On 23 April Tamedia briefs the media and analysts on the 2001 business year. The annual accounts close with a loss of 11.8 million, sales fell by 7.6% to 756.1 million. The operating result is adversely affected by one-off allocations to reserves and write-offs (in particular in connection with the closedown of TV3). The board of directors proposes to the general meeting a dividend distribution of 1.50 Swiss francs per share.

Acting jointly with the Berne Espace Media Groupe, Tamedia places an order with the engineering firm Koenig & Bauer (KBA) in Würzburg in early May for the replacement of the existing rotary printing plant. In December 2001 the board of directors approved a loan of 156 million Swiss francs for the renewal of the rotary printing presses in the Bubenberg printing facility.

In mid-May Tamedia sells Swisscom the 8 per cent holding in Bluewin acquired in April 2000. In return Bluewin assigns its 15 per cent share in Winner Market AG to Tamedia. There are strategic reasons for the winding-up of the cross-holding. Swisscom wishes to develop collaboration between Swisscom Fixnet and Bluewin. Tamedia intends to link its online activities more closely to the print business.

On 28 May Tamedia strengthens its position in the electronic media area and acquires 100 per cent of the shares of Radio Basilisk at a price of 23.75 million Swiss francs. The previous managers, Christian Heeb and Hans-Ruedi Ledermann, remain managing directors of the broadcaster.

Regular subscribers to Meyers, which ceased publication in June for economic reasons, are taken over by Tamedia. Instead of Meyers the readers receive the Schweizer Familie until their regular subscription expires. As a result the circulation of the Schweizer Familie increases to over 170,000 copies.

274 shareholders attend the ordinary general meeting of Tamedia held on 20 June in the Kongresshaus, representing 84.68 per cent of the share capital.

At the end of June, Patrick Eberle, financial manager and member of the group management of Tamedia since 1994, announces his resignation with effect from the end of March 2003. Eberle introduced a modern system of financial and value management at Tamedia, saw through the stock-market flotation and brought the accounting system into line with the IAS standard.

In early July Martin Kall re-organises the company. It is split into five divisions: newspapers, magazines, electronic media, financial services and subsidiary companies. In this connection various changes in the company management staff also take place: Alexander Theobald, previously newspaper publishing manager, takes over management of the magazines division. Andreas Meili, previously legal services manager, now heads the electronic media division. Philipp Löpfe, editor in chief of the Tages-Anzeiger, leaves the company management. René Gehrig, previously responsible for the magazine business, leaves Tamedia.

On 18 July Marco Meier, editor in chief of Du, announces his move to Swiss Television SF1. With effect from 1 January 2003 he takes over as manager of the Sternstunde editorial staff. Meier helped to create and shape the cultural magazine Du over a period of more than 12 years, since 1998 as editor-in-chief.

The re-organisation announced by the company management in July also affects Tamedia’s advertising departments. The sales departments of Annabelle, Schweizer Familie, Facts and Du are integrated into the respective publishing houses. The advertising managers and their teams are from now on placed under the corresponding publishing managements. In the newspaper advertising market the previous organisation remains unchanged. The reorganisation of the magazine advertising market sales departments leads to the loss of some jobs.

In August the newly created Journalistic Conference holds its first meeting. The conference is an internal body and is under the control of the publisher and the chairman of the company management. It is made up of editors in chief and programme managers, the manager of Tamedia Online, Tamedia Media Forum and Corporate Communication. The objective is to stimulate journalistic discussion within the company.

Christian Stärkle, CEO of Belcom, leaves the company on 19 August. Belcom will in future be managed by Andreas Meili, Manager of Electronic Media.

On 22 August Tamedia publishes the half year results 2002. Operating revenues fell by 15.8 per cent to 335.9 million Swiss francs. The operating result before depreciation allocations fell from 95.5 to 45.9 million Swiss francs. In comparison with the previous year the group net income falls by 11.1 million Swiss francs to 26.9 million Swiss francs.

At the beginning of September the newly created Tamedia journalistic advisory committee holds its first meeting. The committee is intended to advise the publisher and conduct the debate in the area of journalistic content, media orientation and journalistic judgement. The committee chairman is the publisher Hans Heinrich Coninx, and the other members are: Walter L. Blum, Roger de Weck, Peter Hartmeier, Martin Kall, Pietro Supino, and Walter Stutzer.

Christoph Tonini is appointed as the new financial director. He takes up his post in April 2003. Among other appointments, Tonini was for two years Financial/Controlling Manager with Ringier Europe and also Controlling Manager with the Basle Media group.

In September Tamedia’s online business is re-organised. In addition to the publication of tagesanzeiger.ch in future all online and teletext activities of Belcom come under the responsibility of Tamedia Online. Tamedia Online is managed by Marcel Sennhauser.

The cancellation of the Brückenbauer print contract by the Migros Cooperative Association has an adverse effect on employment in the Bubenberg printing facility. 18 jobs are cut, 11 in the despatch department, the others in the rotary printing department. Thanks to normal and early retirements and by not filling vacancies the number of compulsory redundancies is restricted to 4.

The new editor-in-chief of Du is Christian Seiler, who takes up his appointment on 1 December. Seiler grew up in Vienna and studied law, journalism and political science at university. From 1988 to 1994 he was literary editor and columnist with Weltwoche, and later he was head of the Austrian news magazine Profil.

At the end of September Tamedia announces that it is examining the expansion of the Zürich Express to become a commuters’ newspaper. Zürich Express is published by Tamedia and the NZZ, reaches over 200,000 readers and is delivered free of charge to all households in the city of Zurich (as official gazette). A decision is to be taken by the end of the year.

The electronic media division reports encouraging market data. With an average market share of 10.5 per cent (January to September 2002) Radio 24 has significantly strengthened its position compared with the previous year (8.2 %). The audience increased by 8% to 218,389. For TeleZüri and Basilisk the figures for the previous year are not available. Both stations are doing well compared with the projections. TeleZüri reports an average daily audience of 438,333, 2000 more than the budget figure. Basilisk achieves an average net audience of 98,767, exceeding the budget figure by over 22,000.

Armin Müller, manager of the SonntagsZeitung business section since 1999, is appointed as contents editor and, from the beginning of 2003, as a member of the editorial board. Andreas Büchi leaves the editorial board, but remains production manager of the SonntagsZeitung. Armin Müller’s successor as manager of the business section will be Arthur Rutishauser.

At the beginning of October TeleZüri announces the loss of 16 jobs in the technical area. The excess staff capacity derives from the time when TeleZüri and Tele 24 were still produced jointly and Tele 24 was a national programme. Suitable redundancy arrangements are being sought for the employees affected by the job cuts.

The Werd publishing house and BD Bücherdienst AG, Einsiedeln, are expanding their activities and at the beginning of 2003 take over marketing and distribution in Switzerland for the book-publishing divisions of the German publishing group Moderne Industrie.

At the end of January 2003, 5.3 jobs are lost in Tamedia’s online division. In making these cuts Tamedia is reacting to the ongoing poor revenue position in the online business. Suitable redundancy arrangements are assured for the employees affected. Tobias Schneider, manager of tagesanzeiger.ch, is leaving the company at his own request.

The editor in chief of the schoolchildren’s magazine Spick, Ruedi Helfer, resigns with effect from 30 April 2003. The former radio journalist took over management of Spick in 1999 from the couple who had founded it, Otmar and Angelika Bucher. As the reason for his departure Helfer cites differences over the new strategic alignment and the conceptional development of the schoolchildren’s magazine.

On 18 November Tamedia announces the launch of a new commuters’ newspaper called Express. It is intended to take the place of the free newspaper Zürich Express and to be distributed at railway stations and other central points of the public transport system in the Greater Zurich area. Express will also be delivered free to all households in the city of Zurich, together with Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich as the official gazette. The new paper is to come onto the market in the spring of 2003. The managing director will be Marius Hagger; the previous managing director, Heinz Krebs, leaves the company. With the launch of the new commuters’ newspaper Express, 20 new jobs are created. Marco Boselli, previously deputy manager of Tamedia Online, takes over as head of the editorial team. The former editor in chief of the Zürich Express, Markus Hegglin, remains in the team and is involved in the launch of the new product.

On 21 November the Tages-Anzeiger gets a new editor-in-chief. Philipp Löpfe leaves the post immediately. His successor will be the previous manager of company communication, Peter Hartmeier. Hartmeier has held managerial positions with various newspapers and before his employment as head of Corporate Communications was managing director of the Swiss Press Association for five years.

At the senior management meeting held on 28 November the company management announces new measures aimed at improving operating income. In the first half of 2003, 28 jobs are to be cut, 10 in the publishing house, 12 in the technical department and 6 in the back-office. To achieve this redundancy notices will be issued starting in January 2003. As always, Tamedia is endeavouring to make acceptable redundancy arrangements. With further savings measures, such as charges for parking places and a reduction in free subscriptions for Tamedia staff, Tamedia is preparing for a difficult year in 2003.

Franziska Hügli is appointed as the new head of Corporate Communications. She takes up her work on 1 February 2003. Hügli studied economics at Berne University and worked for Berner Zeitung, Cash and Bilanz. For the last two years she has been managing the editorial office of the Internet portal Moneycab.

In mid-December further staff changes are announced: Christoph Marty, Facts publishing manager, leaves Tamedia at the end of March and becomes magazines manager with the AZ media group in Aarau. Dietrich Berg, Tages-Anzeiger publishing manager, is to change direction professionally and leaves the company in the course of 2003. Sandro Macciacchini becomes the new manager of legal services. He succeeds Andreas Meili who in July was appointed to the company management as manager of Electronic Media.