560+

In the last ten years, the number of news­pa­per titles in Switz­er­land has fallen from 304 to 245, as shown by figu­res compi­led by the Verle­ger­ver­band Schwei­zer Medien – a decline of 20 per cent. ‘Every print news­pa­per has its own expiry date, but it can be assu­med that the number of news­pa­per titles will decrease consider­a­bly more in the next ten years than in the last ten years, so that there will soon be fewer than 200 news­pa­pers in Switz­er­land. In the medium term, edito­rial offices will only survive if they manage to earn money from online jour­na­lism or if they receive substan­tial support from the state or foun­da­ti­ons,’ explains Dennis Bühler, Fede­ral Parlia­ment and Media Editor at Repu­blik. ‘Print news­pa­pers will conti­nue to exist as long as the reve­nue they gene­rate exceeds expen­dit­ure in the sligh­test. That means as long as the income from adver­ti­se­ments and subscrip­ti­ons is higher than the costs of prin­ting, distri­bu­tion and a shoestring edito­rial operation.’

Media profes­sio­nals lose their jobs

These deve­lo­p­ments have a major impact, not only on media diver­sity, but also on the people who work in edito­rial offices and media compa­nies. Repu­blik takes a closer look at what is going on with its blog ‘Swiss media concen­tra­tion time­line’. As the figu­res show, more than 560 media profes­sio­nal jobs have been lost in Switz­er­land in the last two years alone. ‘The massive job cuts over the last two years show that the media busi­ness model no longer works: ads and clas­si­fied ads have migra­ted, while the number of print readers has fallen drama­ti­cally – and the willing­ness of the Swiss popu­la­tion to pay for online jour­na­lism has remained at a very low level for years,’ says Dennis Bühler of the deve­lo­p­ments. In addi­tion, many edito­rial staff work as free­lan­cers, making them the first to stop recei­ving commis­si­ons – another decline that cannot be quantified.

Danger to public discourse

Local and regio­nal jour­na­lism, in parti­cu­lar, plays an important role in society. It crea­tes publi­city for rele­vant issues at the commu­nal and canto­nal level and promo­tes public discourse, which is an essen­tial aspect of parti­ci­pa­tion in the demo­cra­tic process. The crisis in jour­na­lism is jeopar­di­sing this func­tion; a growing number of regi­ons have only one news­pa­per left, or none at all. For issues at natio­nal and inter­na­tio­nal level, these deve­lo­p­ments are less rele­vant, as alter­na­tive sources of infor­ma­tion are almost always available. But for regio­nal issues, the lack of local coverage can often lead to a stun­ting of public discourse. Dennis Bühler says: ‘It is important that citi­zens are able to obtain infor­ma­tion before they vote on substan­tive issues and elect parlia­ments and govern­ments. An open, unbi­a­sed discourse can only be ensu­red by media outlets with a local edito­rial team equip­ped with the neces­sary human and finan­cial resources.’