Supino calls for 120 million francs in indirect press funding
Publisher President Pietro Supino is calling for a quadrupling of the current indirect press subsidies and support for larger newspapers. At the Epiphany meeting of the Publishers Association, he justified an increase to 120 million Swiss francs per year by citing the rising distribution costs per printed newspaper edition.
Despite all the dynamism and fascination with digitization, printed media remain "the most important source of information for the democratic formation of opinion," said the Tamedia Chairman of the Board of Directors at Wednesday's meeting in Zurich.
However, due to declining volumes, distribution costs per copy were rising disproportionately, which was jeopardizing the economic viability of the most important media offering. It was therefore "important that the indirect press subsidy for newspapers be expanded from today's 30 to 120 million Swiss francs annually".
Supino accuses Swiss Post of already charging too high costs in the initial situation due to its monopoly position and "non-transparent pricing". "In doing so, it is passing on the financing of its basic service mandate to the publishers and ultimately the newspaper subscribers."
Because all newspapers were suffering from rising distribution costs and the pressure in the advertising market was hitting the big ones particularly hard, Supino's idea was that indirect press subsidies should in future cover all newspapers and early delivery.
Today, the Federal Office of Communications decides which titles are eligible. The main criterion is the circulation:minimum 1000 and maximum 40,000 copies. In addition, the editorial content must be at least 50 percent.
Blossoming time for Investigative
With the disappearance of individual titles, job cuts, mergers and joint ventures, 2018 was an eventful year in the media industry. As President of the Swiss Media Association (VSM), however, Pietro Supino attests to the industry's good response to the increasing pressure.
On the one hand, there has been consistent investment in further development and digitization. For example, many professionals have learned programming and how to work with databases. However, we are still "at the beginning of an exciting learning curve. The association wants to be a helpful platform for its members, especially in this transformation phase - from exchanges among colleagues and with experts to events such as the Epiphany conference.
On the other hand, the proven competencies of the media industry are being cultivated despite all challenges and against all fears. Investigative journalism is flourishing, and "longform storytelling" is benefiting from new multimedia possibilities.
If the term "storytelling" comes up, a reference to Spiegel reporter Claas Relotius cannot be missing in 2019. Relotius, said Supino, "vividly reminded us that storytelling is an ambivalent concept.
The fundamental quality characteristics of professional journalistic craft are freedom from error, truth in the sense of completeness, transparency, especially with regard to one's own interests, as well as fairness towards the persons and institutions being reported on.
Hopes for login alliance
Like a number of other speakers, Supino addressed the Login Alliance, which was presented at the Swiss Media Forum last September and which Supino sees as an "existential issue.
The plan is for the publishers and SRG to set up a joint login on the web portals. Anyone visiting a platform is to log in with their first and last name, place of residence and other details.
Supino said that registration is standard practice for the powerful global platforms. Now it is a matter of "establishing this standard for the Swiss media industry as well, in order to remain competitive. (SDA)
Photo: Johannes Hapig
