Publishers call for Admeira to be split into two companies

Pietro Supino and Peter Wanner, the publishers of Tamedia and AZ Medien, are taking further action on behalf of the Swiss Media Association against Admeira, the marketing company run by Ringier, Swisscom and SRG. As reported by Schweiz am Wochenende in its current issue, the two demanded at the Swiss Media Forum that Admeira be split into two separate companies: Accordingly, one company should deal exclusively with data management, the other exclusively sell advertising.

Admeira mixes the two areas because the three shareholders hope to gain competitive advantages, says Wanner. This is "not a clean solution" because the majority of the data comes from the state-controlled Swisscom.

Tamedia spokesman Christoph Zimmer told Schweiz am Wochenende that he agrees: Admeira in its current form would lead to a cut-throat fight in the Swiss advertising market. To the detriment of the other private media houses, since the spikes are unequally long. Tamedia therefore supports the proposal after talks for "an open, non-discriminatory industry solution for data management in which all media houses can participate."

So they are demanding access to the data - "the gold of today and especially of tomorrow," as Wanner calls it - without having to get in the same boat as Ringier, Swisscom and SRG when it comes to advertising sales.

Partitioning would not be compatible with data protection

Adeira doesn't think much of that. And in doing so, it invokes data protection. An "open platform" is out of the question for Adeira "due to the data protection requirements and the high demands on data security and data handling," says spokeswoman Romi Hofer to Schweiz am Wochenende.

And it also rejects the accusation of an unjustified competitive advantage. All publishers are free to sell their advertising via Admeira and become shareholders.

With this argument, the company counters the critics' objections right from the start. And it falls on deaf ears, because the remaining publishers don't want to participate at all. For various reasons - some of them supposedly altruistic - as the statement by Tamedia spokesman Zimmer shows: "Tamedia as a new Admeria shareholder would only exacerbate the distortion of competition at the expense of all other media houses in Switzerland".

Somm predicts end of current constellation soon

If BaZ publisher and VSM member Markus Somm has his way, the Adeira issue could soon become superfluous anyway. After all, he believes that Ringier, SRG and Swisscom will soon break up of their own accord. Not only for economic reasons, but also because it would be difficult to unite the three different corporate structures, some of which are centuries old. He also believes that Ringier's departure has strengthened the association and welded the remaining members together.

Admeira does not want to comment on a possible break-up in the near future. Such rumors have been around since the company was founded, and the company has decided not to comment on them. (hae)