Dwindling advertising revenues are forcing publishers to make cuts, and the democratic diversity of opinion is suffering as a result. But the crisis is also spurring the rise of new media outlets.
Switzerland: staff cuts continue
In November 2023, CH Media, Switzerland's third-largest private media group, announced that around 150 full-time positions would be axed. The final figure was 140, corresponding to seven percent of all its employees. CH Media is the result of a merger encompassing various regional titles (St. Galler Tagblatt, Luzerner Zeitung) and AZ Medien (theAargauer Zeitung and other titles), as well as several radio stations and TV channels. The company occupies a dominant position in north-west, eastern and central Switzerland. There are fears in these regions that these developments will have a negative impact on the outlets' output and media diversity, as well as concerns about the quality of the democratic formation of opinion.
Shortly before CH Media's staff cuts, the TX Group, the country's largest private media group (which owns the Tages-Anzeiger, Der Bund and Tribune de Genève), had also made redundancies. Around 80 jobs disappeared, most of them in French-speaking Switzerland. The free daily 20 Minuten, which is struggling with shrinking advertising revenues, was also affected.
But despite these negative trends, there are also new positive initiatives in the Swiss media sector. The online magazine Republik was launched in 2018. The initiators of the project previously worked for the Tages-Anzeiger. Republik focuses primarily on independence and transparency and sees itself as an alternative to the market concentration of large media groups and the associated loss of media diversity. The digital outlet focuses on investigative research and is financed exclusively by its readers. The Bern-based start-up Hauptstadt published its first content in 2022 based on the same concept. Here too, dissatisfaction with the media landscape was the main incentive for founding this local outlet. The move came after the TX Group merged the editorial teams of the two Bern-based daily newspapers Der Bund and the Berner Zeitung.
Switzerland's public service broadcaster is also in a state of flux: in March 2018, the attempt to deprive the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR) of its financial basis through a referendum on the abolition of licence fees ("No Billag") failed. However, in 2022, the right-wing conservative SVP, the Young Liberals and the Swiss Trade Association launched another attempt with the initiative "200 francs is enough!", this time demanding a significant reduction in the fees rather than that they be scrapped altogether. The collection of signatures was successful and a vote is expected to take place in 2026. According to a survey conducted in autumn 2023, a majority of the population would back the initiative. The government rejects it, but wants to accommodate the initiators by reducing the fees by a smaller amount. If the initiative succeeds, it will have far-reaching consequences for SRG SSR's journalistic platforms and its regional network – and, of course, for its workforce, too.
World Press Freedom Index (Reporters Without Borders):
Rank 12 (2023)
