Switzerland: CH Media closes six portals and announces 34 layoffs

The media group CH Media announced on Tuesday the closure of its six regional news portals financed by advertising, resulting in 34 layoffs. A social plan is planned for the employees concerned. The SSM union says it is “deeply concerned”.

Regional “Today” news sites have recorded rising penetration rates, but have not achieved the revenues needed in a highly competitive online market, CH Media said on Tuesday. Turnovers are falling and the group believes that these portals will not be able to cover their costs in the near future.

Consultation procedure

Due to the shutdown of the six platforms, 34 layoffs were made in the editorial offices of “Today” and in marketing, specifies CH Media. After consultation with the personnel committee, 22 employees could be offered internal solutions at CH Media. The consultation procedure is complete.

All six gates were closed Tuesday morning. Users who try to log in are sent to the online portal watson.ch, which is also owned by CH Media.

First Today portal in 2015

The first portal went online in 2015 in Eastern Switzerland under the name FM1Today. Portals were then launched in central Switzerland and in the regions of Aarau, Zurich, Bern and Solothurn. According to CH Media, the portals were then considered the beginning of the “trimedial era” (television, radio and internet).

According to Michael Warner, boss of CH Media, the group now wants to focus more on newspapers, television and radio stations that are already well established in the market. CH Media publishes, among others, the Aargauer Zeitung, the Luzerner Zeitung and the St. Galler Tagblatt. The group also owns several radio and television channels.

“Hard blow”

Media union SSM is “deeply concerned” by CH Media’s decision to close the six portals, it said in a statement. This is “a hard blow not only for the employees affected, but also for the diversity of the media and the basic democratic provision of the regions”.

“The concentration on economically assured, but often supraregional, media brands is to the detriment of regional coverage,” said Marco Jeanmaire, union secretary of the SSM, quoted in the press release. “This decision deprives the population of access to local information and weakens the critical role of the media as guardians of democracy,” he added.

The SSM reminds cantons and municipalities that “support for local media is also an investment in society”. The disappearance of jobs in journalism “is a symptom of the media financing crisis and therefore a structural problem which must be addressed, among other things, through indirect aid to the media,” according to Marco Jeanmaire.

“A dark day”

It’s “another dark day for local journalism,” says Syndicom. The union says it is “shaken” and “irritated” by CH Media’s decision. The staff representatives were consulted “in the greatest secrecy”, “it is a no-go”, according to the union, because the meaning of the consultation is to allow the staff to propose alternatives, which does not is not possible “in secret”.

“After discussing with CH Media employees, we are convinced that the decision was made hastily,” said Stéphanie Vonarburg, vice-president of Syndicom, quoted in the press release. She believes that CH Media has “the resources to give more time and financial bases to journalistic projects”.

“This new clean cut once again shows the critical state in which local journalism finds itself in Switzerland,” according to the union. “It is now up to politicians to take this situation into account and work on new and innovative solutions in order to avoid the appearance of media deserts in Switzerland and to prevent media concentration from getting even worse.”

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