After four and a half years of abstinence: Ringier rejoins Association of Swiss Media

VSM President Pietro Supino (left) and Ringier CEO Marc Walder (right) announce the reunification of the Publishers Association and Ringier at the Epiphany Conference.

At the unannounced appearance at the Epiphany meeting on Wednesday, Marc Walder, CEO of Ringier and co-initiator of the Swiss Digital Alliance, put it in a nutshell as follows: "We assume that more than 70 percent of all revenues from digital advertising in Switzerland now flow abroad. In order to maintain the diversity and independence of the media offering in Switzerland, we must quickly find targeted solutions. This can only be done together. The Swiss Digital Alliance, an almost unique initiative in Europe, is a key element in this." To underline its commitment to the joint digital alliance, Ringier is rejoining the VSM as a member with immediate effect. In recent months, he has had friendly and fair discussions with the publishers, Walder said on Wednesday.

Alexander Theobald, COO Ringier Switzerland, and future CEO of Ringier Axel Springer Switzerland, will represent Ringier on the VSM Executive Committee.

Planned Admeira advertising alliance leads to scandal

Ringier withdrew from the Swiss Media Association in August 2015 (Werbewoche.ch reported). The reason was "irreconcilable differences with individual members". Specifically, it was about disputes that arose in the course of the launch plans for Admeira. When Ringier announced the advertising alliance together with Swisscom and SRG, the VSM harshly criticized the plans. The fact that the private media company Ringier was teaming up with the fee-financed SRG and the partly private Swisscom and competing with other private media houses was a definite thorn in the side of the association from the very beginning.

In the meantime, however, the situation has been rectified, as SRG has sold its shares in Admeira to Ringier and Swisscom. (Werbewoche.ch reported). SRG is currently still bound to Admeira by a five-year contract - but this expires in 2020. There were signs of a possible exit in mid-2019, when critical voices were raised at SRG against the marketing company. (Werbewoche.ch reported).

Trouble overcome

The decisive impetus for Ringier's return to the publishers' association is likely to have been the digital alliance, with which the industry wants to compete jointly in the advertising market against the international heavyweights Google, Facebook and Amazon. He was impressed by how united Swiss publishers were behind this initiative, Walder said on Wednesday. The goal of this initiative is to preserve user data while fully respecting data protection.

To this end, the major Swiss publishers have provided access to their news portals with a voluntary login in recent months. Contrary to fears in the publishing industry, the response from users has been very positive, Walder said.

Massive loss of advertising volume

Swiss publishers would have lost an advertising and sales volume of one billion Swiss francs per year between 2012 and 2018. In return, the digital offerings would only have gained revenues of 85 million Swiss francs per year. This clearly shows that the previous business model of the publishers no longer works. The current year will be of decisive importance for the digital alliance.

After the first positive experiences with the login, Walder was optimistic. While logging in to big players like Facebook or Netflix is a matter of course, the proportion of people logging in to Swiss news portals is only 0 to 10 percent so far. The potential is great. The goal must be a single sign-on. Anyone who wants to consume media products only has to log in once. Customers want to be able to navigate the portals easily, quickly and securely. Trust is the most important currency here, as Facebook's example with Cambridge Analytica has shown. The publishers are in very close contact with the Federal Data Protection Commissioner Adrian Lobsiger.

Joy at the VSM

The fact that Ringier is back on board after four and a half years is causing joy at the Swiss Media Association. VSM President Pietro Supino is positive about the return: "I am convinced that we have launched a promising and forward-looking initiative with the Digital Alliance," he is quoted as saying in a statement.

The VSM is convinced that Ringier's return to the VSM will also enable the publishing industry to present a united front. The VSM's call for the expansion of indirect press subsidies, including early delivery, is urgently needed - as compensation for the Post's pricing and as a public service to preserve printed newspapers. According to the publishers' association, these form nothing less than the "backbone of democratic opinion-forming". The VSM Presidium assumes that without the required expansion of indirect press subsidies, one third of today's newspaper titles in Switzerland would not survive in the next three years. (hae/pd/SDA)