Syndicom and Imprint criticize Tamedia
Syndicom and Imprint are outraged by Tamedia's figures announced on Thursday. Instead of record profits, the media company should rather focus on personnel and journalistic quality, they demand.
Syndicom writes that it is still the print sector that generates the lion's share of profits (more than two-thirds), thus financing Tamedia's digital growth and lining the pockets of shareholders. The union does not criticize the digital commitment of the media house, but that the profits are not invested in the staff, the improvement of the quality of work and the journalistic quality. Thus, the seven members of the management board had their total remuneration increased by more than 30 percent to 8.2 million and the shareholders' dividend by 12.5 percent, while for the 3,400 employees, who had earned the profit, an adequate wage increase of 6.6 million francs "profit sharing" would once again fall by the wayside. In addition, the closure of the Ziegler printing plant, which cost around 100 jobs, was "unnecessary and scandalous" in view of these profits.
The journalists' association Imprint also shows no understanding for profits in the millions in a fiscal year in which journalists were laid off for economic reasons. It is a "show of a lack of social responsibility". Furthermore, as the largest private media company, Tamedia also has a journalistic responsibility to society, warns Impressum. Tamedia cannot fulfill this responsibility with "measures to increase efficiency," which in plain language often means job cuts in editorial departments.
"With its 2014 figures, Tamedia shows once again that the crisis in journalistic media is also homemade," says Urs Thalmann, Managing Director of Imprint. "With the proposed segmentation of the business areas from 2015, Tamedia confirms that it does not want to finance journalism, whether printed or digital, with the revenue from the digital classifieds market in the future either. At the same time, Tamedia is buying these platforms out of print profits!"
And: "Tamedia itself is responsible for the declining print advertising market by competing with its journalistic products with pure advertising platforms. Imprint therefore demands that Tamedia return to the financial coupling of journalism and advertising revenues - both digital and print." (hae/pd)
On the subject: Tamedia: Sales growth thanks to digital revenues
