Who’s going to foot the bill?

Figu­res are falling: the total circu­la­tion of Wemf-certi­fied news­pa­pers in Switz­er­land has halved from 9.2 million in 2009 to 4.6 million in 2023.

Private and state

The media land­scape is in a state of uphe­aval, and the press’s adver­ti­sing reve­nues are falling. Although the pande­mic rever­sed the decline some­what in 2021, the Stif­tung Werbe­sta­tis­tik Schweiz states that net adver­ti­sing reve­nue in 2023 was CHF 711 million, 200 million lower than in 2019. Digi­ta­li­sa­tion has hit news­pa­pers and maga­zi­nes’ busi­ness models hard. While job adver­ti­se­ments, clas­si­fied ads, property ads and death noti­ces used to be relia­ble sources of income, this is all now done digi­tally. The online segment, making up CHF 667 million, appears to be smal­ler, too. Adver­ti­sing placed on online plat­forms such as YouTube or in search engi­nes is not included in the statis­tics: this is funnel­led abroad. Drawing on experts’ esti­ma­tes, the foun­da­tion puts this figure at between CHF 1.8 billion and CHF 2.2 billion. Poli­ti­cal concerns are also impac­ting media funding. Public service media are curr­ently coming under pres­sure – and not just in Switz­er­land. At the end of Octo­ber, Germany’s state premiers deci­ded to reform the public broad­cas­ting system, cutting the number of radio program­mes and tele­vi­sion chan­nels. On 27 Octo­ber, the people of Liech­ten­stein voted in favour of an initia­tive to remove funding for public service radio. This means that Liech­ten­stein no longer has any public service media. In Switz­er­land, the ‘200 francs are enough’ initia­tive aims to halve the Serafe fee paid by each house­hold. The Fede­ral Coun­cil has recom­men­ded that it be rejec­ted, and has simul­ta­neously slas­hed the house­hold Serafe fee to CHF 300 until 2029. 

Media and demo­cracy under pressure

A lack of funding for jour­na­lism would be a problem for demo­cra­cies around the world. The Media Deve­lo­p­ment Invest­ment Fund (MDIF) has been working to coun­ter­act this trend for 30 years by finan­cing inde­pen­dent media in count­ries with a ‘history of media oppres­sion’. Howe­ver, MDIF’s area of opera­tion has chan­ged since it first star­ted. ‘The fact is, this list has now grown to count­ries we never thought we’d support media,’ says Patrice Schnei­der, Chief Stra­tegy Offi­cer at the MDIF. For exam­ple, MDIF now opera­tes in Poland, via Plūrā­lis, a EUR 100 million instru­ment for safe­guar­ding plura­lity. This preven­ted the take­over by Polish nati­on­wide daily news­pa­per Rzecz­pos­po­lita. But Poland is not an isola­ted case. ‘Follo­wing the foreign media owners’ exodus from Central and Eastern Europe in the first decade of the mill­en­nium, the vacuum left was filled by a new class of media owners, predo­mi­nantly dome­stic, closely linked with poli­ti­cal parties or inte­rest groups, or poli­ti­ci­ans them­sel­ves,’ says Schnei­der, who also notes simi­la­ri­ties to the situa­tion at Basler Zeitung in 2014. As he puts it: ‘The problem of relia­ble and inde­pen­dent infor­ma­tion has metasta­si­zed to a global level.’

Miti­ga­ting risks

Over the past 25 years, MDIF has inves­ted USD 321 million in 152 orga­ni­sa­ti­ons. The money comes from a wide range of foun­da­ti­ons, impact inves­tors, deve­lo­p­ment agen­cies and indi­vi­du­als. ‘By blen­ding diffe­rent forms of funding, impact inves­tors can create a blen­ded finan­cial struc­ture that miti­ga­tes the risks asso­cia­ted with media invest­ments, making them more attrac­tive to tradi­tio­nal inves­tors,’ says Schnei­der. By using mixed finan­cing, MDIF can help to advance the trans­for­ma­tion of the media land­scape. In doing so, it aims to ensure that jour­na­lism remains robust and inde­pen­dent in the face of econo­mic chal­lenges and conti­nues to serve the public inte­rest. MDIF selects media compa­nies for invest­ment not only based on their edito­rial inde­pen­dence, but also on their poten­tial for long-term profi­ta­bi­lity. In order to ensure that edito­rial offices remain inde­pen­dent from MDIF’s influence, it is clearly stipu­la­ted in all docu­men­ted proce­du­res that MDIF does not use owner­ship shares to influence edito­rial policy. Schnei­der says: ‘Since 1996, we have provi­ded finan­cing to 152 media compa­nies in 47 count­ries – with zero complaints of edito­rial interference.’

Widely diver­si­fied

An exam­ple from the USA shows how broad-based funding can safe­guard inde­pen­dence. The Foun­da­tion for Natio­nal Progress publishes the non-profit inves­ti­ga­tive maga­zine Mother Jones. The foun­da­tion was estab­lished in 1976 with the clear inten­tion of protec­ting jour­na­lism from corpo­rate influen­ces. Dona­ti­ons from foun­da­ti­ons make up part of its funding, but they only account for 15 percent of its reve­nue. The rest comes from other sources, with adver­ti­sing compri­sing 6 percent and govern­ment funds 4 percent. 71 percent of its funds are provi­ded by readers in the form of dona­ti­ons or member­ships. The Swiss online maga­zine Repu­blik has chosen a simi­lar goal, albeit with a more focu­sed blend of funding. To guaran­tee its inde­pen­dence, the maga­zine is comple­tely ad-free and is finan­ced by its reader­ship. Various enti­ties are now invol­ved in support­ing Switzerland’s media land­scape. Freiburg’s State Coun­cil deci­ded this year to tempo­r­a­rily promote the media in the Frei­burg region. ‘This rich jour­na­li­stic land­scape is incre­asingly at risk due to the media’s prolon­ged struc­tu­ral crisis,’ a state­ment explai­ned in Febru­ary 2024. Stif­tung Aven­ti­nus was laun­ched in Geneva in Octo­ber 2019. Its aim? To promote media and projects with quality jour­na­lism. It is supported by the Fonda­tion Leen­aards, the Fonda­tion Jan Mich­al­ski and the Fonda­tion Hans Wils­dorf. Stif­tung Aven­ti­nus took over Le Temps from Ringier Axel Sprin­ger Suisse SA on 1 Janu­ary 2021. Addi­tio­nally, various foun­da­ti­ons from Germany, Austria and Switz­er­land have now estab­lished the Media Forward Fund MFF to promote jour­na­li­stic concepts.