- The TX Group has announced the elimination of around 200 full-time jobs in the printing plants of its subsidiary Tamedia.
- The company also announced that 90 jobs in the editorial departments would be affected.
- The reduction is subject to a consultation process, as the TX Group writes in its media release on the half-year financial statements.
- Social plans would be implemented, including the possibility of early retirement.
Tamedia currently employs 1,800 people in German- and French-speaking Switzerland. The company is no longer able to operate three printing plants profitably.
Printing plants are therefore to be closed down gradually: The printing centre in Bussigny VD is expected to close at the end of March 2025. The printing plant in Zurich at the end of 2026. This means that printing will be concentrated in the centre in Bern.
Limit digital offering to four brands
The media company also wants to rely on four brands for its digital offering: “Tages-Anzeiger”, “Berner Zeitung”, “Basler Zeitung”, and in western Switzerland “24 Heures”. “Der Bund” and “Tribune de Genève” will retain their own digital presence, the group wrote.
The media company’s titles with less reach will be integrated into the four brands mentioned. All Tamedia titles will continue to be available as printed newspapers. The “#12App” and the “Traffic Monitor” will be discontinued, according to the announcement.
Trade union and professional association call for layoffs to be halted
Open box
Box zuklappen
The union Syndicom called on Tamedia to correct its corporate strategy.
Over the last 15 years, shareholders of the TX Group, owner of Tamedia, have skimmed off more than 670 million francs in dividends from a profit of 2.2 billion francs, while at the same time Tamedia has laid off hundreds of employees, Stephanie Vonarburg, Vice President and Head of the Media Sector at Syndicom, is quoted as saying in the statement.
The TX Group remains highly profitable, says Vonarburg, and the “cutting-off policy without regard for employees” must come to an end.
Syndicom also announced that it would work with the personnel committees to maintain jobs, improve the social plan and improve working conditions.
The professional association Impressum also had clear words. On X, the association wrote: “Once again: really bad. Impressum is calling for a halt to layoffs and a halt. The management’s strategy does not contain a strategy. It is just the destructive greed of the big shareholders.”
Impressum criticized the fact that there had been no communication about how the editorial departments should now function in practice.
In addition, Tamedia wants to organize advertising marketing internally from the beginning of 2025. The relevant teams from the media marketing company Goldbach are to be integrated. Goldbach supports this development. The TX Group promised a more detailed announcement from Tamedia at a later date.
Stable total sales
The comprehensive restructuring is a reaction to the situation of the paid media in the Tamedia division. It was once again less than encouraging, as the press release showed. Here the adjusted margin continued to decline and was still 2.6 percent.
However, the TX Group maintained its sales in the first half of the year and worked more profitably. The group, which is known to the general public primarily for its media brands “20 Minuten” and “Tages-Anzeiger” as well as for the marketplaces Jobs, Ricardo and Homegate, reported maintained sales of 461 million francs for the first six months of 2024.
Marketplaces continue to operate very profitably
Open box
Box zuklappen
The online marketplaces grouped together in the Swiss Marketplace Group (SMG) once again operated extremely profitably, increasing their margins once again. An initiative to further increase competitiveness is also expected to save and reinvest a mid-double-digit million amount by the end of 2026. This is intended to promote growth and innovation.
But the margin at “20 Minuten” also improved, albeit at a low level. Goldbach managed to return to a positive adjusted operating result.
The bottom line is that TX Group posted a profit of 24.5 million francs in the first half of the year, compared to 13.7 million in the same period last year. As usual, TX management is refraining from providing a specific outlook for the year as a whole. At Tamedia, the time horizon for achieving the margin targets set has been extended by one year to 2027. By then, the adjusted margin should be 8 to 10 percent.
This is particularly thanks to the outdoor advertising company Clear Channel Switzerland, which was acquired in April 2023 and is included in the financial statements for the first time for six months, as the TX Group wrote. Organically, sales fell by 6.3 percent. Advertising revenues at Tamedia and “20 Minuten” as well as the printing business declined.
The profitability of the diversified group continues to improve. Operating profit at EBIT level increased by 9.7 percent to 23.5 million francs. The adjusted operating result, which was highlighted by those responsible for TX, increased by 4.1 percent to 56.5 million, and the corresponding margin increased to 12.3 percent (previous year: 11.8 percent).
