Publicitas is in provisional debt-restructuring moratorium
Publicitas is in serious financial difficulties. After several media companies terminated their cooperation, the company had to apply for a provisional moratorium. Now it is presenting a new business model.
The application for debt-restructuring moratorium has been confirmed by the Bülach District Court, Publicitas CFO Carsten Brinkmeier told the SDA news agency on Thursday. Already on Thursday afternoon, the company presented a new business model to the publishers.
The core of the new concept is a commission model, which is intended to reduce the risks for the media companies. In addition, the publishers are to have a 50 percent stake in Publicitas in the future. Finally, the company wants to be more transparent in the future, for example by publishing its annual reports.
The proposed business model is part of the restructuring concept that Publicitas has submitted to the district court. A prerequisite for the implementation of the concept is the participation of all major publishers, Publicitas announced on Thursday evening. It had asked the publishers to agree to the proposal by May 10.
Cooperation terminated
Like the media houses, the advertising marketer is suffering from the marked decline in print advertising. Last week, Tamedia, Ringier, Admeira, the NZZ and AZ Medien announced that they would discontinue their cooperation with Publicitas with immediate effect. The reason given was outstanding payments.
The Romandie Combi joined the resignation a little later with the titles Le Nouvelliste, La Liberté, ArcInfo, Le Quotidien Jurassien and Le Journal du Jura on. And this week followed according to the Small Report also the magazine Touring with a circulation of around 1.2 million. Customers were asked by the publishers to pay outstanding invoices directly to them instead of to Publicitas.
Founded own company
Only a few days after the discontinuation of the cooperation, the Swiss Media Association (VSM), Tamedia, NZZ, AZ Medien and the Corriere del Ticino also announced its intention to set up its own company for handling advertising campaigns. This is intended to support publishers and advertising customers in the handling and processing of advertising campaigns and to relieve them of some of the workload.
The new platform is intended to offer an alternative in the market and not to compete with either the individual publishers or Publicitas. The name is to be announced in the next few weeks. Project manager Jürg Weber told Persoenlich.com that in a first phase, two to three employees from NZZ would be seconded for this purpose.
In an interview with SDA, CFO Brinkmeier described it as "very very unlikely" that the new company with two to three employees would be able to do the same as Publicitas. This is because his company has data records for around 2,500 newspaper and 2,800 print titles. That's something that doesn't exist anywhere else.
Responses until mid May
The district court expects feedback on the publishers' willingness to cooperate by May 18. If the answers are positive, Publicitas will proceed with the second step of the restructuring concept, according to an internal letter obtained by SDA.
In the meantime, employees should expect their May paychecks to be paid two to three weeks late. Publicitas says it is the leading advertising marketer in Switzerland and employed around 750 people worldwide in 2016. (SDA)
