Tamedia discontinues Le Matin print edition - the newspaper now only appears online
The Tamedia media group is discontinuing the printed edition of the French-speaking Swiss newspaper Le Matin at the end of July. The reason given is that it is making a loss.
After that, the medium will only be available online. This was announced by Tamedia on Thursday morning. A maximum of 41 employees will be affected, 24 of them in the editorial department. There is a social plan for those affected. Tamedia will meet with employee representatives and union representatives this Friday to initiate the consultation process and negotiate a social plan. The closure of the print edition was already announced two weeks ago by AZ Nordwestschweiz (Werbewoche.ch reported).
In deficit for 20 years
The reason for discontinuing the printed edition - probably on July 21 - are the losses that have been sustained for 20 years. Last year, the deficit of Le Matin The total cost of this was around CHF 6.3 million, or CHF 34 million over the last ten years. Despite great efforts, it has not been possible to find a sustainable solution to reduce the printed offering of Le Matin to be maintained, writes Tamedia. Le Matin Dimanche is not affected by the discontinuation of the printed edition of Le Matin.
Further developing digital output
In future, the digital edition will be further developed with a 15-strong editorial team. This will work closely with Tamedia's Sports Center and Newsexpress as well as with the network of 20 minutes work together. With 581,000 users (NET-Metrix Profile 2018-1), Lematin.ch is already one of the news platforms with the widest reach in French-speaking Switzerland, writes Tamedia. As a digital media brand Le Matin Le Matin will maintain its "unique positioning" in French-speaking Switzerland and "continue to offer readers in all cantons of French-speaking Switzerland pointed, entertaining and popular content with a high proportion of sport". Le Matin will thus become the first Swiss daily newspaper to focus entirely on a purely digital version.
New editor-in-chief
Grégoire Nappey will hand over the editorship to Laurent Siebenmann. Nappey, who has been editor-in-chief of Le Matin, no longer wanted to manage the newspaper in this new form, writes Tamedia. He will ensure the transition to his successor Siebenmann and leave the company. (SDA/hae)
