The Swiss press model ? Democracy, concentration and digital diversification ?

Abstract

Switzerland is a country where the press is key. Democracy is at the heart of the Swiss press, characterized by multilingualism, diversity of the press and a long tradition of newspapers readership. But the paid-for daily printed press has been faced with a crisis for the last decade with the development of the free press, the rise of Internet and a decline in advertising revenues. Consequently, the Swiss press model is evolving. With the help of various indicators, this paper highlights an increasingly strong concentration of the Swiss daily press between 2005 and 2014. Moreover, it analyses the strategies of the two main Swiss press groups, Tamedia and Ringier, towards profitable digital diversification. It shows that the Swiss press remains strong, contrarily to the French press, for example. Thus, the evolution of the Swiss press model is illustrative of a new economic model. However, the paper also emphasizes that the Swiss press is now faced with increasing competition from the world digital leaders, such as Google and Facebook.